Hincapie Gran Fondo

This would be my second most elevation (8000 feet) gain ride after doing Mitchell 2 years ago. The ride was broken down into three major climbs, Skyuka, Howard Gap and Green River Cove. In addition to the climbs, you had 80 miles that you had to ride. So I guess it is ok to say that I was nervous and did not sleep very well the night before. At least, I would not be alone and had one teammate, Joe G, that would suffer just as much, with me. 

We started behind the Pro‘s with George Hincapie going down Hwy 11. At mile 3.5 the first guy crashed to my left by himself. Probably over-breaking. That for sure made my anxiety go up another notch. At about mile 12 the group separated from the participants doing the Half Fondo. Now we were on our own. My main focus: to stay up front as long as possible. 16 miles into the ride we reach Skyuka rd. I look down at my Garmin and see our average is about 22 mph. I think that is going to go down drastically in the next half hour. We start climbing, everyone is strung out. I knew from climbing it last week not to go too hard during the first half of the climb. There are some painful sections towards the top that are close to 20%. Reaching the second half of the climb, I see the first riders off their bikes. Pushing or resting. I am thinking quite a few out of state riders must have either underestimated the steep sections or did not have the proper gears for climbing. 

With about 1 km to go I pass a young boy in a Garmin Kit. He looks like he is 4 feet tall. He is using the full road, swerving back and fourth. I tell him to hang in there. We are almost at the top. At the hydration stop he would tell me that he is 14. 

After filling up our water bottles, Joe and I began the decent with George Hincapie and his entourage. Joe is at the front and George is right behind him. This would of been an awesome picture. We are flying down Skyuka now. On one of the switchbacks, I see 3 riders in the ditch. One has really bad road rash. That was all I could see. I am praying not to get dropped, looking down at my GPS and watching the elevation numbers in feet fall like on an airplane when landing. So somehow using all my technical skills (counter steering), I make it in one piece to the bottom, thinking wow, I just descended 2000 vertical feet staying with cycling professionals. 

Now we ride towards Howard Gap (the next climb). At the base or mile marker 35, I eventually get dropped. Am I disappointed, heck no. I stayed 35 miles and climbed 4000 feet with professional cyclists. It is like I felt 30 years younger. 

At the top of Howard Gap, I still catch the rear wheel of Tyler Karnes, one of the BMC development riders. I ask him if he remembers me because my daughter rode with him on the Hincapie Development team 3 years ago. To my surprise he says of course.  He is also probably thinking what is this old guy doing here. Well he pulls and we descend towards the bottom of our third and final climb. He did not ask me to pull once, not that I could of. We catch more and more stranglers for the next 20 miles on our way to the top of Green River Cove. 3 of them Les Domestique riders from Canada. They told me they were not used to riding in shorts at the end of October. From the top of Green River Cove  it was 16 miles to the finish, mostly down hill. 

At mile 75 I was in a pace line with 5 riders when my right leg cramped up so bad that I could not pedal anymore. Was this the end of the ride for me? I had to make a complete stop and unclip. I grabbed a gel and drank some water. Within seconds the cramp subsided and I was riding down the water shed again. Some riders caught up to me and I could stay on their wheel and eventually we even caught the riders that I was with. 

After 4 hours and 27 minutes ride time (plus 2 water stops) I made it through the finish. I even got goose bumps. There were like hundreds of people left and right cheering. My teammate came through a couple of minutes behind me with Cadel Evans. We were both very happy for what we had achieved that day. One thing I know for sure, after climbing Howard Gap 4 times in the last 6 weeks I will not even ride close to it for the rest of this year.