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With my son at the Gran
Fondo in 2011. About
232 pounds. |
My son and I rode in the Gran Fondo Colnago San Diego this year. A Gran Fondo means great endurance or something like that in Italian. They're organized bike rides (runs and cross country skiing, too) of about 100 miles or so that are kind of like pretend races. They tell you it's not a race, but they give you these timing chips to wear so that you can measure how fast you went. Also, some Gran Fondos give away prizes for King and Queen of the Mountain which go to the fastest male and female riders on a climbing segment. It's not a race, remember? They're kind of fun though and usually well attended by serious cyclists. In San Diego, the Gran Fondo is sponsored by the bike maker Colnago and it's an Italian affair with Alitalia even sending out really beautiful model types to chat it up with the (male) riders. Gotta love the Italians. They even have the local Ferrari club lead out the cyclists at the start in Little Italy.
We had entered the Gran Fondo in 2010, but it took us a week to finish... It was raining heavily in San Diego on the morning of the 2010 Gran Fondo. There we were out in the pouring rain waiting for Jimi Hendrix's rendition of the national anthem to end so we could get started. That national anthem seems like it takes about 20 minutes to run through and we were soaked and cold by the time we got started. After crossing over the Coronado Bay Bridge, we were battling high winds, driving rain and cold (for San Diego) temperatures. My son and I decided to take the ferry back to San Diego, go home, shower and come back to collect our finisher's medals. And have lunch. Hey, it's a pretend race, so we have pretend medals. We rode the entire route the following Sunday except for crossing the bridge, and it was just about as nice a day as you get here in America's finest city.
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Old Pros Independence Day ride. That's me on the right. Down to
about 220 pounds. That's my buddy Charlie on the left. He thinks
wearing that jersey and shorts is the same as wearing a flag. |
This year we entered the Medio Fondo, which is a metric century or 60 miles. It may well be one of my last organized rides. Or should I say disorganized rides. Somehow the ride organizers underestimated the number of people signed up, because they ran out of water at a couple of the rest stops. They inexplicably situated the rest stops at very odd intervals. For the Medio Fondo riders, it was almost 30 miles between two of the stops. The course was kind of hilly and the convenience stores along the route made out like bandits! Riders needed hydration and nutrition in between the stops. I thought it was bad last year when they ran out of jerseys before the ride even started!
After the sugar water debacle in Palm Springs, I was souring on these giant organized rides. So far, only the Tour de Poway and the Old Pros ride in Scripps Ranch have been well organized and not overly crowded. I did the Poway in October of 2010 and the Old Pros ride just a few days ago on July 4th.
All that riding and I'm finally making progress. I'm down below 220 pounds. That's the story for another post or two... Stay tuned.
