Whistler Gran Fondo
 

Anyone here doing it?

THe damn weather forecast is falling apart.

If you are doing it, going to run fenders???

Weather forecasts a week out on the coast are notoriously inaccurate. I wouldn't sweat it just yet.

Can't wait. Cipo's right, a week-ahead weather forecast is pretty meaningless; also, the weather usually turns out to be better, not worse, than forecast.

If it rains I'll use clip-on fenders and hope others do, too.

I'm going to be riding it. I suspect I'll be deciding on which bike to use the morning of the thing. Fenders won't go on my main road bike, but I don't think I'd want to be riding that one for 5 hours in the rain either, not when I have a perfectly good rain bike.

Granted, that's the heavy bike and there is a bit of uphill on that route...

Well,

I'm in VAncouver now. So is my bike. The heavy one, with the full wrap around fenders.

If it rains, I'm good. If not, oh well.

Forecast's not looking too bad this morning... Maybe some showers.

Any news from participants?

Great ride, very well organized though a few stray cones made the early fast crowded bits nervy. Problems with the timing affected a lot of people - right now the official results only list 2,800 out of 4,000 participants. They actually awarded prizes to the wrong people because of this - quite a ****-up.

Very happy with my 3:51 and that the rain held off. Definitely harder than I've ridden a bike before. Was in some good groups until about 20k from the end when I got dropped and died a solo death on the interminable small hills on the way into Whistler.

Thanks Yarb. I read the official news releases but of course they don't mention any problems with timing. 3:51 is good in my book. I'm thinking about doing this ride next year.

May I ask what kind of bike you used and gearing information? What did you find the most difficult part of the ride?

Thanks,
vic

I used a road bike along with 99% of people. Apparently there was a bloke on a unicycle although I didn't see him. I did see a tandem, and managed to draft it for two or three gloriously fast flat km, and at the finish there was a grizzled old guy with only one (incredibly strong) leg who I think finished in about 4:30, which is frankly beyond belief.

Lowest gear I used was 38x24. The hills are not that steep; it's a hiway and the steepest bit was probably Taylor Way at 10-11% for about a km. Most difficult part was the Upper Levels after Cypress where it was 50-70kph with a lot of nervous riders (myself included) and the first taste of cones, that was tense. I heard someone was seriously injured on that stretch. Physically, the end with the demoralising small humps on the way into Whistler, when you just want it to end, was the worst part for me.

120 km in 3:51 is an average of 31 km/h. Pretty incredibly awesome!!

Here's another question for you Yarb. Anyone ride it fixed? :)

Well, the unicyclist... I didn't see any other fixed gear machines but there must have been one or two. Generally though I was surpised at the total lack of novelty riders, riders on funny bikes or folders, in costumes, etc.

I'm planning on doing it on my folder...

Cool, will you also be in fancy dress?

31 to 91 gear inches. Should be adequate. ;)

Same here.

I thought it was a great event, well-managed traffic, well-stocked rest/refueling stations (pizza and wine for lunch!). The pockets of spectators cheering encouragement along the road and from overpasses were great for morale. And the rough weather held off just long enough; it couldn't have been much fun for those who opted to ride back to Vancouver on Sunday in that gnarly, cold rain.

I happened upon the bad wreck shortly after it happened and it was not a good sight, shook all of us who saw it up pretty badly. Media reports say he's in "serious, but stable condition," which could mean anything really. Hopefully he is able to make a full recovery.

That was the only wreck I saw, although I hear there were a few others, albeit nowhere near as severe. Given the broad range of experience with group riding in such a large peloton, that's pretty admirable. I know there were a few moments I didn't feel like I was in a particularly safe position with the types of riders around me, so I altered my pace or stopped at a rest station to get myself away from the situation.

I did, however, see a lot of disregard for the rules of the ride which were clearly posted on the Gran Fondo website; riders with tri bars, riders with ear buds, riders weaving into the car lanes to make passes.

FWIW, my rolling time was 4:34.

Update on the downed rider.

Thanks for the update on the downed rider Cipo. What an unfortunate accident.

Did you ride the bike back to Vancouver same day or catch a car ride back to Vancouver?

My wife volunteered at the salt shed station, then drove up to Whistler and we made a weekend of it. We would have liked to see some of that crazy Red Bull downhill race, but it was just too cold and wet Sunday to hang around very long. We drove home in a nice, dry, warm car ;)

Pizza and wine?! If I'd known I might have stopped! They should have had the same thing at the finish, really.

We passed a few very bedraggled roadies riding back the next day, including two or three fixing flats half way up hills in the rain. Poor buggers.

Agreed, given the amount of riders and the mix of experience levels, it was remarkably safe. If they're expanding to 6,000 next year they're going to have to stagger the start a bit more though, with groups of 500-1000 going every five or ten minutes.

Tri-bars and earbuds I noticed too; the latter especially are ridiculous in that situation. I don't blame some people for passing outside the cones to get out of an unsafe situation, get into space, or because the cones were erratically placed, as long as there's plenty of visibility and the road is clear of cars, as it was for long stretches. It seemed like car traffic was way down, a fraction of what you might expect.

Nice one! Are you going back in 2011?

I had a tremendous time at the event. This was the third GF I have ridden this year and it was the best organized and staged by far. No comparison.

I thought the course was very good and the aid stations were well positioned and well stocked. I brought my Carl Strong custom to ride it, full fenders and long leather mudflaps and approached it just as fun way to spend the day.

I made a mistake a few years in a ride in Arizona when I did not know where the last aid station was and went by it, then ran out of water with 20 desert miles to go. Ever since then I always stop at the last station and make sure my bottles are full. When I came out of the last station there was a woman going by wearing a "Classica Coppi" jersey.

I tucked in behind her and let her pace me to Whistler. I had taken it easy so had lots of gas left in the tank.

I have registered for next year already and will also register for the new event they are going to put on next year - in the Okanagan.

A great ride. Good road, good fun.

Oh yeah, the pizza and wine at Squamish was a winner in my book.

So sorry I couldn't do this ride -- medical emergency in the family kept me pinned down at home. I have signed up for next year already, though.

One question -- for those of you who drove back to Vancouver on Sunday, did you see many riders doing the ride back to Vancouver?

Yes, there were a lot of riders heading back on Sunday. Poor Ba$tards.

It was POURING, nay ...... BUCKETING , rain and dark, like it can only be on the coast.

If it were a nice day, it would have been a pleasant ride. On that day ................... no thanks.

I saw maybe 20-30. I'm sure it would have been a lot more if the weather hadn't been so atrocious. Hardly any of them had fenders, only about half had rain gear.