Levi’s King Ridge Gran Fondo

Gran Fondos seem to be the flavour of the month these days. Last November I had heard about this ride after its inaugural year turned out to be a great success. In fact, the organizers of this years RBC Whistler Gran Fondo went down last year to learn what they could to make the whistler race a success.

Lev’s race has three distances like most of the Italian fondos do. The Pico is about 30 miles, The Medio about 60, While the Gran Fondo is about 100 miles. Last year they had about 2500 riders, this year they has 6000 spread about evenly over all three courses. While the Whistler Fondo seemed to have “race” associated with it, Levi’s race is more attuned to the Italian versions which are a ride to celebrate cycling culture. There were certainly people out “racing” it (Victoria native Max Plaxton has won it two years running) but the vast majority were out to enjoy the ride and this certainly presented a very different atmosphere when compared to the Whistler race.

The “century” course seemed pretty difficult to me when compared to the “race” to Whistler. Mind you it was 52km longer, but while Whistler seemed to be a long steady push, King Ridge threw a lot of short steep kickers at you. The group I was with rode together until the top of King Ridge about 65 km in. Shortly after that, I got dropped on a short climb and then the agony began. It seemed that for the next 10 km I was dangling off the back of the group about 100 m back. Despite all my efforts, I could not bridge back on and after trying for quite a while, I noticed the 80km marker and thought that seeing as I was barely halfway through I had better  conserve a bit of energy if I had any intention of finishing. The boys disappeared and I went into recovery mode.

The last half of the course is spectacular.
 

A wicked descent off of King Ridge is followed by about 20 km of riding south along the ocean.

The organizers set up a fantastic aid station right on the ocean just before the last kicker of the course: the infamous “Coleman Grade”. This part of the course was used in the Tour of California in 2009 and bit a few pro cyclists in the ass then also. Once up the grade it was a 30 km ride back to the start. Finish time 6 hours.

The finish area was set up outdoors with a carnival atmosphere. There were live bands, lots of food venues and sponsors booths. All in all, a very well organized event and well worth the trip to Santa Rosa. And the real beauty is, if you stay for a few days afterwards, you can go wine tasting or continue riding your bike in the Sonoma/Napa area, or head down the California coast like I did.