Monday, April 2, 2012

Fondu thoughts

The Ephrata Grand Fondo was sort of game-changer for me.

Stuff I know:

- That was the hardest 80 miles I've ever ridden.
- My goal was 6 hours and I came in at 5:23. I'm proud of that. And I hurt for two days solid to make that happen.
- I'm more competitive than I like to think I am.
- I'm a coward though, in the competitive realm. Which makes me the worse kind.
- The Fondo course was superb. Super hard. Lots of climbing and lots of dirt. Even technical bits.
- Road bike is the way to go for me on that one. The bike you take on such a course is always a compromise. But at the end of the day -- there's a 30 mile stretch of flat road in the middle. It's worth underbiking the climbs and the dirt on a road bike to take advantage of that stretch. I passed about a dozen riders on that section. I think only one or two were on non-cyclocross road bikes.

1 comment:

Patrick Sullivan said...

Niether you nor jon posted any pics but I can imagine how awesome/hard it must've been. Great jobes.