Kelowna Granfondo - It was worth it!
Its Monday and just finished the Kelowna Granfondo weekend. Thinking about the ride puts a great big grin on my face. There were 5 Cat 5 climbs and 1 Cat 2 climb - almost 1200m of elevation gain. At the end, my time was 4:01:40 - 69/260 in my 40-49 age group and 192/880 overall.
The ride started out slowly as expected, but the first hill came quickly and started to peak my heart rate. That was Cat 5 climb and 14km of uphill climbing for 500m elevation. Finally, descending on the OK lake side was beautiful and fast and then setting us up for the Cat 2 climb to Predator Ridge. Riders were falling like flies and I felt fairly strong knowing that I had a long way to go.
The descend from Predator Ridge into Vernon was an exhilarating 20km of a net 400m drop where we reached speeds of 73km! The ride along Hwy 97 was fairly non-eventful except that the organizers set aside a whole lane for us to use. That in itself was the reason that I LOVE Granfondos!
My goal was to be under 4 hours - and I came close - except for the pee break, 2 minutes waiting for a red light to change and the 2 water bottle fill ups. It added about 6 minutes to my time so, even though I was over 4 hours overall, I can rationalize that I met my goal. Way to go!!!
The last 20km was a blur as I got into a pace line with a dozen or so riders and a comment from one guy was "you're destroying us back here". Smiles and everybody was elated that I took it to the next level.
Next year it'll be definitely under 4 hours.
Getting Ready for the word GO!
---WAB1234---
The ride started out slowly as expected, but the first hill came quickly and started to peak my heart rate. That was Cat 5 climb and 14km of uphill climbing for 500m elevation. Finally, descending on the OK lake side was beautiful and fast and then setting us up for the Cat 2 climb to Predator Ridge. Riders were falling like flies and I felt fairly strong knowing that I had a long way to go.
The descend from Predator Ridge into Vernon was an exhilarating 20km of a net 400m drop where we reached speeds of 73km! The ride along Hwy 97 was fairly non-eventful except that the organizers set aside a whole lane for us to use. That in itself was the reason that I LOVE Granfondos!
My goal was to be under 4 hours - and I came close - except for the pee break, 2 minutes waiting for a red light to change and the 2 water bottle fill ups. It added about 6 minutes to my time so, even though I was over 4 hours overall, I can rationalize that I met my goal. Way to go!!!
The last 20km was a blur as I got into a pace line with a dozen or so riders and a comment from one guy was "you're destroying us back here". Smiles and everybody was elated that I took it to the next level.
Next year it'll be definitely under 4 hours.
Getting Ready for the word GO!
---WAB1234---
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