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The Cascade Gran Fondo is a road bike ride through the scenic Cascade Mountains and the Deschutes National Forest of Central Oregon, starting and ending at the base of Mount Bachelor. It is a must to at least drive the route in order to enjoy the spectacular scenery. The ride is designed by Chris Horner (Tour de France cyclist and Bend, Oregon native) and is organized by his wife, Megan. There are three distances: 75 miles, 53 miles and 22 miles. I did the 53 mile route which starts and ends at 1937m and has an elevation gain of 868m.
My race plan had one significant change from my triathlon race plans: work hard to draft. Hmmm … this could be fun.Â
Being in the mountains, the weather can be very unpredictable so you need to be prepared for everything. Thanks to my experiences with the NRG France Camp, I had a good understanding of what was needed. As it turned out, it was a beautiful sunny day. The temperature at race start was 15C and went up to 31C by the end.
The beginning of the ride is a net downhill with several flat and uphill sections. This gave me the opportunity to take some time in order to find “that right rider” to draft with. Â I found that someone and shortly after another group of two joined us, making a peloton of four riders. Our strategy was to pull for 30 seconds then move left in order to let the others rotate through. This worked very well as it allowed each person to work very hard for a short period of time, keeping the pace. We kept this up until the first turn at approximately 37 km which was a whopping (for me) 54 minutes from race start. We were going over 40 kph … life is good! The next section of about 23 km was a flat bumpy road with a small hill and headwind. We weren’t as organized through this section but kept the group together as best as possible. We split up after the last turn, which is the start of the 26 km climb to the finish. It is now getting quite hot. This is where the climbs in France helped me out … and especially my climbing mates … you know who you are … you were with me on this climb and I thank you! I was glad to see the finish … I left it all on the road. I ended up placing second overall and first female. One of my peloton mates, a man from BC, placed first.
This was a great family day as well. My husband did the 22 mile route which was 11 miles down and then 11 miles back up. It was his first ride and he won! I hope to have him hooked on cycling.
At the finish line with Chris Horner from Radioshack Trek!
Colleen
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