I was invited to take part in this very small gran fondo -a first year event - in Keystone yesterday. Having not ridden for 2 weeks I thought sure, why not do a 90-miler! If nothing else it gave me the nudge I needed to get back on the saddle and put in some miles ;)
It was FREEZING cold when we started. Like, I used embro in late June cold... crazy. It did gradually warm up (50s) during the ride.
As with most fondos, the entire ride is not timed, only the timed "sections" are -usually climbs, as was the case here. The first timed section was up Ute Pass. Having done this climb before I did not try to race it I just maintained my steady tempo pace. From there we came down and made our way towards the reservoir where we did a loop around the north/west side of the lake for timed section #2. It was into a fierce westerly headwind the entire way. Having not ridden this road before I kept my pace conservative again. I enjoyed the tailwind the entire way back to the finish!
It ended up being 80 miles and not 90 but that's ok. I had some lunch and then drove home... only to learn later that afternoon that I'd won the women's 90mile event. Whoops - should have stayed to collect my award!
I definitely recommend this event for next year - they had tshirts, jerseys and socks in the swag bags, and the small nature of the event made it really intimate -much nicer than some of the bigger events with throngs of riders all over the roads.
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