Kelowna RBC Grand Fondo 2012

What a fantastic event this past weekend in Kelowna at the 2012 RBC Grand Fondo! I was lucky enough for the second weekend in a row to take part in local events. Thanks to Planet Foods for getting me entered last minute!

After a 3:30 AM wake Saturday to drive my brother to the airport it was an early arrival at the Fondo venue. With hundreds of excited cyclists and even spectators out it was bound to be a good day. Another early 7 AM start through the streets of Kelowna. With 10 km of neutral(enforced slow riding) riding people had their positions sorted and were ready to tackle the 4,500 ft of climbing. With a big group of riding through the first 30 km it was bound to split up when we hit the main climb of the day, Predator Ridge, because of its twenty plus minutes of climbing, gravel sections of a couple pitches that topple 15%. Their was a KOM at the top of the climb which totally blanked my mind once we got there, I was wondering why some guys were hitting the top of the climb in full standing attack mode. Anyway I was pretty stoked to ride about 5 km of gravel roads on the skinny tires. By the time we descended down into Vernon we had a group of four and soon became eight. We had times were everyone rotated through nicely, then times were people just sat around. It was fun, there were jokes told, chatted about our leg cramps and just enjoyed the day.  The sun seemed to hide behind the clouds all day which made for a muggy hot, but probably better than 39 C hot that took it toll last weekend for the Penticton Axel Merckx Grand Fondo. Over the last five km I was hurting pretty good from the leg cramps, which seems to be a road bike thing only for me, so I sat on the back and had Mr Matt Hewitt from Vernon lead me out for the sprint of the non-race race. Was able to cross the line first and have the fastest time of the day for the 122 km ride through the beautiful roads of the Okanagan. With long climbs, short climbs, fast descents, bike paths, gravel roads, vineyards, orchards and lake views it made for a spectacular day of bike riding. It was crazy that I probably got the most media attention ever after the event. Great to see the community backing this year event so much! This may now help with trying to find some local sponsorship and support now!


News Paper article HERE.
Strava riding file from the Fondo here: http://app.strava.com/rides/13392968

The week leading into the Fondo I had done a little adventuring with my little bro before he headed off to basic training for the Canadian Armed Forces. There was some mountain biking/hiking into a secret lake behind my house where the fish swarm the waters and make it almost easy enough to catch them with just nets! After accomplishing finding this lake after many years of it eluding me it was nice to see it. The next day was 4X4ing into my uncles trappers cabin with my uncle. We took along a quad and my MTB so I could ride the 11 KM descent out. Two missions have been accomplished and there are many more to do still! wait and see the pictures of the adventures.

I was also able to help out Planet Foods move some of their product around. A lot of their product..Pretty much if like good coffee you need to drink some Kicking Horse coffee!!