COTTTAGE GROVE, Ore. — Gran fondos are all about bringing different types of cyclists together.
Guys working in unison with matching team kits? Check. Dad on a triplet bike with his two adolescent daughters? Absolutely. Thirty-something journalist rocking his beloved aluminum-frame commuter, complete with rear rack? You betcha.
I rode in my first gran fondo this month. The Oregon Gran Fondo started and finished in Cottage Grove, winding through the western Willamette Valley and southern Oregon Coast Range. Part race, part up-tempo social ride, the gran fondo — the Italian term loosely translates to “big ride” — was born early in the last century when spectators at some of cycling’s top races decided they wanted to ride the same scenic and challenging courses they were watching professional cyclists attack.
“The whole gran fondo concept comes from Europe,” says Alan Cline, the director of operations at Eugene-based Dark:30 Sports, which produces the Oregon Gran Fondo.
“You have all these great races there and all the enthusiasts want to ride the same great course.”
Fast and fit enthusiasts, that is. Fondos are not Sunday strolls. They start in one gloriously messy wave, and the fastest riders separate from the pack almost immediately.
I was not the first person to cross the finish line.
A gran fondo rookie, I participated in the Oregon Gran Fondo’s “medio” course — I believe that translates loosely into “weak sauce” — of 71 miles. The “gran” route of the Oregon Gran Fondo covered 117 miles, and a family-friendly “piccolo” course went for 31.2 miles.
Everyone doing the gran and medio routes started together, part of the romance of the gran fondo. Had I wanted to, my sticker-covered commuter bike and I could have squeezed up near the front of the start line and made a mad dash alongside true racers on rides that are worth more than my car. (In actuality, I started near the back and chatted with cyclists about good beer in the area, the upcoming ride, and what kind of good beer from the area we would drink after the ride.)
With a healthy mix of competitive cyclists and two-wheel sightseers, the approximately 350 riders spread out fairly quickly. As a solo rider, I bounced from group to group as we ascended and descended the back roads of Lane and Douglas counties. (Riders on the gran route also dipped into Coos County.) The medio route, the same as the gran course for the first 42 miles, featured 3,900 feet of climbing amid some of the most beautiful — and rugged — forests in the southern Willamette Valley. While I dodged a skunk carcass and a startled deer, cars were never an issue. During my 5½ hours on the course, I counted fewer than 10 automobiles on the road.
I ended the day on a 10-mile descent with a retired educator — the grandfather of the two girls on the triplet — who now lives in Bend. The 71-mile medio route was his longest ride in years, he said, but his regular cycling trips up to Mount Bachelor seemed to prepare his legs just fine.
“Obviously, we have a very strong racing crowd,” said Cline — the top cyclists finished the 117 miles in 5 hours, 28 minutes, about two minutes after I completed my 71-mile adventure. “But we’ve also got families out there and people who have never done something like this before.”
After barely getting off the course before the big-boy riders blasted through the finish line, I milled around the after-party in downtown Cottage Grove and devoured any and all food and beverages I could get my hands on. I swapped ride stories with cyclists like myself, who were just happy to have completed the medio route, and I chatted up racers who were on the road for about the same amount of time that I was but went 46 miles farther and about 1,800 feet higher. We were all pretty much in agreement that the virtual absence of automobile traffic was amazing, that the mini-cookie cupcakes at the last aid station were heaven-sent, and that we were glad we did not have to pedal that triplet bike up the final hill climb.
“Fondos are truly a great celebration of the bike and a day on the bike,” Cline says. “Everyone is a part of the same day, eating, sharing a meal and a drink all together after the race. That’s really the difference (between fondos and other biking events) there.”
