Race Result

Racer:	Keith Bohnenberger
Race:	Grand Fondo - Fabulous 50
Date:	Saturday, June 26, 2010
Location:	Garrett County, MD
Race Type:	Bike - Other
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	4:00:00
Comment:	A beautiful and challenging ride

Race Report:

Kyle Yost put together a Grand Fondo weekend in Garret County, near Deep Creek Lake. The Grand Fondo has 4 rides; 3 on Saturday and one on Sunday. The Saturday rides include the Fabulous 50, the Savage Century and the Diabolical Double. The Sunday ride is the Brad Ride. The weekend rides are a fundraiser for the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation.

See http://www.winthefight.org/granfondo/ for more details.

Here is the write up for the fabulous 50 on the web site:
The "Fabulous Fifty" - a 50 mile route that includes some of the most stunning rural scenery and vistas you are ever to encounter on a bike. While the shortest of the three Saturday rides, the Fabulous Fifty is far from easy and includes four very challenging climbs. The Fabulous Fifty shares the first 24 miles of the Diabolical Double and Savage Century routes.

The ride:
When you look at the ride profile you know you're in for a day of fast downhills and lots and lots of climbing. The first 8 miles are all down hill. It was actually a little cold to start the ride which was a refreshing break from the heat and humidity of the DC area. Around mile 8 is the first climb. It's a relatively short but steep climb. The climb was definitely hard but I was a little surprised how hard. I had some trouble catching my breath. Perhaps the thin air got to me a bit or perhaps it was the fact that the hard climb followed 8 easy miles. The climb reminded my that I had to be really smart about how I paced my self. I didn't hammer any of the downhills and I tried to keep as easy a pace as possible on the up hills. A 50 mile hilly ride is still a bit of a stretch for me. After the climb we were treated to about 9 more miles of fun down hill. At mile 18 we rolled into check point 1 feeling good. The weather was beautiful and the downhills were a blast. The volunteers at the rest stop were great. We at some food, filled up on water and Heed, to a potty break and continued on. After a short up-and-down we started some serious climbing at mile 21 that lasted until about mile 26. We climbed about 1000 feet during those miles. The legs were starting to feel it. The next downhill was shady, a bit windy and had a considerable amount of loose gravel. Kyle made a point of mentioning the danger zones in the race info and in the pre-race briefing. I forgot and took the downhill a little too fast. Fortunately I was able to slow down and stay in the non-gravel area of the road and stay on my bike. This is definitely a ride you need to be careful on. Another climb from mile 28 to mile 30. The nice thing about many of the climbs is that you are rewarded with some really pretty views at the top of the climbs. After another fun and fast downhill we arrived at check point 2. 31 mils into the ride and we were having a blast. After some more food and filling of the water bottles, we soaked in the scenic view before heading out for the last leg of the ride. The next 4 miles were downhill but they were on a shady gravel filled road so we had to ride the brakes quite often. At mile 35 we hit Bowman hill road. Yikes. It's about a 1 mile climb but it's steep. I had to do mix in some serpentine to make it to the top without walking. It was definitely one of the hardest climbs I've ever done. The next 10 miles or so were the flattest of the course. We enjoyed a bit of a break from the climbing. Even with the rolling terrain I was starting to feel a bit spent. But it wasn't a good kind of pain. The kind where you know your pushing your limits but not blowing them away. We made our way back to the lake and had a hard steep 1.5 mile climb to end the ride. After 48.5 miles this climb was a struggle. Once again, I had to resort to some serpentine action to make it to the top without walking.

Kyle did a great job putting the ride together, it was well supported and the volunteers were great. I'll definitely do it again. I can't believe some folks out there were doing 100 miles and others were doing 120. There are some amazing athletes out there!

Some things to keep in mind: I did the ride on my cervelo road bike which has a compact crank. One of my friends had a triple, the other had a standard double. The clear recommendation is a compact crank or a triple. I saw a few people out there on tri-bikes but most had standard road bikes

Our Trip (Places to stay; Places to eat; Things to do etc)

A couple of friends from work and I decided to do this ride together. The plan was to camp out at the Swallow Falls State Park Friday night, wake up Saturday bright and early, do the ride and get back to Tyson's Corner by 4:30 so my friend Patrick could make the wedding he was invited to.

We got to Deep Creek Lake around 5:30, picked up our packet at the Chamber of Commerce and went to Brenda's for some very yummy pizza and a couple of beers. I highly recommend Brendas. After dinner we drove to Swallow Falls State park and set up our camp site. We picked Swallow Falls because there were no available camp sites at Deep Creek Lake. Swallow Falls was not ideal because it was about 20 minutes outside of Deep Creek Lake. However, it turned out to be a great find. After we set up our camp site we went on a short hike of the falls. It was very scenic and is a must do if you make it to Swallow Falls.

We woke up Saturday morning and drove to the ride start at the Adventure Sports Center International (ASCI). They have the "world's only mountaintop whitewater rafting park perched atop Wisp Mountain high above Deep Creek Lake." This place is really really cool. Definitely check it out: http://www.adventuresportscenter.com/

We finished the ride in about the time we were expecting, filled up with gas and got Patrick back to Tyson's corner in time for the wedding!