Gran Fondo New York! Yeah baby!
The inaugural ride of what is to be an exciting annual event: 53 countries represented and George Hincapie riding the event and a post-ride party!! Serrrweet!
This ride was not planned. New York was planned. Whilst looking on the Gruyère Tour site, I came across GFNY and, blow me, the dates fitted. Helen was fine about me doing this...lie in and shopping for her :)
I was able to take my own bike. I was within my weight allowance, so I packed my bike into a bike bag and off we went!
With all the rides this year, I'm doing the shorter distances as I'm not confident or strong enough to do the full ride. In this case I was riding 65 miles (with 2 timed hill climbs), not the 100 miles (with 4 timed hill climbs). Still a good challenge though and when you include the 12 mile cycle ride to the start line at the George Washington Bridge and the 16 miles back (via Times Square- what a hoot!), you soon rack up the distance.
There are pictures and some video of the GFNY here. They speak for themselves. Put simply, I had a fantastic ride. The weather was perfect, the views, stunning, the atmosphere, electric- just a great day. I saw parts of New York that I would never see if I'd not done this ride. Beautiful.
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| at the start 6.30am |
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| elevation of the ride |
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| one of the timed hill climbs |
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| at the finish |
The finish was a bit of an anti-climax. Especially as I crashed. Yes, how crap am I. The finish line was at the bottom of a hill, so I'd quite a bit of speed up at this point. No signs to point out that to finish we had to go around a small patch of grass (like a kind of mini roundabout) All of a sudden a marshall sprang out from nowhere yelling and pointing "turn to the right, turn to the right" (my left!!) so I start braking heavily, taking the turn really wide to allow me to slow, get three quarters of the way around (about 10 metres off the finish) and another cyclist is walking across the front of me! MORON! I have to swerve. My front wheel leaves the road and I go over the handlebars.
At this point may I point out how useful helmets and full finger gloves are...
"Oh my god are you okay?! Get this guy a medic!"
imagine that in a thick NY accent...it's actually really funny now!
"I'm fine, I'm fine"
"Hey buddy, you need to carry your bike over the finish line."
"Sod that, I'm riding over the bloody finish line!"
Us Brits don't carry our bikes over finish lines ffs!
My chain was off and totally jammed. Luckily there was a Mavic technician to hand and he got my chain guard released so I could put my chain back and finish. On close inspection, the bike was ok but I had badly bruised my right hand and top part of my chest on the left. Could have been worse!
So if you meet anyone who has completed the GF NY and they tell you of a Limey crashing at the finish line...it was me! Hahahaha!!
Anyway, I now needed to get to the Roseland Ballroom for food and the after-race party. No directions, no nothing. I had no idea how to get back to the George Washington Bridge. If I could get there, I'd find my way no problem. So I tagged onto some other riders and off we went.
Good food and company as you can see below(sniggers!) and then I headed back to the hotel for a shower and change of clothes. Helen came back with me to the party. We came away with an armful of giveaways and headed to Applebees for dinner. A great way to end the day.
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