Highlands Fondo | Race Results and Recap

It was brutal. It was painful. It was simply fantastic. 

Minutes before the Start

My first Gran Fondo on the way to the National Championships is in the books. Beginning in Butler, NJ and weaving its way through NY until looping back to finish, it was a picturesque route with relatively quiet roads and even some cheering fans along the way (which was really cool!). In this post I'm going to cover the results, first and foremost, and provide some thoughts about the event itself as well as what I learned from the experience - which was quite a lot. There's no reason to belabor this with fluff and meaningless words; let's jump right into the results.  

Results

Going into this, I knew I wasn't going to land on the podium. With a large age group field (of which I was among the oldest) my goal was to learn, ride hard, and have fun. I set target times for each of the segments to test my fitness in advance, but was realistic about what I could achieve. The table below is the same table I presented in my last post, only now I've added my "actual" times following this weekend's race. 

Segment	Distance	Gain	Fastest ('22)	Target	Actual
1	4.6mi	684ft	13:12	16-20	18:07
2	5.8mi	296ft	12:31	15-18	16:56
3	4.7mi	405ft	11:48	14-17	17:20
4	2.1mi	314ft	6:27	8-10	10:40

As you can clearly see, I hit my targets for both the first and second segments, and just barely missed my target time for the third and fourth segments. There are a lot of reasons for this which I'll expand upon below, but let's first translate those segment times into actual placement. 

For my overall placement - regardless of age or gender, I placed 291st out of 571 total riders. That puts me squarely in the middle of the pack, which sounds about right considering a good chunk of the field was quite a bit younger than me. When you consider just gender - but not age - I placed 268th out of ~520 cyclists (clearly this means the bulk of those riding the Gran route were men). Still, this isn't the result that matters most. 

Trimming the results down to just men in my age group - the most important metric for me - and the number of riders  drops down to ~160. When compared to them, I placed 96th. Once again, about mid-pack (a little worse than that, actually) - but that's okay. Do I wish I had placed a little better? Of course. But, I accomplished what I set out to do, hit two out of four targets, and finished what was among the hardest efforts I've ever put in on the saddle. What is there really to be upset about?

The first segment was only a mile into the race, and largely uphill. The climb wasn't terribly steep, but it was a long segment at just under 5 miles. With fresh legs, I really thought I could do well in this segment, and generally speaking I did - I finished in 18:07, which was almost exactly the middle of my target range for the segment. The biggest challenge I had here was the number of people on the road to compete with. Since it was a mass start race, all 800+ entrants (this included the Piccolo, Medio, and Gran routes) blasted out of the Start at the same time....making for quite a bit of congestion on the roadway. And that was my biggest frustration coming out of the first timed section - I felt like I could have done a lot better, but the road was so incredibly packed with cyclists that I limited ability to move up in the field. The lesson for me here was simple - either start up front and hope to keep up with the faster riders, or hold off until the tail end to actually begin, and let some of the congestion work its way up the road. How much time either strategy would buy me is hard to say, but I do feel like I left a little meat on the bone after that segment. 

The second segment was also early in the race - only about 10 miles in. I felt fairly well rested after the first effort, and the roads were much less congested by this point, with most riders having found a group to ride with or had established a pace of their own. For me, I rode about half of it solo, but grabbed the wheel of a group passing by. There's no doubt I benefited from the draft and improved my overall time, but hey, that's part of the fun, right? Much like the first segment, I landed well within my target time and am pleased with the results. 

Finishing the 3rd segment

And then there was the gap. Almost 35 miles (and a whole lot of climbing) separated the 2nd and 3rd segment. Fortunately, there was a rest stop just before the beginning of Segment 3, offering the opportunity to replenish some carbs and rest the legs before another hard effort. This Segment was completely contained within High Point State Park, and the roads were narrow, bumpy, but entirely car free. With a limited incline and a tree covered pathway, this was easily the prettiest of the segments - and one I wish I could have taken my time riding through to enjoy the scenery a bit more. Although I missed the upper end of my target time by 20 seconds, I rode this section on my own without the benefit of drafting. Of all the segments, this one was easily my favorite. 

And then there was the final segment. If Segment 3 was my favorite, Segment 4 was the polar opposite. A sadist designed this segment, and placed the start of the timed section in the middle of a 14% grade. I mean, really? It was almost laughable for how offensive it felt in the moment.

Although only 2 miles long, this segment was easily the hardest of them all. If we ignore for a moment that everyone riding the 100 mile route had already climbed 7000ft+ before starting this section, these hills were steep. And they hurt. A lot. When I tried to stand and power over the incline, my quads gave me the middle finger and cramped in response. I guess I'd do this last climb in the saddle. 

Truthfully, I'm astonished I only missed the top end of my target time by 40 seconds. This segment felt like it took much longer to complete than it actually did, and my legs were wasted by the time it was finished. I have no doubt the photographer that snapped me crossing the line on this segment has already burned the negative of the photo, unsure what corner of Hell managed to creep into his frame.

Lessons Learned

There was quite a bit for me to take away from this event; as I've already mentioned, if there's a timed segment immediately following the start of a race, I need to either suck it up and go to the front to have more space to maneuver, or start a little later in the field. Trying to weave in and out of position mid-pack proved very challenging, especially when half of the road was still open to traffic. As much fun as it was riding in the middle of such a big group, it definitely came with its consequences. 

Next - and perhaps most importantly - bring more drink mix and gels. I intentionally packed less than what I knew I would need, anticipating gels and sports drinks at the rest stops. However, it turns out I really don't like Hammer Nutrition products (at least what was available) and I regretted not having more of my usual gels and drink mix readily available. 

That said - I'm VERY pleased with what I did bring, especially a caffeinated drink mix. Skratch Labs has individual servings available that fit perfectly in your jersey pocket, and each one has 50mg of caffeine in it. Not an exorbitant amount by any means, but it was just the right amount for me to sip on throughout most of the day. That stuff is a keeper. 

Lastly - at least so far as nutrition goes - I was really pleased with how I was able to keep the carbs flowing throughout the day. In addition to what I was consuming while on the bike, usually a gel or two between rest stops in addition to my drink, I ate freely at the rest stops - usually 70-100g of additional carbs. I stuck with fast acting sugars most of the day, such as fruit snacks, PB&J, and Coca-Colas (yes, a small soda can be the savior of a weary cyclist). I was really worried that I would eat too much - especially towards the latter half of the race, but my fears turned out to be unfounded. Despite a lot of fatigue in my legs, I never felt like I was going to bonk. I'm pleased with this, and it helps to set me up for success moving into my next event. 

Now let's move on to some of the technology. First, I absolutely adore my Garmin 1030 - it's simply the best bike computer I could ask for. The navigation was flawless, the battery was more than enough for a long day in the saddle, and I really liked the climbing feature - each time I approached a major climb, I got a nice profile graph (that included my location) of the climb and the gradient that was ahead. The only regret I have here is not being able to see my power at the same time. While I will check to see if that can be added to the screen, since most of the big climbs for the race coincided with a timed segment, I had to pace my effort based on how it felt rather than real-time power data. Not a big deal at the end of the day, but it would be nice to have moving forward. 

Perhaps the biggest psychological lesson learned was related to the elevation gained during the race. Ride with GPS estimated the total gain to be ~7400ft for the entire course. However, by the time I crossed the finish line my Garmin was reporting over 8800ft gained. That's quite a difference! Admittedly, as I was monitoring my elevation gained during the race, the closer I drew to 7400ft the more relieved I felt. I convinced myself that the last few climbs must not be that bad because I was already so close to the total for the route. Although I know fully well these systems estimate elevation the best they can (often using different methods), I was quite surprised by the difference between the two. As I look at the elevation gain for my next race - at more than 8400ft - I should probably plan for 10k-ft or more. 

The Event Overall

The finish!

Despite a few hiccups - which I'll cover in just a second - this was a really well organized event. Packet pick up the day before was smooth and seamless, as was the check-in procedures the morning of the race. It felt very professional and rehearsed, and the finish line was no different. When you crossed the line, a finishing medal was semi-ceremoniously hung around my neck, photo taken, timing chip retrieved, and ushered towards the herd of other cyclists within seconds. The food and drink was well organized with short lines (considering how many people were there) and the awards ceremony kicked off on time, finishing quickly. 

Then there were the hiccups - the real head-scratchers of the event. 

The first came at the first rest stop. With all three routes (30, 60, 100 mile) converging in the same area, this spot was packed with hundreds of cyclists at one time. I mean hundreds. So it makes sense that there were only 3, 5-gallon water jugs available, right? The line to refill water bottles was quite long causing a number of riders to press on without a refill. While there was plenty of food available to anyone that needed it, the shortage of water was hard to miss. As strange as this seemed, the second rest stop was out of water altogether, making the first rest stop seem like a blessing. As well organized as everything else was for the race, I was miffed how something like water could be in such short supply. In defense of the race organizer, they owned their mistakes later in the day and apologized to all the riders affected. 

Mistakes aside, it really was a great event and I look forward to the next one in Boone, NC, in early August. Time to get back to training!