Author: Les Becker
Leon suggested this great idea to ride/race in beautiful
Penticton, BC which sounded very fun. Some folks say a Granfondo is not a race.
So why the individual timing chips? And what’s with the guy with power gel
packets taped to his top tube so he doesn’t have to waste time reaching into
his pockets? And what about the pros from Belgium who will be with us at the
mass start or the fact that this event is one of only two qualifier events in North America for this year's world championships in South Africa.
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| "Penticton" Cyclopaths |
I am standing in the starting line with Mike H, Leon and
Mike S and 1400 other riders (racers). It’s 7:00am and I am already warm with
only the Cyclopath jersey, no baselayer
or knee warmers. I know the 90 deg + heat will come. Excitement builds
as the announcer counts down. I think “am I really supposed to be here?” So off
we go in a mass of high end bicycles and adrenalin.
Up and down the first hill got me acclimated to climbing and
cornering in a tightly packed fast group. Then out the highway along Lake
Okanogan with the power boys out front doing 26-29 mph. Reminded me of the
RAMROD where we rode too hard in the early part. But what can you do but just
hang on? Then up the first real hill; still we rode hard and passed many riders
including Eddy Merckx who abandoned at that point. Then hard pacelining until
about 50 miles when reality set in; I knew I was spent so let the group with
Mike H and Leon go on and soon came to a rest stop and quickly got food and water
and jumped back on the saddle.
Rode with various individuals and small groups. They would
invariably point out obstacles, communicate slowing or direction changes and
letting me into lines to help me get out of traffic or away from obstacles.
Nice to be with friendly riders. Began to feel better, passed a rest stop and
regained some form. Got water once more and headed up the last and biggest
climb. And there was Mike Smith. He’d passed me when I stopped, so we then we
rode together for awhile. The climbing took us through some beautiful high
mountain valleys with vineyards. By then riders had spread out and the slower
uphill pace enabled me to see and appreciate the beauty of the Canadian
mountains. At one secluded farm, a gentleman about 70 was standing alone at the
end of his long driveway pumping his fist in the air, cheering us on. And in
many other places near town, groups of spectators were cheering and ringing
cowbells. The people of Penticton love their outdoor sports!
Down the hill and then needed to turn left onto the
highway. Race crews had stopped traffic so we didn’t even have to pause. Seemed
like ¼ mile of cars were held up just for us. Then they gave us the entire
outside lane of the 4 lane highway for the 15 miles back to town. I felt good and
we had a brisk ride to the finish. My 5hr 11min eclipsed my prerace prediction
of 6 to 6.5 hours.
Addendum by Leon Matz:
On Sat. July 7th I left for Penticton at 6:20. I
wanted to leave early because I was told Axel and Eddy Merckx were going to be
signing autographs from 1:30 to 2:30 and I wanted to take advantage of that. If
you have never been to that area before, you really should visit. It is very beautiful with lots of beautiful orchards, vineyards, and lakes.
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| Eddy Merckx |
After I registered for the ride and visited all the booths I
decided to find out where the signing was going to take place. When I enquired
I was told the signing was cancelled because Axel and Eddy were forced to do it
for a long time last year and did not enjoy it.
The gal said the two of them were down at the park watching the little
kids race. I decided to walk downtown.
It turned out to be father than I thought and when I finally got there I
was thinking I made a mistake tiring my legs out in 85-90 deg temps. As I
approached the announcers booth I thought to myself that I better keep my eyes
out for a large group of people surrounding
Eddy or possibly a stage that he might be on.
As soon as I finished the thought. Eddy walks right past me. I had come
prepared with a permanent marker and my Cyclopath jersey. I quickly got it out
and approached Eddy and asked for him to sign my jersey. He replied, “Sure”.
When I held the jersey up he said in a gruff voice, “stretch it out” . I held
it to my chest and spread it out tight. He responded in a disapproving way ,
“No not like that but like this” I
finally got it right and he signed a 8-10 inch signature. “SWEET” I expected my request would now cause others
to approach Eddy but no one seemed to notice.
As he walked away I thought I need some kind of proof it was Eddy s I
walked fast past him up the street and then took the picture of him. After
sharing the story with Les and the two Mike’s I decided to take their
recommendation and retire my jersey and put it in a display case. I haven’t
done that yet but plan to.
The next day about 15 miles into the race we were going up a
fairly long hill to the town of Summerland. All four of us were climbing pretty
fast passing lots of riders. Up ahead of me I noticed a rather big guy going
fairly slow. As I started to approach I noticed a #1 rider number on the back
of his jersey. I though to myself, “Could
it be Eddy??” As I go around him it saw that it was!!! Here is the
greatest cyclist ever being passed on a hill by
4 Puyallup Cyclopaths. BOTH WERE INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCES AND ONES I WILL
NEVER FORGET.
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WE ALL QUALIFIED FOR THE UCI WORLD CYCLING RACES IS SOUTH
AFRICA. I don’t know if any of us will actually go but it is spectacular that
we all qualified.
For the 100 mi course (~ 4000 feet of climbing):
Leon 4:55.17 20.2 mph 201st of 1424 riders 6th of 78 (age
group)
Mike H 4:57.01 20.1 mph 210thof 1424 riders 7th
of 78 (age group)
Les 5:11.30 19.1 mph 316th of 1424 riders 30th
of 161 (age group)
Mike S 5:18.23 18.7 mph 380th
of 1424 riders 15th of 78 (age group)
View all the
photos for this race: https://picasaweb.google.com/103821724300588557330/2012_07_08AxelMerckxGranfondo#
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