{"id":207,"date":"2022-04-25T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/?p=207"},"modified":"2025-12-26T03:51:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T03:51:29","slug":"levis-gran-fondo-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/2022\/04\/25\/levis-gran-fondo-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Levi’s Gran Fondo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Massive turnout in Windsor. Big energy with everyone eager to get back out on the road together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Early-morning rollout had us wandering through the farmland and vineyards of the valley\u2019s west-side. The route was was nice but so cold (39\u00b0)\u2026 shivering shoulders and numb hands not great for bike handling in a close pack hopping around potholes and gravel patches. Eventually we point into the sun across the valley and warm up enough to focus (44\u00b0). Fast group worked together reasonably well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First rest stop to load up on real food like pbj banana cashews. Gu orange drink mix is terrible, avoid\u2026 better to bring your own packs of mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cross through the last bit of the valley as we head toward the mountain, over a river, then up the little canyon backroad. Narrow, mixed-surface pockmarked lane, double-wide pavement, gravel, washes, seams, dips\u2026 rolling along a river\/creek, and winding up towards the geothermal plants at the top of the canyon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then we faced the real climb: the main access road is a 12-15% hump up to the peak ridge-line. Brutal, like Mt Diablo\u2019s wall but several miles long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wait up at top – Jay just makes the 11:15 time cutoff for next-year’s big-ride qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snack on more pbj, potatoes, banana, drink (tiny coke!). Forgot to go back for the cantaloupe and orange slice and ended up craving those the rest of the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then down the descent. Not as dodgy as it looked on Strava. Carlos\u2019 route signs were well placed, calling out the deeper tightening corners. Felt a lot like highland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gear notes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • My 11-28 cassette doesn\u2019t work on 15% plus inclines. Consider a 30t conversion?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    That was a good one. Fast packs, fun\/dodgy remote gnarmac, geothermal things, that climb, crisp clear blue skies over bright green vineyards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bm","category-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ride-events.co\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}