My First GFNY World Championship
For years, people have been telling me that I need to check out Gran Fondo New York. Now I can now tell you that it’s wild!
My GFNY weekend started with a Canyon Session pre-ride from the Rapha New York City location in bustling SoHo. The skyscrapers made for a deep canyon-like backdrop. Aboard a fleet of Enduraces and Aeroads, our crew set out for a great 15-mile ride. At the end we rode up the George Washington Bridge and took in some awesome city views. The bikes were a hit with the group, and we capped off the experience with coffee and gelatos.
Next morning, the backdrop of the GFNY start was unreal. The event stages 6,000 riders on the world’s busiest bridge – the double-decked George Washington Bridge – suspended above the Hudson River spanning from Fort Lee, New Jersey to Manhattan. In the GFNY start coral I joined Nelson Vails (Olympic silver-medalist track cyclist), NFL Hall-of-Famers, famous golfers, actors, and thousands of cyclists for what is the Boston Marathon of Gran Fondos.
The GFNY World Championship is the culmination of a 19-race global series; and half of the entrants had traveled internationally to compete. To add to the race’s excitement, the promoter put up a $10,000 premium for the first rider to cross the finish line of the hilly one hundred mile course if they could do so in less than four hours. I had hopes that a group would work together to make this possible, but it would play out to be a tactical and explosive race with many attacks and alliances formed out on the road.
The format of a GFNY event is unique, and really strange for me, because everyone must wear the same jersey. While this is kind of cool, it makes reading the race much more difficult. I was racing against cyclists from Brazil, Colombia, Italy, and Germany, and the only things I knew about them were what I could guess based off their riding styles.
The race was very aggressive and two riders snuck away from the lead group around mile-30 to the base of Bear Mountain. The chase got excited and really picked up the pace on the slopes of the climb. At the top of Bear Mountain, the group was whittled down to about twenty. I was dropping off the back by about 15 seconds and had to go full-gas to make contact by the bottom of the descent.
Daniel Hernandez and Jochen Wallenborn, winners of GFNY Colombia and GFNY European Championship, made a break and quickly opened up a gap of almost one minute. Knowing these guys meant business I sprung into action. I knew one of them could win, and if I didn’t get across I wouldn’t have the chance. Seeing me go, Ricardo Pichetta also jumped. Pichetta is more of a climber at just over 110 lbs., so I had to do a lion’s share of the work to bridge the gap.
It was risky bringing Pichetta, GFNY Italy winner, across the gap because he would be well suited to the finishing climb. I started to cramp and it was taking almost 20 minutes to close the gap, but we inched closer. Once we made contact, we took a small break and then hit the final climbs as a group of four. Pichetta attacked several times, sticking it on the final climb! The group strung out, I chased but I lost his wheel and struggled to hold him in sight. I knew that the final 2 kilometers would be straight into a headwind and that I could chase him down with the advantage of my Aeroad equipped with some really fast DT 1100 wheels. I went as hard as I could. I couldn’t believe it when I closed the gap with 500 meters to go. We played cat and mouse, unknowingly allowing the German to close in behind us!
The finish line in sight, I took a dash for it but Pichetta tried to block me from passing. He ran me into the inflatable arch. I was the clear victor after Pichetta was relegated for obstructing my sprint. It was crazy, but I was award the win!
The crowd was awesome and the live coverage was great. I have to thank Canyon for making the wind-cutting Aeroad. The bike really made the difference enabling me to win.
So how about that $10,000 prize? While we carried a 24.7 mph average to Bear Mountain, the punchy tactics that played out slowed the average speed. We finished in about 4:15. The sub-4-hour finish is definitely possible, but remains elusive and will surely tempt riders to return.
