Valley Fondo
Tamsin writes :-
A group of seven (uninspiringly called "The Vancouver Gang" as none of us could think of a good team name at the time of registration) signed up for the Valley Gran Fondo 120km bike ride quite a lot of months ago. We had a late change to one team member when Maya's hip replacement date came through and put her out of action but Hiroshi valiantly stepped (cycled) up to take her place. As always 'coach Iain' put us through our paces in the lead up to the big day, taking us out on ever-longer rides at weekends and still managing to find new and interesting bike routes we hadn't been on before. June suddenly arrived. Louise collected all our race packages (thank you!) and bumped into another twoNVOC members who had signed up for the Medio (85km) event.
Saturday dawned, we loaded up the bikes and drove out to Fort Langley for the weekend, making the most of the quaint little town for a pre-event wander then a huge pot-luck dinner to fuel up. Sunday brought lovely cool temperatures and light cloud cover, with the promise of sunshine, perfect for a long day's ride. The event start at Eagle Acres farm was alive and buzzing with 1500 cyclists by 7.30am and we were off promptly at 8-ish after waiting for the nearby rail lines to clear of freight trains!
The Fondo route winds around lovely countryside south of Fort Langley, down to Avenue Zero along the US border and past some huge, very expensive-looking houses which adds interest to the ride scenery. The rest stops were well-stocked with snacks (bagels, pretzels, bananas and delicious juicy oranges) although we didn't have time to linger as it is quite a fast route and the finish line closed at 3pm. Our group of seven spread out from the start but met up at each rest stop for moral support and encouragement, and we all made it across the finish line by 2.30pm, ready for our medal, beer and burger!
Huge thanks and congratulations to the Vancouver Gang; Alexander, Glenn, Hiroshi, Iain, Louise, Pat, Tamsin for making it such fun weekend and for successfully completing 120km in around 6 ½ hours. And congratulations to Craig and Michele also for completing the Medio 85km in 4 ½ hours.
Photos are Official Langley Fondo except for last two. Courtesy Tamsin
