anyone fondo ?

anybody cough up the bucks to participate or otherwise happen to ride from vancouver on the same day that a few thousand others paid to do so ?

i'm in santa rosa where levis' ride happens on oct 2 , but there is actually an anti cheater vibe down here which i've heard discourages participation among some cycling enthusiasts .

but i hear he still gets in excess of ten thousand riders out .

Havent seen Zed bitch about not being able to drive down to the pub due to the fondotraffic, so im not even sure its happened yet!

It happened today you sad tree murdering clown! :cry:

It happened today - good turnout and sponsors along the highway in Squish. Now those pedal people have to stop at some lights - progress.

i sent in a suggestion after the first year .

make a squamish a " neutral " zone .

say between the lights at the salish gas station and depot road timing is suspended , an easy thing to do with the timing technology nowadays .

this would benefit squamish in a couple of ways . all the riders would have to follow traffic regulations as there would be no reason to run lights , etc .

second , it would encourage riders to take alternate routes through squamish and perhaps riders would find other establishments to spend money on food and refreshments .

i think it would benefit the event as well . fast guys are going to go right through anyway , but it migh encourage other riders to approach it differently . say a couple would ride the first section together and then split up for the more challenging second half , or vice versa . . . faster folks could zoom ahead ( and get a table at a restaurant ? ) while slower members of their group could catch up and join them for a break , before riding the second section together ( or not ) .

regardless , i think the organizers need to come up with some creative approaches to attract riders and make their event stand out from all the others . did i hear ridership was down to 4000 this year ? a bad trend and a far cry from the 12,000 they predicted they would be at by now .

there are only so many people willing to pay 275 $ to do something they can do for free any other day of the riding season . i scanned through the first hour of finishers and saw fewer and fewer familiar names that i know who have participated in previous events .

You can race it as a Giro now and walk away with a cool 15g's for 1st place!

The first year of the Fondo was a cluster f@ck, to say the least. They blocked the entire highway until almost all of the riders had come through, including the guy that did it on a Walmart bike and steel toe boots 6 hours later, and no one in Squamish could get from the west side of town over to the east. I saw a Fire Captain, in his fire pickup, arguing with one of the workers to let him cross to get back to the fire hall.

Thing is, that every emergency and medical service in Squamish is on the east side. All of them - every doctor, fire hall, hospital, police - you name it. So the suggestion was they let the face riders through - the first 200 that might have a chance to win, the rest can wait via traffic police (not regular stop lights). Since then, it has gone much smoother in town.

punky , i think that is part of the problem . . . the more it is promoted as an elite race with a big purse for only the fastest to realistically compete for , rather than a citizens' ride , it is going to have less and less appeal as a mass participation event .

how many people are going to keep throwing down a large entry fee year after year to support a " race " they have no chance of winning ?

the organizers need to drop the entry cost significantly and grow the numbers . let the sponsors bear the larger portion of staging the event . with dwindling numbers , sponsors are not going to be as inclined to be involved and the event will die .

i want to see this thing succeed and grow into the kind of traditional annual event the original organizer had envisioned .

i remember that first event zed . . . and i think it was the next year that had the tacks on road incident which was an authentic , if not somewhat tacky ( sorry , couldn't resist ) expression of local frustration with the inconvenience of holding an event that doesn't really benefit the community to a large degree .

even with my proposal , i'd put a time limit on my plan . . . say , you've got to be through the re-start timer at depot road by a certain time .

i remember that first event zed . . . and i think it was the next year that had the tacks on road incident which was an authentic , if not somewhat tacky ( sorry , couldn't resist ) expression of local frustration with the inconvenience of holding an event that doesn't really benefit the community to a large degree .

even with my proposal , i'd put a time limit on my plan . . . say , you've got to be through the re-start timer at depot road by a certain time .

I thought there was an option to just do Van-Squish and then Squish to Whis? Lots of people stayed here in Squamish, but the stores were dead yesterday, was quiet in town.

I agree with lower cost, more participation. They should have different 'fun' categories with teams etc.

yeah , the " medio " . . .

i hope some bigger minds are working on getting bigger participation numbers because i really do want to see the event succeed and flourish .

really the biggest thing will be to lower the cost to like 150 , ideally under 100 . that would really boost the numbers . until that happens , it won't be " mass " . . . but " elite " ( read : rich ) .

I've done it a couple of times. It's a very well run event. Appreciate that we have such a wide lane to ride in. For people that say you can do it for free anytime sorry but there are parts of the route that I would never do without the extra space you get when you do the fondo.

Having said that once I achieved the target time I was aiming for I didn't see the need to do it anymore. Their challenge is either to do things to entice local back such as bring down the price or do things to encourage people from outside BC to attend.

well , i have to stand corrected . . . i just came from the website and it appears pricing is down slightly .

there is a graduated scale beginning at 195$ going to 245$ on the day of event . but a 7% service fee ? wtf ?

sprinter glad you hit your target time , but really there is only one spot where things are a little tight . at porteau where the road is squeezed between the rock face and the railway tracks for about 250 m . other than that it's all good , especially if you remember how the road used to be .

i think one of the legacies of that event is seeing so many more riders on the highway using it as part of their regular routes .

and it would be nice if the highway maintenance crew was a little more diligent about keeping the area right of the white line cleaner .

punky , i think that is part of the problem . . . the more it is promoted as an elite race with a big purse for only the fastest to realistically compete for , rather than a citizens' ride , it is going to have less and less appeal as a mass participation event .

how many people are going to keep throwing down a large entry fee year after year to support a " race " they have no chance of winning ?

the organizers need to drop the entry cost significantly and grow the numbers . let the sponsors bear the larger portion of staging the event . with dwindling numbers , sponsors are not going to be as inclined to be involved and the event will die .

i want to see this thing succeed and grow into the kind of traditional annual event the original organizer had envisioned .

I was impressed/surprised to see the "pro" category with claimed $50,000 in cash prices up for grabs. Is it entry fees paying for the kitty or is it Sponsorship? Either way likely doesn't matter. Good on the Whistler Grand Fondo for having equal purses for both the Male and Female categories though.

The half Fondo starts in Squamish, unsure if there is a Van-Squam route (don't believe there is)

FYI there is an event on the SSC called "The Gibsons Grind" in midish June. Allows townies to come over on the boat in the AM and catch a boat home in the afternoon/evening. Entry is $20 and there is zero traffic control measures in place.