GranFondo Banff ride report

Team IBM ready to roll!

 For the second year in a row, I organized Team IBM at the RBC Gran Fondo Banff, held Aug 23, 2014. This time around we had 23 riders wearing the IBM team colours!

IBMers love hosting clients at GranFondo Banff

The weather forecast was glum: we started the day @ 2C and were lucky to see 12C at the Finish Line. At least it didn't out-right rain on us! It was a struggle to stay warm all day, I ended up with a silk layer underneath my jersey and a wind jacket over top, wool socks, Gore-Tex knee warmers and Gore-Tex booties. Plus Ryan came up with a good solution for keeping my hands toasty: black Gorilla gloves (like the ones mechanics wear) over my cycling gloves kept the warmth in and the wet out. Good suggestion!

Warm up Jeanne!

One of my goals for the team this year was to coordinate some early season training rides. Starting in June, I hosted four group rides, some of them were short, some were on the Gran Fondo course, and some were long and into a strong headwind! The guys kept showing up, and we always had fun keeping up to Graham M. and Ryan S. and Steve S. (who were kind enough to pull us along in a peloton!). The best part of group training rides? BBQs in the backyard with burgers and BEvERages.

The team this year included some top-notch riders with some aggressive race-day goals. They didn't disappoint: Graham M. hauled his bike around the 150km course in 4:15:45. And others were content to hit personal distance markers, like Jeanne R. and Genie C. Congratulations to all of the Team IBM riders, you represented yourselves very well! I'm so proud of my team!

Graham ready to roll!

How did my day go? First of all, I didn't specifically "train" for this event - I was focused on XTerra Canmore, held 7 days earlier - here's a link to my race report - and I was more focused on making sure our clients had a top-shelf day. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about what motivated my team members to ride, their plans for training, their plans for future riding (Dave H. is pumped to continue his season!), and answering questions as best I could about the event and cycling. I was also excited to be riding with The Husband again this year - his cycling has jumped up a couple notches this year, and I know he's pleased with his result.

Ryan and Cindy at the Start Line 

The morning was cold and damp. I worried about fast descents on wet pavement, I worried about generating body heat, I worried about having enough strength in my legs. The route changed a bit this year, the organizers added 6km with a return trip around Tunnel Mountain. I found a great pack to ride up the 1A with, but rode most of the way home on my own into a headwind.

But there were lots of fun moments too! Here's a list of some of the fun things we accomplished:

Kevin and Cindy pre-ride

- great comaraderie among team-members
- good vibe at the Start Line
- watching people achieve new things and new goals
- talking smack with team members about their ride, their bike, their kit, their legs
- geek talk about the latest gadgets and bike paraphenelia
- fueling my body with whole foods (no pre-packaged goo or "energy" nutrition)
- finishing strong on a long ride on a cold day, total time for my ride was 5:34:30

Joey: are you excited to ride??

- wildlife on the course was amazing: one elk with a HUGE rack of antlers and his female companion (think King of the Forest), a cow moose and her calf, a coyote, kamikaze squirrels, and a bear. Yep, a bear! Up close and personal, at 147km into my ride, a bear wanted to cross the road 8' off my left shoulder. Why? To watch the cyclists, of course. Talk about a great way to improve your cadence in a hurry! As I understand it, they delayed the race for approx 20 min to allow this bruin a chance to meander off into the swamp. Close call!
- enjoying Finish Line hospitality in the Alta Classe tent with friends and colleagues - while wearing fuzzy blankets to keep from shivering!

Post-race blankets fend off the chill

Long-time riding buddies 

Girls rule the road