What a weekend! We totally blew the poor Bistro up at early registration Saturday night. That was awesome! Sunday got rolling bright an early with our two unicyclist taking off at 6:45 am (crazy!). As we did our riders meeting and neared 9:00 reality set in of just how many cyclist 200 is.

The EPD escorted us out of town. This may have been my favorite part of the day, it was so cool seeing this mass of 200 cyclist riding through my home town!

I drove to the top of Norton to grab jackets as everyone warmed up, and watch Travis Monroe crush my KOM.

From there we went to the Baird Springs tunnel to watch for awhile. KBP flatted right in front of us, and I felt bad. Not because he flatted, it’s gfe baby, there’s lots of flats, but because I had just spoke with him a few days earlier and steered him toward a road tire.

All of the flat tires made me hungry so we stopped by the aid station next where we were able to lend a hand filling water bottles (and eating cookies) for awhile.

Next we went to 3 devils. This is always one of my favorite places to watch from. It’s just such a beast of a climb that cuts right through jagged basalt wall.

Then it was back to the finish line. We got back just in time to watch Brian Ecker out sprint Bill Booth and cross the line at a record time of 3:57:12.1! It was a ton of fun hanging out at the finish line visiting, then at the ERC meal. For me about the only bigger thrill than riding is showing off my favorite rides and seeing others enjoy them. Such a fun day! Can’t wait for Goldendale!
Thanks for the great day, can’t wait for the next ones!
Outstanding Ride – Pumped for Winthrop!
Thanks to Jake, Karen, and all their volunteers. It was a fun day.
And thanks for getting my video camera back to me.
Pics and the video edit can be found here:
http://shiggy.smugmug.com/Other-1/Adventure-rides/Ephrata-Gran-Fondo-16Mar14/i-pKVPLvw