Review: Garrett County MD Gran Fondo

Today I finished the hardest ride I’ve ever done; the Masochistic Metric at the Garrett County Gran Fondo. It was 62 miles through the hills of Garrett County MD with a total of 7,700 ft of climbing over the ride.  It was a beautiful ride and I had a blast doing it, especially since my brother drove from New York to ride with me, but there were some bumps on the road. Read on for my experience on the ride and opinion on the overall event.

The Start and Segment 1

There were 4 distances in this years Gran Fondo; 25, 62 (the Masochistic Metric), 100 (the Savage Century), and 124 miles (the Diabolical Double).  All of them started from the top of Wisp Mountain at Adventure Sports Center International (ASCI – this is a heck of a facility for outdoor fun including a manmade whitewater course… unfortunately I was too nuked to try any of it out today but I’d like to come back to give it a shot.)  The double went out at 7a, the century at 7:30am, and the metric century at 8a.

We arrived at 6:45 and were directed to a parking lot near the start line by several parking staff.  It was 56, foggy, windy, and there was a lot of variation in what riders were dressed in.  Some were toughing it out in just a jersey and shorts… others were dressed for the arctic.  I put on a vest and arm warmers and hoped for the best.  The double’s went out first with a lot of every expensive bikes in the group including a large number of people on time trial rigs.  Kind of surprising given the amount of climbing, but I imagine a lot of those folks are doing the Savage Man Tri later this year. For the record, I had a compact crank (50/34) and an 12/28 in the back on a Cannondale Synapse.

Our start was uneventful.  The first segment starts with a 6 mile decent followed by a couple of reasonable climbs and finishing with some rollers on the way in to the first checkpoint at 18 miles.  Surprisingly some people got off their bikes and started walking on the first real ascent.  Given the difficulty of the rest of the ride, I’m sure a few of those riders bailed out of the ride early.  We hit some rain around this point and a few of the descents got a little sketchy because of slick roads and crowds.

Something to note: the first segment has a lot of downhills with some serious twists and turns.  Because of the speed and technical descents, I totally forgot to drink or eat anything for about the first hour and found myself behind on nutrition early.  I tried to make up for it at the first checkpoint but I really had to focus on eating through the second segment to make up for it.

At checkpoint one I ate some of the gels I had with me.  I refilled my water bottles, which made me one of the lucky ones because they ran out of water right after I got filled up.  Not sure how that happens, but the riders behind me had to wait at least 10 minutes for more water to “show up.”

Segment 2

This is the most difficult segment.  22 miles and 6 climbs.  Leaving checkpoint 1, you start immediately on the first climb. From there it’s a series of really fun descents followed by grueling climbs.  The ride organizers definitely found some challenging hills on back roads.  I saw very few cars the whole ride, which is good because by the 4th climb in segment 2 I was serpentining quite a bit.

By the end of segment 2 I passed a number of riders who were clearly blowing up.  Even with compact cranks, these riders were pushing incredibly low cadence up the hills and visibly struggling.  The last 2 climbs in segment 2 really started to separate the riders and I think probably caused a number of riders to bail out at checkpoint 2.

Checkpoint 2 was at the top of the hill on US 219.  I think the elevation there is about 3,300 ft.  It was cold and windy, but very well stocked with water, sports drinks, various snacks and freshly made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (!).  The mood at CP 2 was good, I think because many riders felt the worst was behind them.

Segment 3

Wrong! Coming out of CP 2, we decended down US 219 and made a VERY sharp left at an intersection with “police assistance.”  In this case, it meant a cop was sitting on the side of the road with his lights on in his cruiser.  We were left to our own devices to make it across the road and back in to the woods.  The next 2 miles was an awesome downhill… fast, curvy, in and out of clearings…  It was certainly one of the highlights of the ride.

Then we hit the wall.  Bowman Hill to be precise.  800 ft of climbing in 1.1 miles.  An average grade of 14%.  Sections were certainly steeper.  I made it about 1/2 way up and my legs started to cramp pretty badly.  I bailed off the bike and walked the last .5 miles.  I was in good company as quite a number of other riders were walking as well.  A few people near me made it to the top staying on their bike.  Those people are rockstars and I have a lot of respect for them.

The next 15 miles were pretty straight forward; rolling hills with a few reasonable climbs but nothing too outrageous.  The wind was hammering by this point and it was drizzling again so this segment was challenging even tho it was a net loss in vertical for most of it.  At the end, riders have to climb back to the top of Wisp Mountain up a very serious hill (certainly steep enough to ski down).  That climb is just downright mean.  I had been fighting cramps for the entire 3rd segment, and about 1/3 of the way up the final climb, my legs cramped so hard and so fast I damn near fell off the bike.  I walked my bike in shame to the top.  But even on the flats when I tried to get back on the saddle my legs cramped up bad enough for me to have to jump off the bike.  I was clearly at the end of my day, which is good because I was also at the finish.  For what it’s worth, I did jump back on long enough to ride across the finish line.

Parting Shots

Overall, the Masochistic Metric was a fantastic ride.  I spent the last 6 weeks training for it doing all the hills I could find in central Maryland.  That said, central MD hills can’t hold a candle to what I rode here in Garrett County.  The route was beautiful and challenging and I’m glad I made the trip out here.

That said, I do have a few comments on the overall experience.  I assist with running ShmooCon each year, so I know what it’s like to put on a large, complex, volunteer run event.  It’s difficult and time consuming and I’m sure it’s similar to what the Garrett County Gran Fondo organizers deal with to run this event.  I have a lot of respect for what they put together and how well it all worked out.  However, I’ve got a few comments that I hope will be viewed as constructive criticism.

• The “Gran Fondo” idea is getting a lot of traction here in the US.  However, I’m not entirely sure what happened here this weekend is quite up to the intent of what a Gran Fondo should be.  While the event was very professional, it didn’t really feel like it had made the jump from a charity ride to more of a prestigious “grand” event.  There was a BBQ after the ride and I got a nice set of gloves when I registered, but I think the intent of a Gran Fondo is to have something a little more “grand” than what happened here.
• As a rider, I would have liked more information from the organizers regarding the ride itself.  The website stated there would be King of the Mountain climbs. However there was no explanation anywhere on how those climbs would be timed, and in fact there were no KOM’s to my knowledge.  I saw marks on the road for them, but there was no timing chips or other way of keeping track.  Also, the information included in the registration packet didn’t actually contain information that might be useful the day of the ride such as how bad parking was going to be, how early riders should plan on showing up, or even when the start times were.  While some of this info is online (certainly not all of it, or it’s not easily found anyway), it’s nice to have it in front of you when you register.  Also, there were no instructions on where the numbers we got were supposed to be affixed.  I saw a lot of different options on where the little number sticker we got should go, including some guy’s butt.

These aren’t critical failings, more just observations from one rider (esp one rider who didn’t have a chance in hell at winning a KOM).  Overall this was a fantastic experience.  The Deep Creek Area is fantastic; there’s lots to see and do both on and off the water as well as a number of great lodging options.  I’ll definitely be back next year and I hope anyone reading this will seriously consider coming to Garrett County to experience one of the most difficult, but beautiful, 62 miles of riding you can find.