Mammoth Gran Fondo 2022
Similar to years past, I decided to ride both the Tour de Big Bear and Mammoth Gran Fondo this year. Both are at similar elevation, have similar distance, and similar elevation gain. The difference with Mammoth is the style of terrain is much more rolling. This makes staying with a group very important as drafting provides a big advantage.
We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and the weather was mixed. The temperatures were pleasant (as we had escaped a 100+ deg heatwave in LA) but the air was smoky. Smoke was coming from a near-ish forest fire. Luckily, the fire wasn’t actually in the Mammoth area and later on, wind helped to clear up the air.
We stayed in Mammoth village which was a very nice place to be as we were close to many restaurants. We also got to make use of the hot tub/pool in the village.
The big bike ride was on Saturday with a 7 am start time. Because of our choice of lodging, I had about a 2 min walk to the start of the race! We went off with a neutral start that took us downhill a ways, making sure we were all nice and cold to start the ride. Once the car pulled off, the huge group (probably around 1000 people) began to split up. There were some rolling hills and I wasn’t able to stay with the very front group for too long. I put in a few efforts and eventually was gobbled up by the second group on the road.
This was the group I stayed with for quite some time. We rolled together into the second rest stop to refuel for a few minutes. Being in this large group (probably around 30) made for easier work with the hills and wind out on the course. I stuck with everyone until 100-ish km into the ride where I decided to hit another rest stop while the group charged on. Before coming into this rest stop, the group was drifting and riding purposefully on the wrong side of the road. I didn’t understand this and decided to just stay to the right and get out of the group.
Following the stop, I mostly spend the last 65 km by myself. I occasionally ran into a person here or there but nobody could stay with me. Nearing the end, I found a guy and we traded turns for a good 10-15 km. This was very helpful as there was a decent head/cross wind going toward the last turn. Once I was on the road back into Mammoth I went on my own. A woman on an E-bike was strangely half-wheeling my back wheel for a while, passed me, then drafted me again. Near the end, I passed her definitively and went for the finish.
There was 1 stoplight that held up a group of riders. I mistakenly thought this was the last right turn that I needed before the finish and wondered why everyone had stopped. Turns out, I needed to go straight and take the following right turn. So I made a quick U-turn and ended up beating the red light anyway. I was able to finish just barely under 5 hours ride time (4:59).
