After a very lengthy and multi-point assessment of costs, complexity and feedback from a lot of riders in the club and past riders of the Cache Gran Fondo, we have decided to simplify this year, and drop the UCA race portion from the event. Our UCA race numbers have been low the past two years, which means we actually loose money on the event due to the extra costs of USAC officials, timing chips, pilot and wheel cars, extra police and marshals and cash prizes for all the categories.
Instead we will put all our efforts into creating an even-better rider experience than in the past. We plan to have more prizes that all riders will be eligible to win, both in cash, gift cards, and actual items. Once again, our Grand Prize this year will be a FreeMotion Tour Da France spin bike, and we will have many great items from our sponsors like Al's Sporting Goods, ARS, Camchef, FreeMotion, Logan Regional Hospital, Joyride Bikes, The LogoShop, WheelzRack, and many others. This also gives us the ability to beef up our rider gifts and support stations as well.
If you are a racer, please consider joining us anyway. The support for the Gran Fondo from our race teams/clubs and community has always been so strong in the non-competitive ride, and so we hope you will still come out and compete. To keep riders safe and in the right groups, we will be sending out competitive groups in both the 100 and 50 mile courses before the recreational riders, so you will still have the ability to ride hard and fast. We are working with UDOT to potentially reverse the route, mainly for safety reasons coming back into the valley on Valley View highway. While we do not have final approval on the reversal, it will be AT LEAST the same as last year, and if approved, a new way of riding the route. Likewise, our finish line will still feel like a major race, and prizes can be claimed as soon as you cross the finish line. (They will be assigned randomly, except for a few special prizes that we will explain in the weeks leading up to the event - hint, make sure you have an active STRAVA account).
Register at: www.cachegranfondo.com/signupnow
We are also looking for volunteers and so if any of you or your family members would like to volunteer, we could really use some help. Please contact me by e-mail if you can help volunteer, or click here to send us a note via the website.
Troy Oldham (oldhamtroy@gmail.com)