To make it worth traveling to California to ride the Levi Leipheimer Gran Fondo I added in some days before and after for some other rides.  I was going to meet up with Chris Harris and Lenny Allen in Santa Rosa just before the Levi’s GF, and Chris would ride the GF with me and then we would ride with Lenny around Sonoma County and then in the Sierras.  I also added in a few nights at Lake Tahoe so that I could ride the famous Flume Trail which had eluded me a few years earlier and Donner Pass.

So I flew to Sacramento on September 29th and drove to Santa Rosa and assembled the bike.  The next day I met up with my cousin Gabe Westheimer who drove up from his home in San Francisco so we could ride together.  I planned a ride from Cazadero up the Fort Ross Road to the ridge top, and then back to Cazadero on the reverse of the Gran Fondo route.

It was a super challenging 40 mile ride with 5400 feet of climbing. Gabe was a riding wonderful companion and a super good sport about my glacial pace.  It was a great first ride on my California trip, sunny warm weather, gorgeous scenery and good company.  It was tough and at one point I was thinking how smart I was to bring along a medical professional – Gabe is a Nurse Practitioner.  I also thought it would be good to scout some of the GF route.

Gabe on King Ridge

There is no support, no stores and few places to get help on this route.  Bring everything you might need – food, water, tubes and tools if you ride this route.  The pavement is OK, not great and the roads are steep.  Cell phone service is spotty. Maybe because they don’t get snow and ice they build their roads to steep in Sonoma County.