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Fourth Annual Gran Fondo Set for Sunday, March 3

906 Views | 6 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by AggieBarstool
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Now in its fourth year, the CHI St. Joseph Health Gran Fondo will offer cyclists a choice of 20-, 40-, 70- or 100-mile scenic routes Sunday, March 3, with donations benefiting CHI St. Joseph Health Cancer Services.

These rides will begin with a rolling start 7:30 a.m. at the Stella Hotel, located at 4250 S. Traditions Blvd. in the Atlas Development.

A Gran Gravel trek, a 500-mile self-supported race from the Gran Fondo starting line through two National Forests in east Texas, will begin 5 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 28, with Co-Chair Billy Rice leading the route.

Ride
Donations will provide support for patients needing assistance such as transportation to their treatments and small items ineligible for our capital budget that are needed for the center. Team members can register as individuals, sign up as captain for a team or join a team on our website www.granfondobcs.com and visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StJosephGranFondo.
They can sign up and pay a nominal entry fee to join the ride.

In addition to the ride, there will be a free community concert hosted by Lake Walk on the Saturday evening of March 2nd before the day of the ride! All are welcome to attend the concert in support of the event and our Title Sponsor, Lake Walk/Atlas Development. For your convenience The Stella Hotel has blocked a limited number of rooms with a discounted rate for athletes and spectators. Use promo code "FONDO" when booking your stay.

Volunteer
Volunteer opportunities for the Gran Fondo range from individual jobs to group activities, so grab a coworker, a friend or your family member and become a part of this community activity. Some jobs that are needed include day of event registration and pre-event packet pick up, rest-stop support among others. In addition, we will also need team members to help support the start/finish line area as well as root for our riders as they cycle in the fight against cancer!

"We would love to have as much team member participation as possible," said Donovan French, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. "Seeing riders from our organization sends a strong message to our community that we're supportive of our cancer patients and survivors."

To register or volunteer, please visit our website at www.granfondobcs.com For questions, please contact Chuck Konderla, Ride Director, at ckonderla@st-joseph.org.
AggieOO
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Really should have posted this weeks ago, if not months. Already have a race that day.
chucktheaggiejeweler
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The Gran Gravel riders left this morning. Let's all pray they have a safe, non-eventful little 500 mile ride through the country.

It's not too late to participate in the Gran Fondo on Sunday. Clay Falls with KBTX is riding. Y'all can't let a Longhorn best you!
God's Peace,
Chuck

Fifth C Jewelry
chucktheaggiejeweler
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2019 GRAN FONDO UPDATE:

The 2019 CHI St. Joseph Gran Fondo has been cancelled due to weather

Safety is our number one priority. Due to the incoming weather, the race directors and police agencies across the Brazos Valley cannot guarantee road conditions and overall safety of our cyclists. Though we are disappointed, we appreciated everyone's support in helping the CHI St. Joseph Cancer Clinic and the great work they do to help families during their battle.

You can still pick up your packet and shirt today from 3-7pm at Lake Walk and please join us for the FREE concert tonight from 7-9pm. Food and Dessert trucks will be on hand.

We will be back next year and we hope everyone will join us then!
God's Peace,
Chuck

Fifth C Jewelry
LOYAL AG
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Hopefully this gets moved back to late a March. The weather is just too unpredictable this time of year. Next year if it's early March again I'll wait til the last second to sign up to get a sense on whether it's going to actually happen.
wessimo
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Not sure how much that would help. The MS 150 is in April and it has had to be canceled (in part or whole) several times.

Since ride fees are collected up front there is absolutely no incentive for organizers to take any risk with the weather, which means cancellation if the forecast is at all questionable.
LOYAL AG
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wessimo said:

Not sure how much that would help. The MS 150 is in April and it has had to be canceled (in part or whole) several times.

Since ride fees are collected up front there is absolutely no incentive for organizers to take any risk with the weather, which means cancellation if the forecast is at all questionable.


I'm not really as frustrated with the cancellation because you're right weather happens. But today was going to be my first century and I'm woefully under prepared. The past couple of years February has been an unusually wet month and riding opportunities have been hard to come by. Having this late March gives us a much better month to train in leading up to the event. At last year's ride I overheard a lot of people saying they were going to ride a shorter distance than they signed up for because of the lack of training time during February.

All I really want is to sign up knowing I'll be able to get the miles in ahead of time and you can't really say that in February. To that end I was disappointed in the timing a couple of months ago when I got the first email announcement.

Edit: I just re-read my post you responded to where I said I'll wait to sign up next year so I guess the cancellation is frustrating. Lol. But you make a good point and my response above is in consideration of that point.
AggieBarstool
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LOYAL AG said:

wessimo said:

Not sure how much that would help. The MS 150 is in April and it has had to be canceled (in part or whole) several times.

Since ride fees are collected up front there is absolutely no incentive for organizers to take any risk with the weather, which means cancellation if the forecast is at all questionable.

At last year's ride I overheard a lot of people saying they were going to ride a shorter distance than they signed up for because of the lack of training time during February.
I hear ya' on that.

I was all set to ride in this year's Grand Fondo, but let time get away from me and didn't realize the event was this early in March. Who does that, when it's typically cold/wet this time of year? The training season is very short (sorry, not gonna ride in cold weather -- call me a wuss!). I just got into cycling last summer, so I haven't picked up an indoor trainer yet. The only thing I can think of is the organizers don't want this event to compete with other regional and/or large statewide events later in the season (Katy Flatlands, MS 150, HHH, etc.).
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