Phil’s Fondo

This past weekend I hopped into Phil Gaimon’s “Cookie Fondo.” For those of you who aren’t up to date on Phil Gaimon, he’s a recently retired professional cyclist that loves cookies. He’s made a bigger name for himself in the cycling world in the past year since retirement than he ever did racing by becoming a Strava KOM-hero.

Hero? That’s taking it a bit far, isn’t it?

Well, he started this little escapade by sniping the many KOM’s in the LA area held by that one doper??(who plead guilty to dealing EPO). After toppling nearly every KOM in the Santa Monica Mountains, not to mention the great LA area, the Robin Hood of cycling has become a celebrity thanks to his Strava antics (check out his Worst Retirement Ever series on Youtube).

Phil takes from the Dirty and gives back to the Clean

Anyway, so??that Phil has started a Fondo, and like I said, I decided to do it on Sunday. There were several different routes (all with cookie themed names like “Sugar Cookie,” “Chocolate Chip,” “Double Fudge,” etc.), but of course I have to do the longest and hardest one — the Double Fudge. The route is 111 miles with about 11,000 feet of climbing. (If you know the area, from Camarillo it goes up Potrero, Decker, Stunt, Encinal and Yerba Buena.) A very hard route, one of the hardest routes I have ever ridden no doubt, but one I knew I could handle. Unfortunately, I found out that all of the professional cyclists, Phil, and many of the better riders do the Chocolate Chip route — which does many of the same climbs but is ~25 miles shorter. Since there was a little “KOM” aspect to the fondo (best cumulative time up four of the climbs), and me being a weekend warrior that wants to smash whenever I have the opportunity, I was bummed not to be “racing” against the best guys. That would actually be one of my only criticisms of the ride — I think Phil should drop the very long route if that’s not the route that he and all the other “celebrities” are riding. I probably would have been content with the 85 mile route if that was the longest that was offered, but knowing there were guys doing a longer route than me would make me feel less accomplished. I have an issue, I know…

The ride started off with warm and very windy conditions thanks to the infamous Santa Ana winds. I thought we would battle the headwinds all the way east on Mulholland, but they were nearly nonexistent in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was a very warm day, however. The first timed climb came up Potrero heading into Newbury Park, less than 10 miles in. I pushed it pretty hard (400 W for over 5 minutes on the Pioneer) and made it to the top of that one first. With over 100 miles still to come, I thought that effort might come back to haunt me. I threw caution to the wind as they say going up Decker around mile 20, putting up a top-15 all-time KOM on one of the segments. My second and final criticism of the ride is that there was an aid station at the bottom of Decker, not at the top. Who wants to grab food and fill up bottles at the bottom?! (U = mgh, amirite?) The ride was pretty chill for the next 40 miles. Mo and Lilly surprised me as we went up Stunt, which truly made my day!

I love everything about this picture! Today I rode @philgaimon’s @philsfondo Double Fudge route. Phil warned that the Double Fudge is stupid hard, and the Chocolate Chip is much more enjoyable. I told him as long as the challenge is out there, guys like me are going to go for it. Anyway, @coachmoped came out to a few spots on the route to take some pictures and cheer me on. This one is from Stunt, one of my all time favorite climbs (and descents, for that matter), and I was surprised to see Lilly sitting next to Mommy. I very proudly told the guys I was riding with, “That’s my kid!” It was such a great moment and I will cherish this picture and memory for the rest of my life. Thanks, Mo!! #philsfondo #doublefudge #stuntrd #granfondo #weekendwarrior #komchallenge #lillybjorn #lifewithlilly #cycling #bikesandbabies

A post shared by Jason Pedersen (@jpbjorn) on

Finally we made it up Encinal. A younger guy had hopped into the group on PCH and pulled away at the bottom of the climb, but I eventually towed the group back to his wheel before the top. I could tell I was on the verge of cramping at that point, so I came up with a plan before the final climb up Yerba Buena. I refueled the best I could at the next stop and chugged a Hot Shot just before hitting the climb. It definitely wasn’t pretty — I was that weirdo flying by everyone moaning — but I was able to pick up over a minute on everyone up Yerba Buena. Looking at the Strava results, it appears I unofficially won the KOM contest, but I’m still awaiting my congratulatory email.

The post race food was delicious and I probably had at least half a dozen cookies on the day (plus a few more in the past week that I took to-go)! If you’re in the SoCal area next Fall, I recommend coming out!

Next up for me is most likely the Nosco Ride. It will be my first time, but I’ve heard nothing but great things!

2 Replies to “Phil’s Fondo”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.