Ron's story: Hincapie Gran Fondo Merced

BaseCamp athlete Ron Hill shared his experience at the 2025 Hincapie Gran Fondo Merced event in California.

Hincapie Gran Fondo in Merced was an amazing route! If we had good (reasonable weather) it would have been amazing. I had my plan and process aligned for what I expected and other than the epic mud it worked beautifully. Basically it was a day of sloshing through creeks, runoffs and mud bogs most of which were traverse-able. We had a great group of Explore members show up, maybe 12 of us were there. The mental fortitude I learned in BaseCamp kept me on plan throughout the day at leas until the mud wouldn't allow you to move the bike. Lost my chain and took a crazy amount of time to clean it an reassemble to ride. Once done my bike still wouldn't allow shifting so I finished as a fixie! I still managed to push FTP the last 4-5 miles to finish.

Thanks for great onsite coaching from Lorri Lee Lown, and BaseCamp members in attendance for the motivation do my best!

Special congrats to Kevin Davies on a great completion time!