Marty Epstein had no idea what he was getting into when he decided to create New Jersey’s first Gran Fondo cycling weekend.
“It’s amazing how fast we spent money on this event. Bills kept rolling in and rolling in,” Marty said Wednesday at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park. “In hindsight, it was a huge leap of faith on my part. Somehow, we pulled it off.”
The owner of Marty’s Reliable Cycle in Morristown pulled it off in spite of a tropical storm that blew back the whole thing by three long weeks.
Eight hundred riders still came to Morristown on Sept. 18. They did rides of 43-, 63- and 103 miles that got rave reviews. And Marty eked out sufficient proceeds to give $5,000 apiece on Wednesday to Homeless Solutions Inc., Grow It Green Morristown and The Seeing Eye Inc.
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“This will keep us in some dog food,” said Seeing Eye President Jim Kutsch, who biked in the Gran Fondo as part of a tandem team.
Carolle Huber of Grow It Green said the Gran Fondo gift would be seed money for a new community garden in Morristown. Homeless Solutions will put its cash toward an affordable housing project on Martin Luther King Avenue.
“Gran Fondo” means “big ride” in Italian. Marty read a magazine article about the popularity of these events in Europe and was inspired to start one in the Garden State. Wednesday’s presentation included the premiere of a lively Gran Fondo NJ video produced by Bill Ivie of Clinton.
The video should help Marty and his event partner, Bill Ruddick of Backyard Bike Tours, to woo more corporate sponsors for next year’s Gran Fondo, scheduled for Sept. 9, 2012, in Morristown.
Marty is hoping for better behavior by Mother Nature. The three-week postponement after Tropical Storm Irene “was like a black hole,” he said.
Ultimately, he believes he prevailed in promoting New Jersey as a cyclist’s paradise, which is good for the community and for his business.
“When you work really hard on something and have a commitment to something and want to see it succeed, it will happen,” Marty said. “I don’t believe totally in luck. You create your own luck.”
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Great job Marty! Thank you for all your hard work. I also want to thank you for using local companies for the Fondo. Tom Lade, All County Rentals.