A rider's view of Levi's GranFondo

Crazy fun. It's the only way to describe riding in a peloton of 6,000 riders.

And crazy scary as well, with little room for mistakes, even after the pack thinned, leaving you do deal with being overtaken by faster riders and by traffic.

In a nutshell, that was the Levi Leipheimer King Ridge GranFondo, which came in 35-mile, 65-mile and 103-mile flavors through some of steepest, most rugged and scenic parts of western Sonoma County.

From the time the flag dropped at 8 a.m., it took me 20 minutes to cross the start line on Stony Point Road, still at a crawl, and it wasn't until West Third Street that riders could get any kind of speed at all.

The sea of riders was a sight, bobbing figures in multi-colored jerseys for blocks ahead, riding single-file and in clumps of two, three, four or five, lines that stretched out on the flats and down-hills and backing up on the climbs.

There were few times when there was no one in sight at all, but it was rare.

It was intimidating at first, riding in that crowd, but riders soon fall into a group moving at their pace and settle into a routine of follow-the-leader.

The morning was cold, but it broke quickly and arm warmers, leg warmers and jackets were shed.

Sonoma County was in its chamber-of-commerce splendor too, clear skies, little wind on the coast and a Pacific Ocean that looked like corduroy, with lines of small swells just offshore.

With two-thirds of the riders from outside of California, the rest stop at Coleman Beach was among the most popular and was a prime vista point.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, strawberries, roasted potatoes, Clif bars, energy gel shots and vats of water to refill bottles were lined up under tents.

One volunteer convinced me to try the caffeine-laced mocha gel, promising it would get me over Coleman Valley Road, a climb of 800 vertical feet in the first mile from Highway 1.

It is one of the steepest and most challenging parts of the medio and gran fondos and comes at 35 miles into the ride, a time when many riders are already spent.

More than half of medio riders were pushing their bikes up the hill. It gave them time to admire the view, but they became obstacles to dodge, and there was the occasional clatter of a falling rider.

I made it over the hill, and I'll credit the mocha, plus the thousand miles I put in training.

After the summit, the elite riders in the 103-mile ride were catching up and began passing us. Odessa Gunn. who is married to Levi Leipheimer and wearing the number 1, shot by me in Coleman Valley.

And there was a very quick rider in a turquoise Tour of California outfit who came up behind us calling, "On your left, mate, on your left mate."

Watching those riders fearlessly descend into Occidental was one of the more thrilling parts of the ride.

The final 15 miles, from Occidental to Santa Rosa, seemed the longest. The route was well-marked, CHP officers were at the intersections and waved us through. Only twice did I have to stop for traffic.

But I overshot Stony Point Road on the Joe Rodota Trail by two miles, ending up in downtown Santa Rosa after missing a U-turn that would have put me at the finish line.

Still, I'm thinking I finished in a little over six hours, totally gassed and legs heavy. All of our bikes were fitted with computer chips . . . I hope I didn't get a finicky one.