That said, the sun was out, the winds had died down somewhat, and it looked as though it might allow for the roads to firm up later on in the day. We stuck around for a bit after the leaders took off and then we set out to chase them down and continue our check on the roads and directions.
We passed the leaders and then we were on to the western reaches of the course. The hills were many, the roads were really soft and bad here, and the views........incredible. There is something about a rain washed sky, wet landscape, and springtime that is really beautiful. But, I doubt the racers were looking longingly at the bucolic countryside of Iowa. Something told me that there was a lot of grinding of teeth about now.
Well, we weren't doing a rally car race, although it felt like it at times. We were checking out roads and trying to gather information. We were getting DNF calls and texts. I knew we would, but when Checkpoint#1 volunteers told us 30 riders failed to make the cut off, I was a bit stunned. The gravity of how tough this event was this time settled in, and d.p. and I knew that another blow from "Mother Nature" would knock Trans Iowa down for the count this time. The event was teetering on the edge of collapse, and only a respite from clouds and rain were going to salvage something from what we had to deal with. Of course, we had dealt with bad situations before, so we soldiered on content in knowing we had experiences to draw from that would perhaps be valuable once again. It didn't help the bad feeling in the pit of my gut that had been there for hours though!
We raced ahead all the way to Checkpoint#2 and confirmed that almost all the sections we had chosen were doable. We only needed to re-route around one really bad B Road just outside of Pella Iowa that was an all clay mire which would be a bit treacherous to walk due to the grade of the road. We marked it off on the way out to Checkpoint #2, but we had thought we should get back to man the corner where the re-route started to make sure the riders saw the flagging.
As we approached the corner, we saw the chase group just behind Meiser and Gorilla taking the "wrong turn", only they didn't know it. We chased them down and set them straight. Whew! Now what about Meiser and Gorilla? Well, we saw the tell tale footprints in the mud, indicating that we were too late. We found out later that by the time we saw those footprints they were already gone down the road.
Afterwards, d.p, and I went to Pella to find any riders we thought would make the cut off at Checkpoint #2 and warn them of the re-route. When we saw that time was running out on the riders coming into town yet, we high tailed it back to Checkpoint#2 to watch what might happen with the event. By this time the clouds were building back in, and I think we both knew it was a matter of time before the skies unleashed their fury on the hills and dales of Iowa's countryside again. By 2:00pm we were getting into some drizzly showers. Hope against hope, we waited to see what we would be dealing with, and how far the riders would get before the inevitable happened.
Next: The Unravelling
1 comment:
This is an extremely accurate account of what it was like. The pictures capture the essence of the struggle as well. I have to admit when you two stopped us to tell of the re-route I kept waiting for, or was it hoping for??, "Hey Eki, why don't you hop in, we'll give you a lift."
Just kidding (I think)
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