Rocks In My Head

The Black Mountain Cycles rig: "Orange Crush"

Last Saturday's ride at the Renegade Gent's Race, (which I posted about yesterday), was a great ride for me. I had a lot of fun, and I rode pretty well for a big ol' guy like myself.

One problem: Now I want to ride more gravel. Lots more. Addicted? Maybe. Definitely not satisfied.

I do really like the feeling of being out in the countryside. It is a quiet, cleansing time. No other way to get that peaceful feeling and experience the big, wide world really does it like riding a bicycle out in the midst of the world. Maybe hikers feel the same way, I don't know. I'm not a hiker, but I suppose that may be a similar way to get the same high.

One thing I do know, I like the longer rides, and I need to get more of those in. I couldn't help but think about the longer rides I was doing about five years ago. 80 milers, an occasional hundy. I could take more pictures of barns, see more unusual things, and find out what's over the next hill.

But that needs to be worked up to. You just don't throw down a hundy after doing nothing for months in the miles department. Fortunately for me, the miles have been there to some degree. Not what it should be, mind you, but I have been out there riding.

From the Renegade Gent's Race

But the thing is, Trans Iowa is coming up. That means that I have some days that maybe I could be gravel grinding that I won't be. It's cool though, because I honestly am stoked about the possibilities for awesome experiences folks might have out there.

I know some folks think of me in less than favorable terms when it comes to my courses, but I really do want folks to see the whole deal. This year especially, since I designed the entire thing. I think every mile offers something pretty engaging, and I even wish all of it could be seen by daylight, because a lot of it won't be.

It's kind of ironic that I don't ride a lot of my courses, because I really would like to do just that. Maybe I'll take some time to string some parts of T.I. courses together and do that in the future. Well.......in fact, I have done that. Some of the GTDRI courses are either predecessors to T.I. bits or recaps of T.I.bits after the fact.

And of course, I'm not the last word on awesome gravel/back road courses. Not by a long shot. There are several gravel and back road routes I'd love to ride all over. I gotta figure out a way to get paid to do that......