Trans Iowa V8: Sewing Up The Loose Ends

Iowa B Maintenance Road: Image W. Kilburg

Well, the lead up to Trans Iowa is on in earnest now. I'm seeing a lot of familiar things during these final days.

Riders posting about their jitters on their blogs, both Rookies and Veterans. Weather changes, course conditions in flux, and the same ol', same ol' routines that have become an April tradition for me over the past eight years now.

Things like worrying about cue sheet accuracy, (it's looking really good), getting the cues sheets made, (they are done), and stuffing racer's bags, (also done already). Still, there are details to think about and to make sure that they are taken care of. My mind thinks of ten different ways to do things while I am doing another thing, and then I do it a different way altogether anyhow.

Every year, while stuffing racer's bags, I always think about doing that for the first Trans Iowa with Jeff Kerkove. We were at the shop, and stuffing bags by walking around the break room table, assembly line style, until we were dizzy. Funny how some things seem so vivid after all these years.

Well, as you can see here by the posts below this one, "Trans Iowa Radio" seems to be working. I "think" I've discovered why the few posts that didn't go up caused me to believe it wasn't going to work. My assumption based resolution for this is working. Okay- I'm going with that for now!

The Nervous Jitters: Image by W. Kilburg

Of course, the one and only detail I can not "sew up" is the weather. What will happen? Right now, it is an hourly changing thing, depending upon what you read.

I do know that we're in an even numbered year, and it is true that every year T.I. has taken place in an even numbered year, the weather has played a major factor in how the event played out.

T.I.V2- rained like crazy before and during the event, causing no one to even get to the halfway mark. T.I.V4, the wind and cold came for a visit. It was so cold it was snowing at the start, winds were like 40mph with higher gusts at times, and the roads, suffering from a very bad winter and recent rain deluge, caused the event to be truncated. T.I.V6 was a crazy, windy, thunderstorm infested run that ended in sideways rain at the approximate halfway marker in the event.

The roads are good this year, so if weather kills us again, it'll have to be from some nutty, torrential T.I.V6 like event. Guess what? The forecast calls for "light rain" possibilities all weekend.

Great!

But that can all change in a few days, and at that time we'll have a pretty good idea of what we'll be up against. Whatever it may be, riders will be testing themselves against Trans Iowa V8 soon.

Now where is that rain coat again?