Friday News And Views:

My steed for the Gent's Race

Renegade Gents Race version 4: This has been a highlight of my riding season for three years running. This will be the fourth. Interesting fact: I believe the team I am on is the only one with the same members for all four years. Now I never would have thought that!

It's also interesting to note that this five person team time trial style event attracted only 15 teams in its first year. That blossomed to 30 teams the next year, and last year there were 37 teams. This year I here there are 45 teams. That's some steady growth! It will make for a crazy time with 225 cyclists plying the gravel roads North of Ankeny.

The Raleigh Tamland is getting the call this year, of course, and I just got a set of American Classic Hurricane wheels to test out on it. Now before ya'all ask, I'll answer- "No, I am not running these tubeless!" "Yes- I tried them that way." They weren't a good fit on these wheels, and I felt that if I ran the pressures above 40psi, I would blow these off. The Clement MSO 35mm tires were just a bit too easy to install, meaning they were bigger in diameter in the bead than I felt comfortable with. When you've set up enough tubeless tires, you begin to understand what kind of fitment works best for tubeless, and the Clements were far from ideal. Too bad, but it is what it is. That said, I cut off more than a pound of rotating weight going with these wheels and tires!

More Gent's Race stuff Monday.......

Of course, after the Gent's Race, I'll be bearing down on my tenth Trans Iowa production. Business will be picking up with course recon, cue sheet production, and more.

I suspect I'll have more announcements concerning the event as well. I know for a fact that something pretty exciting concerning Trans Iowa Radio and how folks can access that is coming soon. There will be an announcement about extra-T.I.v10 activities having to do with the barn finish line as well.

Of course, now folks will be watching the weather forecasts with only three weeks to go. Right now the weather folk are predicting several warm days ahead of T.I.v10 with a definite cool down Saturday night and a cloudy, maybe even rainy end to things by Sunday afternoon. Of course, that will change three times a week till the event! Where the roulette wheel that is the weather ends up is anyone's guess. But still, it's fun to guess. Well........it is fun for me. I suppose for others it may be a terrifying prospect! Fretting about Trans Iowa weather is almost an art form for some folks, I am sure of that from what I've heard.

Tents will be erected at Sea Otter soon!

Sea Otter:

This coming weekend is Sea Otter, the long running mtb festival near Monterey, California. I was fortunate enough to have gone to three of those, (I think it was three times!), back in the "oughts". I packed in going to the Otter since '09's trip because it is just too close to Trans Iowa and it is just too much in one month. I like my chaos spread thin!

As far as the industry part of it goes, most everything that will be shown there will come out beforehand in the media. I know of one major deal that won't, and will probably be leaked all over just as the show begins, but other than that......

So actually going to Sea Otter becomes more about connecting with people. That's always fun, and it helps with the media stuff as far as that goes, but now my friend, Grannygear, goes to Sea Otter since he lives in California. That gets Twenty Nine Inches satisfied, and leaves me here to stuff race bags, print cue sheets, and run around in a pick-up truck with two other guys for a whole day on gravel and dirt roads. Now that I have done both things, which do I like better? That's a toss up, really. If I could go to Sea Otter without doing the massive air travel deal, I would go. I like being here, but Trans Iowa eats up a lot of April for me. I would rather be riding a lot of gravel with two friends, ya know?

So it goes......

Have a great weekend folks!