Trans Iowa V11: A Look At The Rules Part 7

Not for hire. Mooo!

Last year I did a historical overview of each Trans Iowa up to T.I.V9. This year I am going to revisit something that I feel many folks have overlooked for a long time; The "Race Rules".

  Last week I covered Rule #5 This week I cover the following rule seen here.....

 6: Competitors may not advance on the route by any means other than bicycling or in the case of a mechanical, by foot. There will be no hitching of rides via Iowa farm animals. Moooooooo.

Okay, this week we have a rule which is pretty self explanatory. It is a self-supported event and you have to either ride your bicycle or walk. There isn't any real way to get confused here, you would think. If your bicycle breaks down in this long event, well, walking isn't really an option, or is it?

Charles Showalter's Gravel Mutt at the finish of T.I.V8

Actually, during Trans Iowa V8 we had two separate instances where competitors mostly walked the last seven or eight miles to finish. In that version of Trans Iowa, there was a surprise B Maintenance road near the end of the event. It claimed two derailleurs- One on Charles Showalter's "Gravel Mutt" and the other was on Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey's rig- his second Trans Iowa "derailleur-ectomy" in as many years.

Charles was the first. He called me to get a clarification on whether he would be counted as an official finisher if he walked in with his disabled rig. I confirmed to him that it was well within the rules to do so, and he proceeded to scooter, coast, and walk his bike into the finish for his first Trans Iowa finish.

Corey had whacked his derailleur the year before, which was well documented in the film, "300 Miles Of Gravel". In that event, Corey got his rig converted to a single speed, went back out and rode 300 plus miles to just have the experience, even though he was out of the event due to his getting a ride back to Grinnell to get repairs. However; Corey notched an official finish for V8 by doing essentially the same thing as Charles to get to the end of the cues for that version of Trans Iowa.

Next Week: If you cannot ride, and walking is out of the question.....Rule #7!