Trans Iowa V11: A Look At The Rules Part 11

Ira Ryan & Brian Hannon crossing a county blacktop in Wadena IA on T.I.V3

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 discussed the "single speed rule" and this week we take a look at a concern Jeff and I had about our course which was taken into account with the next two rules seen here....


11: You are completely on your own. Use your head. Look and yield for traffic. There will be no course marshalls to hold up traffic. Don't be a dumbass!

12: Riders must wear an ANSI or Snell approved helmet, must obey city, county and state laws and Rules of the Road, and conduct themselves in a manner that will not bring discredit to the event.

As I was doing the mapping for the first Trans Iowa to be held in 2005, I was alarmed by the amount of North/South county roads and state highways we were going to cross. It seemed as though there was pavement every five miles or so. Stop signs aplenty! I knew traditional road races had lead cars, maybe a sweeper car, and in many cases, a closed course. There was absolutely no way we were going to be able to pull any of that stuff off, at least in any traditionally understood way. Jeff told me not to worry, that he'd take care of it, and he did that with these two rules.

Rider- Matt Maxwell T.I.V7: Image by Steve Fuller

The first rule is purely Jeff. This was the rule that was to point out to riders that they needed to be careful at road crossings. The second rule was likely something Jeff copied over from somewhere else. The wording of these two rules would indicate that. It's easy to see that the wording is completely different.

In my opinion, these two rules are the second most important rules behind the self-supported rule of Trans Iowa. Riders must use discretion and caution at every crossing and especially going through larger towns and villages. Without riders being at their best, Trans Iowa cannot exist in its current form, or at all, really.

Finally, I always thought that the part that says "...conduct themselves in a manner that will not bring discredit to the event" was kind of weird. I suppose it would be easy to enforce this rule, say if someone was pitching a hissy fit in some town in front of a bunch of folks. However; I have no idea what most of the riders are doing when Trans Iowa is happening, so it is almost an unenforceable rule. Well.....until after the fact. I suppose. Then I could enforce banishment. <==HA! 

Next Week: Turn on the lights and charge up them cell phones!