Trans Iowa V11: Update

The Super-Limited, Hard To Get, T.I.V11 Shirt

Well, this year I decided to do something that I am pretty excited about and I wanted to share the story of how this all went down. But first, I wanted to give a shout out to a few people without whom this would have been totally impossible to pull off- Ari, Sam, and the staff at 8/7 Central.

First is Ari Andonopoulous. Ari is a good friend, a great supporter of Trans Iowa, and heads up the Slender Fungus Cycling Association. Ari is also a fellow bicycle mechanic. He was crawling around in some forgotten place at the shop where he now works and found a rare, ancient bicycle tool with a certain caricature on it. He suggested we might be able to do something cool with this. I decided to play around with the design a bit, and drew something up for the shirt. But then, how to get it done? 

Well, now I have to bring in 8/7 Central and Sam Auen of Tacopocalypse fame. I found out that Sam has his businesses t-shirts done by 8/7 Central in Des Moines. So at the Gent's Race, I asked if he could tell me about the place. He offered on the spot to help facilitate the design process and work with the 8/7 Central staff. I sent the design rendering down to Sam and he and 8/7 Central did the rest. 

 

So, the t-shirt is done and will show up at Trans Iowa V11. But it will be only going out to a very limited set of folks. Ya see, I only had 50 done, and they are all spoken for. These folks that get these will be mostly behind the scenes supporters and foundational people to the event. Last year it was all about the riders, and this year it will be about those that help bring this event to the riders. I hope that makes sense. 

 

The Weather: Of course, a big topic of discussion going into any Trans Iowa is the weather. It hasn't looked all that great up until now as the forecast has been getting fine tuned as we get closer and closer to the day. Now it's looking cloudy, windy, and cool. That describes about 80% of Trans Iowas ever held, so no big surprise there. However; we're still waiting on what the final say will be on rain. Right now they've taken the rain out, but I wouldn't make any bets until Thursday this coming week! One thing for sure- It sure looks as though we are not in for anything severe. Not like last year, at any rate. 

Last year's sticker

Stickers:

 

Last year a few of you got these Trans Iowa "mileage stickers" and those were courtesy of T.I. finisher and Tour Divide finisher, Mike Johnson. Well, Mike is up to it again and is going to have a little "motivational" sticker for Trans Iowa again. You'll have to show up to find out what it is exactly. 

There should also be some of the "traditional" Trans Iowa stickers in the racer packets as well. So, look for that when you come to get your stuff Friday at the Pre-Race Meat-Up. Finally, a word on that "packet". Maybe you've gone to some events that have some fancy pants stuff for a race pick up, or swag in the bag, or maybe you've gone to the Almanzo 100 and got one of Chris Skogen's fantastic creations when you signed on. Well, Trans Iowa is decidedly "dirt bag" in its presentation, so all yer gonna get is a number, some cues, maybe some stickers, and all of that in a plastic Wall Mart bag.

Really. 

Cues: 

 

I have spent the coin and now I have all I need to start cue sheet production. Once those are printed we're pretty much home free and Trans Iowa will be a go. Stay tuned on Facebook and Twitter for updates on my progress! 

More soon.............