Trans Iowa v12: Registration Update And More

There will be a few more curves in this Trans Iowa....

Registration Update:

Okay, including today, we have five more days to receive cards for the Rookie pool to draw from to fill out the 40 available spots in that class. Right now there are 58 cards in the pool. I suspect we'll end up with 60-something cards, but who knows. I'm sure it will be far short of the 80 I had predicted, but that's fine with me. Maybe I will be surprised.....

The Winners/Finishers of past Trans Iowas have started to send in cards. Of the 12 "winners" we've gotten three to send in cards from that group. Greg Gleason, of course, will be there, along with Womens Open winner Sarah Cooper from V10 and finisher Andrea Cohen from v9. All three have to be considered serious threats to win or place very well in Trans Iowa.

Other notable entrants are Charlie Farrow, Troy Krause, and Mark Johnson, any of whom could be threats to win or finish very well in a Trans Iowa. The interesting thing about those guys is that all three are in the Single Speed/Fixed category. Think that's crazy thinking on my part? Well two of those three guys have finished second overall in Trans Iowa on single speeds before. No......these are serious choices for top placings. 

Then there is Ben Shockey, who is signed up after missing several years of Trans Iowa. Ben is special in Trans Iowa history because he was the second guy, and one of only three people, to ever finish the event on a fixed gear bicycle. I've no idea what he plans on doing this time, but he is signed up in the Single Speed/Fixed category, so........

This will be a scene that will be repeated several times in T.I.v12

A Little Past Business:

I should have completed this a long time ago, but it took the onset of adding more people to the "Trans Iowa Family" to spur me into action. I finally added the T.I.v11 roster to "The Roster" of Trans Iowa participants over the past eleven events. This is a compilation of everyone that has ever toed the line at a Trans Iowa.

It is interesting to note that while there are 371 names on that roster, 195 only have been at Trans Iowa once, and 79 twice. So, when I make a big deal out of the folks that keep showing up, it is because not many do, and I feel that is pretty extraordinary.

Anyway, there are some interesting things over at the Trans Iowa: The History site, so check it out when you can.

Course Info Update: 

I have a bit of an announcement concerning the event and it has to do with the course's finish. This year, due to circumstances I am not at liberty to discuss, the barn will not be the finish line for Trans Iowa v12. That said, I have a proposal for a new finish line which I think is far better logistically and definitely convenient for all concerned. The suggestion has been passed on to those who need to approve and if all goes through, we will be ending the event inside the Grinnell city limits once again.

It has been since v8 that Trans Iowa has ended in Grinnell proper and if it is a finishable event, it will be only the third finish line we've had in Grinnell. I'm kind of excited about this, and I hope my idea gets approved, but be aware that this is a work in progress and exact course mileage overall will be affected depending upon where we end up ending up. Right now it is 332.3 miles. UPDATE: Approval has been given for the event to end at Arbor lake Park's North parking lot off Washington Street. That should pretty much lock in the mileage at 332.3 barring any future road/bridge issue.

So far we've tweaked a few things on the course since the recon, and we've removed about a mile and a half of pavement by adding two miles of gravel. We will be looking really hard at a couple of other tweaks to the course, which if we decide to change, it won't, or should not add more mileage. There are just a couple of features we may remove depending upon how the Winter and early Spring pan out, and of course, if certain features are removed from the table by various County Road Departments across the area we will be traveling. Stay tuned......