Minus Ten Review - 20

It is uncanny how similar 2008 weather and conditions are to today's.

Ten years ago on the blog here I was trying to get into some semblance of shape to do the Dirty Kanza 200. I was out riding a single speed and hitting the Post-Trans Iowa fatigue issues. Things weren't going well.

But what strikes me is how late planting was and how the roads are now really match up with how they were ten years ago. It's almost identical, and it seems weird.

I was sure I'd find some mention of Almanzo but you know, it was only in its second year and a pretty small event at that time. I probably was aware of it, having already started cataloging the events I could find on gravel, but Almanzo was just another grassroots ride at that time not unlike several others happening in 2008. Since it wasn't the icon that it is now, I suppose there wasn't really any reason to single that event out yet at that time.

Now it is a huge event drawing well over a thousand riders on a good weather year. It will be interesting to find out what the official count was for today's Almanzo. I do know that they only started seven individuals for the 380 mile Alexander at 5:00am on Friday morning. My bet is that the numbers for the 100 will be pretty big this year, but we will see. Stay tuned for Monday's report......