C.O.G. 100 Final Course Recon Report

We saw a lot of wildlife during recon, like this hen Pheasant, on our way to Grinnell

The C.O.G. 100 course needed to be verified one last time before the event, and Saturday was the day we targeted. It was one week removed from the wicked blizzard we experienced in Iowa, but the following weekend, (this coming one), is supposed to be pretty warm, and we know from experience that the roads around Grinnell get really soupy and ugly when they are unfrozen. We didn't want to risk that, and this past weekend presented us with our best chance before the thaw to get recon done on hard, relatively dry roads.

We got rolling by 6:00am to get to the Frontier Cafe in downtown Grinnell for breakfast. Once our bellies were topped up, we hit Miller Park to start recon. By the way, Miller Park is a sheet of ice right now! It was very sketchy. That said, this was the worst part of the entire recon, as far as surfaces we drove on. So, that was what we had hoped for and we were able to knock out the recon and be back home by 1:00pm.

One note I wanted to make sure gets perfectly understood- We can not have racers parking at Miller Park. There just is no room there. I detailed this in my most recent e-mail communique to the racers, but I need to underscore this and also for anyone coming to see the riders off. Please respect our wishes in this. It will make everyone's day a lot smoother.

After we left Miller Park we found that the County had cleared away the massive drifts and piled up snow upwards of 20ft high in places along the roads. The storm we had was odd, in that it rained heavily, with lightning and thunder first, and this saturated the roads. What traffic happened before they refroze, when the snows hit, had rutted out the roads and mud must have been a big problem. During our drive, the frozen mud ruts were so bad they tried to throw N.Y. Roll's Subaru off into the ditch on various occasions. This was not localized, but we found this to be the case for probably 60% of the course. It is torn up out there, and likely will still be this way come the end of this month.

These huge piles of snow won't be so big in four weeks, but I bet the remnants will still be there.

Notice the huge pile of snow alongside the road here. There was less of this than I thought there might be, but where piles of snow survive alongside the roads come the end of the month, the roads will likely be soft and wet yet, no matter the weather. Be prepared with fenders or clip on splash guard devices to keep the mucky mire off of you.

A big hill on the C.O.G. 100 course. Note the frozen ruts in the mud.

You know from having done Trans Iowa, and from knowing about my courses, that hills would figure into this course. But did you know that flats, the thing that single speeders might hate the most, are also on the course? Be prepared to spin your brains out.

There will be one mile of Level B Road on the C.O.G. 100 course, and this is what it looks like now.

A row of windmills on the ridge will be a scene on the C.O.G. 100 course.

One thing I did not expect at all was all the wildlife we saw- mostly in the form of various birds. Pheasants were plentiful. We went by one field where there must have been a dozen of them. Bald Eagles were also seen at regular intervals. I bet we saw close to ten of those. I saw several hawks and even a Coopers Hawk was spotted. We saw a couple of deer, and about half a dozen wild turkeys.

The course does go through two small villages and only one of these has a convenience store. This will occur on course at Mile 83. You will be able to see this convenience store at a right hand turn at that point. You will have to go off course, straight at the right hander, and travel about two blocks to get to it. It is small, doesn't have a lot, but they do have water and some basic vittles.

Since most everything was frozen yet, we didn't trash out N.Y. Roll's car too bad!

As many know, gravel races are held on open roads. We kept a car count, since we were out at about the same time as the event will happen. We saw 19 cars and one farm tractor while out on course. This includes about 5-6 cars we saw on pavement, so traffic for the 110 mile course should be pretty low. But......there still will be some, and this is why you must ride on the right side of the road, especially up hills!

Besides this, you will have to cross major highways 8 times and County highways 4 times for a total of 12 dangerous paved road crossings. Remember! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU! Traffic is not being held up and you must use extreme caution when crossing major roads. These are ALL clearly marked on the cue sheets which you must use for navigation. Besides this, there are short sections of pavement to consider. We have about a three-four mile stretch of it to start out, then a half mile section with a broad, paved shoulder at the 27 mile mark. There is a bit more pavement there about 80-ish miles in right before the convenience store mentioned. There is about a mile stretch of pavement at about 100 miles, right before the end, and the last couple miles back into Miller Park are paved as well. So, please ride right and single file when out on these sections, or use any pavement you see to the right of the white line on the lane.

Speaking of cue sheets, I will be posting another C.O.G. 100 update soon specifically looking at cue sheets, how to read them, their size and number of sheets. Those riders from Trans Iowa, (there are several of you in the field), already know the drill, as the cue format will be EXACTLY as I have done for the past what? Decade? More or less, that's when I refined this down to its current format, I believe. So, no surprises for you folks who are T.I. vets. Also, along with that cue sheet tutorial I will be posting about number plates as well. Once again- same drill as Trans Iowa. So, you "rookies" to one of my events will have to check that all out.

More big snow banks out on the course.

The course features a good mix of hills, flatter sections, one Level B Maintenance Road, minimal amounts of pavement, some cool scenery, quaint villages, and of course, cemeteries. There are some things I cannot give away since it would indicate the course. So, keep your eyes open because you will see cool stuff here and there.

By the way, we only saw one dog, but dogs are a concern and you should be aware that Iowa farmers keep dogs and generally speaking, they are of the rather large variety. The one we saw was a German Shephard, but Great Pyrenees are another farm dog breed favorite.

As far as conditions for the event go, I suspect there will be some snow banks left yet, but most of what we saw will be melted by the time of the event. I seriously doubt any road maintenance will be done beforehand, but I could be wrong. Still, I highly doubt we will see the course be deep, fresh gravel everywhere. I say this because I feel that the frost will have barely come out of the ground by the time of the C.O.G. 100. County maintenance crews usually don't do mass gravel spreads until after the frost has completely come up. There is a high chance that patches of fresh gravel will be out there though, so be aware that if you are on smoother dirt and hit a patch of fresh stuff, it can and will upset your bike and that could easily lead to a crash.

Okay, that's a wrap on the recon. more soon. Stay tuned!