Trans Iowa Stories: Tales Of v2 Part 2

The start of T.I.v2- The first 4:00am Trans Iowa start ever, in Hawarden, Iowa.

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

The road to Trans Iowa v2 was a bit smoother, we had more confidence, and things were dialed in a bit better. Yeah, there was the "Rogue Seven" incident. That was a big scare for us. Well.....for me anyway. The story was that Jeff had set up online registration to go live on a Saturday night. What happened was that it went live on Saturday morning! I was getting e-mails about it and that is how I found out. I was at home, and Jeff was working. Since he wasn't at his home computer, he couldn't get to fixing it right away. So before he got it shut down, a bunch of registrations went through. We were immediately aware that seven guys got in, but the number turned out to be slightly higher than that. In the end, "Rogue Seven" stuck, and the guys that slipped in early kind of had a cult-like status for a few hours.

 I remember the days leading up to v2 at the shop where Jeff and I worked. We were pretty loose. There was a good feeling about this one. But then, the weather turned on us. Three days before T.I.v2 it started raining over Northwest Iowa. Not just any ol' rain, but the steady, soaking type of rain that swells the Earth, causes the rich Iowa soil to become a sticky mess, and the kind of rain that fills pools and ditches to overflowing after a while. This is what we faced going into it.

But it didn't seem to dampen our spirits much. We were stoked and hopeful that the event would be a great one. I remember loading up the shop van behind the store and it was like Jeff and I were playing hooky. It was as if we were off on a "road trip" and leaving all our Worldly responsibilities behind to go do some crazy stuff in rural Iowa. The drive out was one of the most fun times I've ever had during Trans Iowa. We were having a hoot!

Things got a bit more sober when we came into an area not more than 40 miles from the start at Hawarden and took a look at a road we were going to have on course. Now it matters that you understand the gravel out there to get a handle on what the conditions were like. Later, after T.I.v2, we were told by Rich Gosen, a man learned in the ways of geology, that the gravel out there was mainly "glacial till". This gravel, local to Northwest Iowa, is mostly quartz, granite, and sand. It makes for a gravel that can hold a LOT of water, not letting it run off. If you've ever been in Minnesota, upper Wisconsin, or around the Great Lakes, you'll understand it when I say that the roads for T.I.v2 were like a soaked lake beach.

This shot, taken West of Paulina, Iowa, illustrates the Northwestern Iowa "glacial till" gravel conditions during T.I.v2

Jeff and I were concerned, but we shrugged our shoulders and headed onward to Hawarden anyway. What could we do? We had decided weather wasn't going to postpone this event, and so, we moved forward. Once we reached Hawarden, the gray skies continued to spew a mist here and there, but we were focused upon our task at hand. That being the "pre-race meeting", which was going to be facilitated by Jeff and I at the local Pizza Ranch in their party room.

Jeff doing some ninja moves while I look on. Pre-race meeting, T.I.v2 Image by Dave Nice

The event was marked by the appearance this time of the LaLonde Brothers. Both were single speed aces in the MTB fields at the Wisconsin based WORS Series. The Pre-race meeting had to happen the night before now, with the 4:00am start. We held the meeting during the get-together at Pizza Ranch and had a "rider call-up". This started the annual tradition of the T.I. racer call up I used until the very last one. I started calling riders up for v2 in alphabetical order that year as Jeff did the handing out of bags. Jesse LaLonde approached me just as I called him up to ask that I announce his brother, Mark, as "The Darkness", and that he'd be especially pleased if I would do that. Of course, I did. I think he was actually happy about that too.

The pre-race was marked by the sobriety and solemness that an event going into nasty weather often has. We had a fair number of "no-shows", so even though we had let 70 people in, only 51 actually started. This was also the event that marked the beginning of our relationship, (mine, actually, since Jeff left for Colorado by the next year) with the Nebraska Crew. There were several good friendships that came out of that race.

The pre-race ended and Jeff and I went to the same host home we used for T.I.v1, but if I recall correctly, there may have been no other racers there, just us. Anyway, the host family had put in a new toilet since we'd been there a year prior and it was so loud when flushed I awoke every time it was used throughout the evening. As would become typical, any sleep for me prior to a 4:00am start of a Trans Iowa was minimal to none. We got up at 2:30am and started our day.

There were a few Canadians in the event this time and they wanted Jeff to ferry their van across the state as the event progressed. So, at the start I was kind of back on my own again, driving the shop van, while Jeff kind of laid back and did......? I really do not know what he was doing and would not see him again until well after Sunrise.

Next: T.I.v2 tales, part 3.