Trans Iowa Stories: A Tale Of Two Trans Iowas - Part 3

A rooster pheasant trots along the T.I.v12 course. Image by Wally Kilburg.

  "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 clicking on the "Trans Iowa Stories" link under the blog header. Thanks and enjoy! 

As daylight revealed a calm-ish, comfortably warm day, riders were moving toward the first checkpoint at a pretty decent clip. My volunteers were ready at a corner not far from the main drag through Deep River, Iowa. Due to my insistence that a Trans Iowa course be mostly gravel, and due to the fact that there really was only one way to get into and out of the village without retracing part of the route or using busy roads, the circuit through the area surrounding Deep River was a bit odd. It came in from the Southwest, went past Deep River, a little North, then back West and finally a short Level B section brought them in on an "L" shaped bit into Deep River's South side. Then across the village to the West, and exiting the checkpoint, the riders went South and then West for a mile, then North a bit, and finally East until they crossed Highway 21 and then a big leg Northward. 

Catch all that? 

The sad thing is that I just wrote that from memory. It's that way with some of my courses. I can still see them in my mind and I know where they go without even looking them up. That said, other times I see a map of an old course, or old cues, and am surprised by the route.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that given the amount of time I spent on those courses. But back to the story- That circuitous route around Deep River meant we were in that area a bit longer, in terms of where the riders were, than we'd normally be for a Trans Iowa. 

A lone rider makes his way up the Level B road coming into Checkpoint #1 for T.I.v12 (Image by Wally Kilburg)

This allowed for a chance happening that involved the local volunteer fire department. Apparently, there was an emergency call. The fire department volunteers assembled and were blazing down one of the gravel roads Southeast of town when they came upon some Trans Iowa riders. The story I was told by eyewitnesses, who were also riders in the event, was that several riders pulled over to allow the speeding vehicles to pass, but a couple were either heedless of the commotion due to wearing earbuds, (possibly) or were willfully ignoring the first vehicle's siren and lights. (Note- My eye witnesses told me the following vehicles were not displaying any emergency lighting or audible sirens.) 

The Checkpoint 1 set up at the Southwest end of Deep River for T.I.v12

Subsequently one of the fire department volunteers, who had returned to the village after the call, figured out that our volunteers were involved. This was obvious due to the numbers on the bikes and riders and that the volunteers were servicing the riders with cues for the next leg of the event. That fire department volunteer approached my volunteers and was angry and asked to have a word with whomever was in charge. Andy Tetmeyer, who I have talked about in previous posts about T.I.v12, took it upon himself to deal with this person and Steve Fuller, another volunteer, called me while this was happening and acted as a relay and facilitated the conversation with me. Of course, I was quite alarmed and made Steve tell me a few times what had happened, according to the volunteer. I made a promise that I would get to the bottom of the affair, and told the man via Steve and Andy I was sorry and we would not be any problem for them in the area within a short time. The man seemed to be amicable to my gestures and apologies, and we left the conversation on good terms. Or so I thought.... 

(L-R) Walter Zitz (partially obscured) Greg Gleason, three unidentified riders, Volunteers Mike Baggio and Andy Tetmeyer. Image by A Andonopoulous

After Trans Iowa, the Chief of the Volunteer Fire Department of Deep River, Iowa was searching Facebook for some way of getting a hold of that nere-do-well who was out of line and causing potential mayhem and death in her jurisdiction. I received a message from the administrator of an Iowa based cycling page she posted an email to and so I contacted her. She was pretty adamant that I was a really bad person for allowing these situations to occur, and after I stated my point-by-point fact based report on the matter, she was not very convinced of my leadership in the realm of safety and responsibility. She also said that the agreed upon terms and apology I made with a volunteer of the Deep River Volunteer Fire Department must have been a fantasy because she had no knowledge of it and did not acknowledge to me, or hint that she recognized the description of, the driver or the truck he was allegedly in. Furthermore; even if that was truth he had no basis to accept such terms and/or an apology from me. But she did say that my decision to never disturb the Deep River area again with such nonsense as a bike race was good enough for her to drop the matter.

This took about a week to resolve, post T.I.v12, and required a lot of my time in researching the issue and contacting riders who may have had knowledge of the events which disturbed the Volunteer Fire Chief. Fortunately, I had solid evidence of the facts and was able to present my case in a manner which was pretty bombproof, despite what the Chief thought about it. But all of that really sucked the wind out of my sails. Both that day of and afterward. 

So, as Checkpoint #1 was closing down, I sent word up the road to Jeremy Fry at Checkpoint #2 to make sure every rider got the message that they MUST pull over for emergency vehicles. Then I figured we were in the clear from all the negative stuff for the weekend. Of course, we weren't.... Or I should say, I wasn't clear. 

Riders headed Northward through Tama County during T.I.v12. Image by Celeste Mathias

 Mike Baggio, a volunteer at Checkpoint 1 and who was volunteering as a support person for one of the riders as a last minute replacement, was summoned by his rider who was up the road from the Checkpoint in Deep River quite a ways. Apparently, he was in a group, tailing off the back a bit, when suddenly a Great Pyrenees dog rushed out from a farm yard to give chase to the group. This man had no where to go and actually broadsided the dog in the road, upending his bicycle, and then crashing onto the gravel. The early diagnosis was a broken collarbone. 

My heart sank....

My worst fears during Trans Iowa were having to deal with serious injuries. Fortunately, Mike Baggio was and is a clear-headed thinker and jumped into action. He kept me abreast of the situation via text and phone calls throughout the rest of the morning and early afternoon. As it turned out, there was no broken bone, just a separated shoulder, but still..... I was so relieved to hear Mike say that the rider was going to be fine, that he was safely back in Grinnell, and had no ill feelings about the incident as far as Trans Iowa or myself went. 

This event was not going well for me. While the riders, for the most part, were experiencing possibly the best tailwind section in Trans Iowa history, approximately 160 miles worth of it, I was hitting some pretty big headwinds in terms of emotional and mental storms. A reroute to deal with, lost cues, a tangle with the rural volunteer fire folks, and now this injured rider?  I was hoping for a turn of events for myself and my volunteers. 

But those two incidents weren't the only excitement during the morning and early afternoon hours. There was more to this Trans Iowa than anyone knew about that was going on behind the scenes. 

Next: We will take a break for next week and enjoy some images from T.I.v12