Country Views: Hall of Fame Ride

Escape Route: HWY 150 to E- 16.

N.Y. Roll decided to put on a special ride in honor of my induction into the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame recently. He called it, obviously, "The Hall of Fame Ride", and between he and I, we put the word out via our blogs. 

Well, as one does, you try to guess how many will show up. Of course, we had no reservations, no fees for this, so getting a handle on who might come was total speculation. So, between N.Y. Roll and I we had a bit of discussion going on as to the number of riders who might show. 

On the one hand, I thought not too many would come. We planned the ride for this particular Sunday, because I cannot do big rides on Saturday's due to work. I also have guitar playing duties often at my church, so it had to be a Sunday I had off from that, and the 19th of June is where we landed. Yes, on Father's Day. 

So, we talked about the ride on our blogs only. No social media shout-outs with the one exception of a mention I did on Instagram. I'm thinking, yeah....not many are going to come to this. N.Y. Roll seemed to think it would be a lot of people. He said 'more than 30'! I thought he was nuts, so I took the under and the bet was on. 

We had five come, plus N.Y. Roll and I which made seven. I won. Ha! 

Hall of Fame Ride riders: (l-R) N.Y. Roll, Ben Morris, Chris McQueen, Josh Lederman, Martin Bunge, Charlie Reed. I took the image.

N.Y. Roll and I led out the riders to 'first gravel' after several miles of pavement to get out of town.

I was pretty humbled and amazed that riders came from Madison Wisconsin, Western, Iowa, the Des Moines area, and Southeast Iowa. Old friends, new, and N.Y. Roll, of course, made this a special day for me. (Special Note: Charlie said he was there to ride in honor of Kyle Platts, who died a few years back, because "He would have been here to ride with you for sure." We sure miss ya Kyle!)

N.Y. Roll and Charlie pass by a herd of cattle.

 

There was a notable amount of traffic for a Sunday.

I found that there were some odd things happening for a Sunday. One was that the Vinton Public Swimming Pool was full. Special event, perhaps? But to have all those people there at 9:00am on a Sunday morning? That was odd. Then once we got out into the country we were passed by trucks, cars, and a side-by-side. What the....?  Didn't these people have six other days to do their work? Ha! 

We even had to move aside for traffic on this Level B Maintenance road! Charlie looking back here. Martin with his back to the camera.

We did get to ride the rest of this dirt road unhindered by any other vehicles though.

I was feeling pretty good out of the gate, actually. And unfortunately, I set a pretty hard pace, but getting this group off the pavement and onto gravel was my worry. However; I didn't adjust the pace after we did get on gravel and N.Y. Roll typically goes pretty hard all the time without some supervision. This and the complete lack of mileage I have had this year would come back to haunt me later. 

Martin enjoying a bluebird day out on his Warbird.

Chris McQueen and I enjoyed this view from a ridge line.

This year - frankly - has been really disappointing for me in terms of cycling so far. A cold, wet, and very windy Spring kept me at bay, and then my schedule is jumbled up most days by having to taxi my children around. This has cut way into my riding time and I just don't have longer rides under my belt, which ended up making this day a bit less than it could have been. 

Oh! And that wind is still pretty bad this year. This has to be one of the windier years in Iowa's history. It's been pretty fierce, and Sunday was no different. It was sure a pretty day, but we had to do battle with the winds too, and it cost me 'a lot of matches' as well. 

Chris Splits Martin, (R) and N.Y. Roll as we finish up the ridge road coming into Center Point, Iowa.

Coming into Center Point, things got level and fast.

We ended up having a fast run into Center Point, and I was feeling pretty good. We made the stop at a Casey's convenience store, a big one, near I-380. I never know what to eat on these rides. I had been nibbling on Dot's pretzel sticks all during the morning ride, but I likely needed more. A bit of cheese and salami looked good, so I got that, a chocolate milk, and some fancy form of Gatorade. 

I got dropped pretty bad coming into the gravel after Center Point.

This oddball driver shadowed Josh and I for a couple miles before pulling into a farmstead.

Now, was it what I ate, or what I did not eat? I don't know. Was it going out way too hard? Probably. Was it lack of longer rides this year? Totally. But one thing was for sure, my legs quit on my after Center Point. 

It didn't help that we had another three to four mile stretch of pavement to get to gravel with a decent amount of traffic. Gah! I really don't like paved roads and here again I was burning matches to get off of it ASAP. 

Barns For Jason

Ever wonder what might happen if you never did any yard work again?

Anyway, I paid the price and my legs, after doing all that road scrambling out of Center Point, were toast. I dropped off the back and pretty soon it was just myself and Josh, who had told me this was his first big gravel ride in something like five years, toiling away under the now hot Sun in a mighty 25-ish mile an hour wind. 

I'm following Josh here. A 13% grade climb awaits us ahead.

After a bit of rest I suddenly had something for it again.

Josh and I toiled to the top of a 13% grade, and I needed a rest. I got off and sat on the side of the road for a bit. At this point, N.Y. Roll, who had waited for us along with the rest of the guys, decided to use the shortened route to get me back to Vinton sooner. 

Oddly enough, as soon as we got back on the bikes again I felt a lot better and I was keeping up better as well. This didn't last a long time, but N.Y Roll had us stopping more often from this point onward. That helped me out tremendously. 

Barns For Jason

So, we all rolled in together, some said their goodbyes, and Martin and Ben stuck around long enough to go to Tootsie's in Vinton for some ice cream and food. 

Ben Morris contemplates his Tootsie's Burger and just how to go about eating it at after the Hall of Fame Ride.

So, we rode almost 44 miles and I think we all had a good time. My day was full. What with these folks kind words, their efforts to get there, and for their excellent company, I was totally blessed. There were words of thanks and stories of old rides shared throughout the day. Memories of things I had helped accomplish and had a hand in were celebrated. 

It seems so surreal to be "that guy" that "did that stuff", but I am reminded yet again that many lives were touched and affected by all this cycling on gravel and the way we did things. Anyway, Thank You to all who have participated in a gravel event anywhere at any time. You are moving the needle and cycling has become better because of you folks who keep grinding gravel. 

Oh! And I hope you Dad's out there had a great Father's Day.