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| Kate Ankofski (R) and GT. Taken at the '18 Almanzo by an unknown person |
Post Trans Iowa times started out as they had for years- With myself being very busy! I still had Spring tune-ups at the bike shop to do, and I was busy with my website, RidingGravel.com, along with getting rides together like my "Geezer Ride", another Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational, and supporting the Almanzo 100 event in Mid-May of 2018.
So, I kept myself from sitting around and stewing about the end of Trans Iowa. I just didn't have time for that sort of thought process. But that did not mean that Trans Iowa stuff wasn't popping up. It did, but it wasn't the emotionally depressing kind of thing you might think it could have been.
The supporting of the Almanzo 100 in Southern Minnesota gave a few folks the chance to offer congratulations on a good run of events and to offer their thoughts on the situation. Most were just saying 'thank you' for all my efforts. It was the sort of thing that I was trying to avoid at the last Trans Iowa, because at that point I feel like the emotions would have been a lot rawer. Now, two weeks or so removed from the last Trans Iowa, the emotions were muted and reasonable exchanges of feelings were common.
I was particularly happy to see that Kate Ankofski was not only there at the Almanzo 100, but riding and riding well. My regret at not having been present with her when she crashed during T.I.v14 was assuaged and seeing her smile and hearing her thoughts on that situation really was a big relief. I am very happy that meeting, as happenstance as it was, occurred. It gave me a lot of closure for the last Trans Iowa.
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| A portrait of Sarah Cooper at Trans Iowa by Wally Kilburg |
I also had an email conversation going on at about this time regarding Trans Iowa and the possible taking over of the event by Sarah Cooper and her crew at Relentless Events LLC. They already were putting on the Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra in the Fall.
I did not have any qualms about the sincerity and purposes of Sarah and her folks behind her, including Steve Fuller, a Trans Iowa veteran of both the ride and volunteering for the event, along with Dennis Grelk, who also had the same background as Steve. I knew that these people all understood Trans Iowa intimately and would handle it with care.
Handing over the event wasn't the issue, it was my attachment to Trans Iowa, regardless of whether or not I was going to be involved in its production in the future. In my mind, I was inextricably linked to that event, and anyone doing a "Trans Iowa" afterward was going to be compared to me, fairly or unfairly, and that was going to eventually drag me back into the discussion.
In my opinion, the only way for this to work, and what I advised Sarah to do, was to rename the event and move the venue to another city in Iowa. This would break any continuity in people's minds that the future event was in any way connected to me and the past event, even though the reality of it was that this was, in fact, what was going on. But perception is 9/10ths of reality, to paraphrase an old idiom, and I figured this would allow my freedom from having to be asked questions about how Sarah and her crew were doing things. Plus, their event could stand on its own two legs, develop its own, unique legacy, and have the freedom to be changed in any way that Sarah and the crew deemed necessary.
It was agreed then that Sarah would start a new event in a different city. Thus Iowa Wind and Rock was born. There is a nice tribute to Trans Iowa on the IWAR landing page, which, had I been asked about that, I probably would have told them not to do, but it seems to have not been a problem in the end. And truly the event that Sarah, Steve, Dennis, and others have facilitated has done what we all hoped it would do: Make a Springtime ultra-gravel experience available for those nut-jobs who are into that to 'enjoy'.
So, that was that. I handed off things with my blessings to Sarah and her crew and in the Spring of 2019 the first Iowa Wind and Rock occurred. There was some discussion of my being there to witness this, but I felt like that was awkward and it would probably take away from the 'clean break' I was hoping would happen with this development. So, I stayed away, and I did not really pay much attention to the event that first year, so as to keep myself from wading into things that were, now, none of my damn business.
And it was good. Trans Iowa became a memory and a legacy for me, and for many others, and it was kind of being carried forward in the form of a new event. I liked how things came out, to be honest, and I have no regrets about either how Trans Iowa ended or how Iowa Wind and Rock is moving forward.
Next: Trans Iowa And Its Place In Gravel Cycling
1 comment:
Although contrary to what many people in your shoes might have done, I think the clean break was wise.
Kind of like TI as a whole, you did it your way and there was no compromising your vision. And that’s a big part of what made it great. I really like that last picture (the out of focus one) because it fits that theme.
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