Trans Iowa Stories: Trans Iowa And Its Place In Gravel Cycling

A display at Quality Bicycle Products Frostbike show featuring Trans Iowa in 2014

 "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!  

This year, (2022), I was inducted into the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame on the basis of my "storytelling" and event promotions. Well, one doesn't have to look too far into my past to realize that this honor was mostly based upon Trans Iowa. 

When I wrote the blog for Trans Iowa's history I wrote a page up called "Trans Iowa: The Legacy" and there I started off saying that for me to write about that event's legacy was "pompous". I also stated, "Well, I’ll let others judge the impact of Trans Iowa in whatever way they seem fit, and the consensus of all those opinions will ultimately be the “legacy” of this gravel road event, for whatever that is worth."

 

At the start of the first DKXL, Jim Cummins feted me on my exploits and influences on his events.

Of course, now that the event is over, time has passed, and now that I have the honor of hearing other's thoughts, this has left me some idea of Trans Iowa's legacy, which is inextricably linked to myself, for better or for worse. So, interestingly, the theme I get now is that Trans Iowa did influence the gravel scene, but not in the traditional sense. Only around 500 different individuals ever toed the line in the event's 14 year run. So it wasn't by sheer numbers that Trans Iowa left its mark. 

But eventually I heard about how Trans Iowa did change the landscape of grassroots cycling events. (Or as some would say- invented them) The first time this happened, ironically, was only about a month after the last Trans Iowa, when in a surprise move, Jim Cummins of the DK200 called me out of the crowd before the start of the first DKXL. He mentioned myself and Trans Iowa as the impetus for he and Joel Dyke to start their event. Jim credited me with helping to start off this whole gravel extravaganza.  It was a totally unplanned moment, and I was not expecting that, but it did give me a clue as to what it was I had done over the years.

What I gather is that it was the event's legendary status amongst those in the gravel community, the event's influence on other events which followed it, and the event's influence on the cycling industry that were the things that changed cycling going forward in the USA and, perhaps, the world. I suppose it must all be true in part, because you do not get into a Hall of Fame for no reason. 

 And I think it bears consideration that many in gravel cycling now have absolutely no idea what Trans Iowa was, why it was influential, or why I would ever be in a Hall of Fame. I guess I can thank the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame for reminding, and educating people in that regard. Otherwise?

Well, otherwise Trans Iowa would be lost to memory, and not many people would know why, or how, much of what Trans Iowa did helped make things like Unbound Gravel what it is today. I think the riders would be shocked to know that some goofy mechanics, one with a strange nick-name, had an idea for an ultra-distance gravel event which changed cycling going forward. Otherwise they wouldn't care, and why should they? Maybe they still won't..... 

But whatever the case may be for those that followed in the shadows of Trans Iowa, I have solid evidence that what I did made a difference in some people's lives. And like I stated at the end of "300 Miles of Gravel", the documentary of Trans Iowa v8, "How many people can say that they did something that changed people's lives?" That is something I did do, and it is powerful, humbling, and very important. Hall of Fame or no. 

Next:  Acknowledgements and Credits.