The GTDRI Stories: Getting The Word Out

Start area of the inaugural DK200. Image by Paul Jacobson.

 "The GTDRI Stories" is a series telling the history, untold tales, and showing the sights from the run of Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitationals. This series will run on Sundays. Thanks for reading!

When I went down to Emporia, Kansas for the first DK200 in 2006, it was the first time I had lined up for a bicycle event since early 1997. The XC MTB thing didn't make any sense to me at the time because I was paying nearly $50.00 bucks to ride an hour and spend six hours in a car to get to and from the venue. The DK200? That was merely $40.00, (if I recall correctly) and I got to spend the entire day riding, and longer, if I wanted to. Plus, it was on a course that hardly anyone riding knew anything about. What would we see? What surprises lay in store for those who would take the start? 

I loved the feeling of adventure and discovery. It was akin to something I felt at a venue near Morrison, Illinois when we did those XC MTB events. The RD of the Morrison series would develop these insane courses that were borderline adventure race territory. Having to ford creeks, walk up and down steep ravines, and cross irrigation channels on "I" beams of steel laid flat on their sides. It was nuts, and when you finished, you didn't care what place you got. It was just something to actually make it through the course. What would that madman have in store next time we went down? It was exciting, and the earliest gravel events were just like that. 

P Avenue in Tama County South of Traer, Iowa. Image 2006 from GTDRI recon.

I came back from that first DK200 with a greater appetite for adventure on gravel. The "death ride" idea was brought up and Jeff Kerkove, who at that time was still working alongside me as a bicycle mechanic, kept egging me on to put out the idea as an event. I hesitated but to no avail, and I had such an enthusiasm for such pursuits that Jeff ended up just creating a blog under my account for the ride. 

After that it was pretty much just a given that I would announce this. Of course, times were different then. Many of us that were early into the gravel scene were either regular readers of cycling blogs, or they were a gravel cyclist who maintained a blog. I'd wager a bet and say that 2006-2007 was the height of this blogging activity, at least on the cycling side, and there were so many cycling blogs it was ridiculous. 

This was important because most folks had about a half a dozen blogs they followed via an "RSS feed" or that they just checked on. This meant that anything you wanted to proclaim made the rounds in that community in a hurry. I recall that I had several blogs I checked in on and I let slip in a comment on Paul Jacobson's cycling blog that I was doing a 'death ride' gravel grinder thing. Well, that was all it took to spark the fire. 

The first header on the 2006 GTDRI blog that Jeff Kerkove created for me.

So, there was already a site, I let the word slip, and next thing you know people are commenting on my blog to the effect that I was putting on a Summertime event. Keep in mind, there were like two, maybe three events promoted as gravel events in 2006. Initially I had chosen a date in June, but I found out in a hurry from the endurance MTB riders that the date I picked was in conflict with the 24 Hour Nationals in Wisconsin. They wanted me to reschedule it to a date that would work for them.

So, on June 12th, 2006, I announced the first "Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational". It was scheduled to occur on August 19th, a Saturday, and it would be "Sunup to Sundown". I was going for a ride of about 150 miles. If you wanted to come, you could.....

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