I've noticed over the years that no matter how hard you try not to run fast out of the gate, no matter how much you tell others not to go out too fast, it never seems to work out that way. That's one of my chief memories of this GTDRI's start. maybe I secretly expected some mercy for all those beers consumed the previous evening. Maybe I expected that the others would be in a similar state as I. Whatever.....
The pace was withering, and I was not 100%, probably not even 75%, and I was just hanging on. All the while, Jason Boucher was bemoaning his "lack of fitness", and displaying a strength that spoke of something the opposite of what he was saying. I've no doubt he believed he was out of shape, but apparently his measure of that vague metric was quite a bit different than mine, or other's measure.
But however you look at this, it was obvious that Jason and Matt Gersib (MG) had the motors to drop us at will. And they were off the front for most of the early morning hours. Now there was a reason for that as MG was plying Jason with many questions about the still secret Fargo dubbed "Black Electrical Tape" and Jason had to make sure all this was out of ear-shot of the rest of us. So, that may account for those two being out front for an extended period.
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| The morning fog pointed to a humid day ahead. |
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| Michael Beck coming up on Matt Wills in blue and Jeffrey Bonsall on the right. |
About ten miles into the day a Level B road that was a tad bit tacky caused us to have to stop and gather up the group. I was thrilled about that because it gave me a moment of rest and recovery from the the previous night's shenanigans and the torrid early pace of the ride. David Pals was riding a then new Salsa Cycles Casseroll, This was the first year of the model that David was on which had caliper brakes. He was having problems with clay mucking up the caliper and eventually blocking the wheel from turning in the rear. Again, I was granted relief and the group was really good about the delay.
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| (L-R) Jeffrey Bonsall, Jason Boucher, Matt Wills, Michael Beck. Clowning around with point and shoots. |
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| The remains of a deer's leg, shot by Jason Boucher. This sparked a theme for the '08 GTDRI. |
While we were fooling around, Jason Boucher, who has been a "camera nerd" for longer than I've known him, was off scouring the spot we were stopped at for some image taking opportunity. He found something. It was a gnawed off leg from some poor deer. This sparked a silly conversation and the saying, "It's all about Death!" became the catch-phrase used during the rest of the ride.
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| Endless rollers met us in Tama County. Rider: Matt Wills Bike: Soulcraft custom drop bar MTB SS |
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| Rider: David Pals Bike: Salsa Cycles Casseroll. |
The riders stuck together well into Traer and one of the early uses of the station there on the East side of the road, just South of the rail road tracks. Interestingly, this place has decayed noticeably since these days described here, but back then, it was a pleasant enough stop.
The ride then went into the heart of the "Bohemian Alps" of Tama County. These relentless, steep hills were very taxing on this very humid day of riding. This was the longest stretch with no resupply, so I don't recall much of this part. Somehow, even my original reporting on this ride glosses over that section of the ride. It isn't until we get to Garwin, Iowa where I pick up the story with any more detail.
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| Riders cresting a hill on a Level B Road East of Garwin, Iowa. |
This GTDRI was a tough one. Several miles from the finish I had to stop and douse my overheated body with water. David Pals was not far behind me doing the same thing. We were way off the back, but in true "grassroots", gravel grinding fashion, someone came looking for us. It was Matt Wills, and once we had gathered whatever strength we could muster, David, Matt, and I pushed on to the paved road finish and back to Hickory Hills parking lot.
The previous year we had a bit of socializing and this year of the GTDRI was no different. Out came the beers again and there was a couple of good hours of camaraderie. Jason's family came down and picked him up, and the whole mystery of "Black Electrical Tape" would carry on from this ride until September at Interbike. Meanwhile, a few of us drove over to LaPorte City for pizza. All in all, this was a successful event which eclipsed the previous two, which was a pretty hard thing to do, since those were really awesome rides as well.
Next: The Impact Of The Third GTDRI
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