The GTDRI Series; Fall Out From The 2017 Ride

Resting after the N Avenue climb. Image by Rob Evans.

   "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!

After the 2017 GTDRI I received many comments about the route. there was a lot of enthusiasm about the ride. Even my report here on this blog engendered a few wistful, "I wish I would have been there" comments.

So, as the rest of 2017 went on, I became more and more convinced that I should just rerun the same exact course and go for it again. But while that decision may have seem to have been made based on what people could see from the outside, the reality was quite different.

2017 was a very stressful and significant year for me on a few levels. First off, my mother was in decline from Alzheimer's and it was clear that it wasn't going to get better, it was going to get worse. Fast. Secondly, my job at the bike shop I had been wrenching at since late 2002 was now not looking like a stable source of income. There were troubling signs that the business was in steep decline, and my income reflected this as I had my vacation pay and holiday pay yanked out from underneath me without warning. Finally, it was the year that I had decided Trans Iowa, the seminal gravel event that started in late 2004, was going to come to an end in 2018. 

The Otso Warakin I rode for the 2017 GTDRI.

Those heavy influences pretty much dominated my psyche throughout the closing months of 2017. In fact, I've no doubt now looking back at this time that all my stress was a big factor in why I was sick for the better part of that Fall.

Changes. They are never easy to navigate, and I was facing the beginnings of what would end up being lifestyle, family,  and friendship altering changes that would be ongoing for the next five years. 2017 was pretty much the end of Life as I had known it since 2005. 

And I didn't think a lot of that was anyone's business, and in the case of Trans Iowa, I was trying to be ultra-careful with how I was presenting myself and every shred of information around the event so as not to give anything away. That only added to the stress. 

Anyway, that was all a huge reason to just keep the next GTDRI the same. No course recon, no worries. Just roll out the same cues and be done with that. People seemed to be jazzed about the dirt roads concept and the brewery ending, so I figured, why not? 

Besides, the pall I was under concerning Trans Iowa was overtaking everything. I couldn't even think about a course design, and the entire weight of that and trying to figure out how to end it was a real drag. Doing anything else was just not really feasible at that point. 

Eventually the T.I.v14 route did get done.

The malaise I was in lasted until almost the end of the year, but then I came around and I was able to get recon finished with the help of my friend, Tony McGrane. It was a huge relief to get that behind me and after that, things kind of started flowing more naturally for a bit. 

At least I did not have the GTDRI to worry about in the beginnings of 2018. Trans Iowa dominated my thoughts for the most part, and of course, the next GTDRI would be the first one done in the "post Trans Iowa" timeline. 

Next: How things in the gravel scene were lining up in 2018.