The GTDRI Stories: The 2018 GTDRI - Part 1

 "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!

It doesn't take too much to figure out that the 2018 GTDRI was the second to last one I ever put on. So, I feel safe in saying that after a thorough review of this one which I was able to accomplish due to researching this version, I can truly say that the 2018 version was "The Best". 

I mean, it would be hard to top from several standpoints. The course, the amount of riders, potato water... It was just nuts. 

But I'll get around to all of that in due time. The general theme here is that I was never sure how many folks, or who they would be, would actually show up for a GTDRI. And it was always miserably hot. I mean, brutal humidity. Typically, the last week of July/first week of August is maximum heat and humidity in Iowa. The GTDRI was right in that bullseye for weather. The only real benefit of running the event at that time was that it rarely ever storms around this time of the year. So I rarely ever had issues with rain, GTDRI #2 notwithstanding. 

So, with a very favorable forecast, I received NINE last minute confirmations for attendance on the eve of this GTDRI. That was unprecedented, and knowing that maybe only a small percentage of riders ever confirmed attendance with me, that meant that numbers could be pretty high. And well......they were!

A big, fat full moon sets as I head West to Reinbeck and the start of the 2018 GTDRI

Full moons figured heavily into events for 2018. There was one for the last Trans Iowa, and there was one for the start of my GTDRI. I had to leave pretty early to get everything rounded up and get down to Reinbeck by 6:00am or before. I wasn't the only one that had to do that early get-up. 

This GTDRI had several out-of-towners and none further away than Matt Gersib who came in from Lincoln, Nebraska. A couple of guys showed up from Cedar Rapids. A couple of guys came up from Des Moines. One fellow high school classmate came up from Charles City, Iowa. A fellow from Wisconsin showed up as did my old co-worker from Ames, Craig. Several Waterloo folks came over as well so we ended up with a solid 25 riders, at least tying the record for the most ever.

The first stop after the start on 110th in Tama County.

I'm pretty sure Reinbeck had never seen anything quite like the start of the 2018 GTDRI. There were likely more riders downtown that morning than all the awake, alert people in the town combined. Well, maybe not after the ruckus we made getting the rabble together! 

There is also something to be said for a larger group of riders and speed. You travel faster with not much more energy spent. You just do, and this group was ripping fast down the gravel all day long until maybe after Garwin's stop. But there was a good reason for that which you will see later. 

 One of my favorite images from the morning of the 2018 GTDRI, but it is misleading as we had quite the group!

Leading the group, on the left, is Matt Gersib and on the right, the late Kyle Platts.

One of my regrets in the running of the GTDRI was that I did not get to talk to a lot of the riders much on years we had big groups, like that year out of Sabula, Iowa. This was never more piercingly in focus for me due to the sudden, unexpected death of Kyle Platts in September of 2020. 

Kyle found cycling late in his life, around 2015, and he soon gravitated to gravel events, which he was getting darn good at figuring out. By 2018 he was riding at a pretty high level for someone with as little experience on a bike as he had. But the thing that endeared Kyle to all who ever had a brush with him was his personality. He was always bright, smiling, helpful, and encouraging. He was a perfect volunteer at Trans Iowa because of those characteristics. 

I just never really got to know him and that bites because I rode with him all day that day in 2018 but I just never got to really chat much with him due to all the riders and my concerns for them. Anyway, here's to Kyle! We miss ya! 

Next: One More Stop In Traer