The GTDRI Stories: Heading Into 2019

 "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!

The aftermath of the 2018 GTDRI was - once again - very busy. I did the 24Hrs of Cumming on my pink BMC MCD bike, its first outing in competition, and then took it to Gravel Worlds later in the Summer. 

Planning for the C.O.G. 100 single speed gravel event and another round of local Gravel Expo events in the Winter took up a lot of headspace. Dropping Trans Iowa didn't seem to make any differences as these other things swept in to fill the vacuum left by its absence. 

And there was another thing looming on the horizon. The impending implosion of Europa Cycle & Ski, the place where I had worked for - at that time - 16 years. 

We (the employees) could see it coming, like a freight train in the distance, for quite some time. I recall talking things over with my co-worker and fellow mechanic, Joe, many times. He had been making a plan for his exit and it made me think that I should be doing something similar. But all I had known for over 20 years was being a mechanic, mostly in bicycle shops, and in this area, your opportunities to continue that career path are extremely limited.

The header for the 2019 version of the GTDRI

But there was an emerging opportunity that was being created by another former co-worker of mine, Andy, who had also been a volunteer at Trans Iowa v12. Andy had actually tried looking into buying Europa Cycle & Ski, but the owner wasn't forthcoming and would not share details about the business with Andy so he could not make an informed offer to purchase the business. (That's another entire saga)

So, Andy had left Europa and had already started a mobile bicycle repair business. After two years he decided to pursue an actual brick-and-mortar location. That's where my name popped into this story.

Late into 2018 Andy asked to meet with me and after that meeting it was agreed that I would be his first employee. Of course, Andy supported my outside event promoting, so getting time off for the C.O.G. 100 and GTDRI was not going to be a problem. This would be a perfect transition and would keep the GTDRI going. It all hinged upon when the new building construction would be finished in downtown Cedar Falls. The estimated opening date was April, 2019. Perfect!

With an exit strategy now secured, I felt a lot more open to doing some outside planning for things like the GTDRI. That plan would include a mixing of two ideas. One - The dirt road tour idea, which was immensely popular, and then adding to that would be a return to Poweshiek County.

That was the former home of Trans Iowa. Grinnell would be the starting point, as it was seven years earlier for a GTDRI. I knew the roads well, and there were a LOT of Level B Roads in Poweshiek County that I had never used for Trans Iowa due to my usual self-imposed limitations on such roads early on onto that event. 

So, the mold was set and I was excited to get to work on a route. But things never really go according to plan, and we will see how that affected the 2019 GTDRI. 

Next: The run-up to the 2019 GTDRI.