In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!
We are in the final stretch of celebrating the 20th year of blogging here at Guitar Ted Productions. In about a month the day will arrive which will mark when this blog started. Expect there to be a bit more 20th Year posts as the day approaches.
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| A Level B road in Tama County during Trans Iowa v7, Image by Steve Fuller |
But by 2011, when Trans Iowa v7 was run, I was no longer doing a trip out to Sea Otter, so we were solidly back to the last weekend of April for Trans Iowa. It wasn't until registration for T.I.v7 was about to open that I was made aware by a potential entrant that the weekend we had chosen was Easter weekend.
I had a small bit of anxiety over this. I understand the importance of this event to many, including myself, and was afraid we'd get a lot of push-back over the date if we stuck to it. I was in favor of changing the date, but David allayed my fears and sent me some information about how Paris-Roubaix had been held during an Easter weekend once upon a time in heavily Catholic (at that time) France and there was no real issues with this happening.
So, I capitulated and put my fears behind me and we forged on ahead with it. Trans Iowa v7 was one for the record books. We had eighteen finishers that year out of 76 with 40 of those riders being "rookie" first-timers. We had our very first female finisher of a Tans Iowa in Janna Vavra. It would turn out to be the last Trans Iowa I put on with David Pals as co-director.
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| John Gorilla finishes T.I. v7 on a prototype Warbird with his wife Adele looking on. Note the bunny ears. |
We had a crazy, epic flip-flop during the last hours of this event where leader John Gorilla, riding a prototype titanium Salsa Cycles Warbird, had five flats and relinquished his lead to eventual surprise winner Dennis Grelk. John ended up coming in fifth place.
We had one of the legendary stories of the early gravel days happen at this event. Earlier in the event, on Saturday morning, Corey "Cornbread" Godfrey blew his derailleur off his bike and damaged his frame to the point which he was looking like a sure DNF. However; he hitched a ride back to the start in Grinnell, had the local bike shop fix his bike up as a single speed, returned to the course, and caught up with some buddies. He ended up riding the entire rest of the event. Although he had to be DQ'ed for outside assistance, his determination to ride and complete the course was without peer, and stands as one of the outstanding accomplishments of Cornbread's Hall of Fame career in gravel.
It turned out to be quite the Easter Sunday that year, and is one I won't soon forget, especially since this was the event which was documented by Jeff Frings and won an Emmy award for regional best documentary. That documentary is called "300 Miles Of Gravel", in case you are interested in seeing it.
3 comments:
That level B road pic brings back some fun memories of riding that road (not Trans Iowa, but others times). At least I assume from the looks, that's got to be 270th St. southwest of Garwin. Super rugged road...unfortunately a few big wind storms have just trashed it with several big trees down, and I think it's still like that (at least as of last time I checked).
@Ben - Yes, you are correct, that is 270th. We met a guy on a small utility tractor, an ancient Ford, as I recall, at the East end of that section once who claimed he was the guy who kept that open.
Maybe he hasn't gotten around to taking care of the situation you describe just yet. Maybe he isn't around anymore. Hard to say.
As an aside, the tree you see hanging over the road in the image I posted was there for something like three years or more before it was either removed, or rotted enough to break and fall. I was always cautious when going underneath it!
Ironically, while Cornbread’s legend was cemented that day (as was Janna’s), I was riding in the group he caught back up to, but chose to stop with less than 30 miles to go due to knee pain. That was a tough year.
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