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| Portrait of Ken Yokanovich by Ari Andonopoulos |
To be perfectly fair, this was all mostly of my own doing. The frustrations, the road blocks, and the hurdles were mostly of my own making. I did not have to do it the way I did it.
I chose to do it the way that I did it.
Why? This is a question which would take a longer form to answer fully. I won't get into the weeds here on this but suffice it to say I did it the way I did it for the best possible experience for the participant I could devise. My goal? To ensure each rider would experience a soul-searching, mind bending, physically and mentally challenging experience. I also wanted to afford opportunities for human interactions which might lead to life-long impacts.
The cost to myself and my family was not insignificant. Was it all worth the14 years I put myself and my family, volunteers, and friends through to see this event happen?
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| Ken Yokanovich (L) and Ari Andonopoulos |
In the chapter on Trans Iowa Zach has this little bit concerning Ken Yokanovich, a veteran of three Trans Iowa events. Zach, along with other T.I. riders, were checking out some of the bicycles to be used in the event. Here is the bit from "The Renegade Sportsman", Chapter Three, "Ira vs Iowa":
"I particularly admired Minneapolis rider Ken Yokanovich's orange-Creamsicle-colered Quickbeam, outfitted with roomy, old-fashioned olive drab pannier bags and a custom cylindrical handlebar clip that held a tube of Blistex. Yokanovich would ride fixed gear. Other Trans Iowans tended to greet that decision with studied nods of approval, as if spurning one hundred years of bicycle evolution was indeed the most honorable course of action."
Ken finished that year, the first to do it on a fixed gear bike. One of only three who ever finished a Trans Iowa in the event's 14 years on a fixed gear bicycle. So, it is understandable why I might remember Ken with fondness, and why he is held in high regard by Trans Iowa veterans who know.
But you never know if the feeling is mutual. Maybe this is not a big deal to people like Ken. Maybe he's moved on. This was nearly 20 years ago, so yeah..... I could see it. But people are sometimes amazing and surprising. Such was the case with Ken, who recently was motivated by a meet-up with fellow Trans Iowan, Ari Andonopoulos, to reach out to me via email last week.
Ken wrote and told me the following: "Thank you for sharing your thoughts, bringing us together, and challenging us to be something we never knew we could be."
When I get messages like this, I sit back and I smile. Were all the days and years of toil and worry worth it?
The answer is "Yes".
6 comments:
Steel bike, iron rider, lol. On a Quickbeam no less, a bike that todays riders would consider barely adequate as a coffee shop bike.
@Phillip Cowan - Indeed. It was an era of discovery in a new-ish style of competition which required experimentation and ingenuity. You had to pour over each component and every choice was critical.
There was no "gravel" anything then, so it was fun from my perspective to see all the "solutions" people employed to tackle a 300+ mile gravel road event in less than 34 hours. I saw all kinds of wild and innovative choices in those first few years before everything started to homogenize. Those were interesting times for sure.
I waited for weeks for the day I was going to go to the swap and meet up with Ken. I cannot explain what it was to meet a fellow TransIowan. Thank you for writing this and thank you for that opportunity to mal so many life long friends. On the bike front we spent months trying to figure out what equipment “might” get us to that magical finish line. We truly worked with what we had in hand.
I know you know the impact TransIowa had on me, both as a person and as a cyclist. Thank you for giving me the opportunities to fail... and succeed once.
TransIowa was a huge accomplishment for me. I grew up in northern Iowa riding gravel roads in the mid 1980’s on 27x1 1/8 tires. No way I can quite put a finger on the allure, but I dropped my postcard in the mail to “register.” I showed up by myself, no support, and not knowing anyone.
I rode my Quickbeam because that was the bike I was most comfortable on, never questioned the equipment. From commuting, to TransIowa, back to riding to work on the Monday after.
The people who I rode with, I will never forget. Cale Wenther and I rode together for maybe the first 24 or so hours. I’ll never forget Matt Braun sharing a block of cheese and summer sausage during a short rest.
I can’t recall the names, but the moment was unforgettable when at the last convenience station; 3am and several of us standing around the hot dog toaster warming our gloves.
That 3-6am stretch was the hardest lowest moment. I rode with Skip Cronin, and remember thinking that he was an asshole because he never once returned any conversation. But when the sun came up, he apologized. With the fatigue, he had lost it. He said that he had not known where he was or what he was doing, only follow that guy on his bike. I was SO proud of his finish.
I will never forget the climb up the killer hill to the finish at the cemetery in Decorah. Everyone was so excited to see me finish, the support was amazing
After being hit by a car, I’m not sure if my body ever fully recovered. I hope to never give up on riding, there are those of us share more than just the roads. There’s a very special kinship I those of us who understand the therapeutic benefits of two wheels. Some of us just haven’t had the luck of getting to meet
I am eternally grateful for the challenges and the friendships that Trans Iowa offered us all, Mark. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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