The Path To Discovering Gravel Grinding: Part 3

The start of Trans Iowa v2 in 2006

 This is Part 3 of a mini-series of posts telling the story of what it was like to attend events in the early days of the Modern Gravel Era. In today's post I want to take a look at how it was to organize and produce an early gravel event. In this case, Trans Iowa. 

As a rider I had to do a lot of research and figure out what worked best for this new style of racing. But I also was an event director at the same time. There was no shortage of research and lessons learned on that side of things. 

We did a lot of research before we ever even announced Trans Iowa in late 2004. Jeff Kerkove, my co-creator of this crazy ultra-distance gravel road event was well connected to the endurance racing community. So there was a great amount of feedback from event directors and racers at our disposal. We also were able to tap into the experiences of Richard "Deke" Gosen, a bicycle shop owner, but more importantly, an early event promoter of racing on gravel. He also was a person who challenged us and made us better right out of the gate. 

But despite all the fantastic resources at our fingertips we stumbled and made mistakes in those early years.  We didn't have a clue about how to place volunteers, and during the first Trans Iowa, we pretty much did not have anyone to help 90% of the time, and Jeff was racing as well! 

I felt terrible at times for what I saw as failing. But ironically the participants and the tiny gravel community was immensely supportive. By the time v3 rolled around Jeff had said I was ready to take the event on as my own. I did not want this, nor did I believe him. However; despite all odds and despite all the failings, the event evolved and got its feet underneath it. 

Learning things like writing cue sheets, planning a course with refueling options, and plotting roads through interesting and less traveled terrain were all things I worked hard on. I didn't do this right before an event. This work lasted all year long. It consumed me at times. 

There were also the times when event directors would talk to each other. They would share ideas, advice, and just generally encourage each other. This lasted only a few years, but it was a very important facet of getting gravel events into a groove where individual style was fostered. Codification of rules was rejected. Every event had its own set of guidelines on how to do a gravel event. Some had hardly any guidance beyond telling the riders to play nice and not be mean.  

Events grew to have their own flavors due to this. It became fun to attend different events just to see how things might be unique, and therefore worthwhile to travel to and experience. Everyone was cooking up their own homegrown versions of a gravel event. It made going to new places to ride gravel an adventure. 

We've lost a lot of those things, but there are still events out there which hold to a form of how things started out over twenty years ago now. While top-tier racing doesn't resemble "gravel" racing from the late 2000's at all, the formats used today have facets of those old ways of doing things yet. At times this has caused friction and debate, and it still does. 

Event production is a lot different in 2026, that's obvious, but what maybe isn't obvious is how those early gravel events had to write their own scripts to go by. Just as there was an era of discovery for riders, there was one for event production and promotion as well.