Friday News And Views

Canfield Yelli-Screamy

Canfield Bikes Announces Third Generation Yelli-Screamy:

Another long-low-slack geometry hard tail? (yawn) But there is a reason I post on this particular model today. It has more to do with its influence and history than it does with this third generation of the bike. 

Go back ten years ago. 2011 was a time, if you can recall, when many said that 29"ers would "never be in the long-travel categories or be all that good for anything playful and fun on real mountains". They were decent XC bikes, sure, but - you know - serious mountain biking? That was the province of 26"ers and the , at that time, new 27.5"ers. 29"ers would certainly never be 'that bike' you would ride on rowdy mountain trails. 

Then Canfield Bikes, and a few other niche brands, started fooling around with 29 inch wheels. The parts were barely  serviceable for such exploits, but they made it work. Canfield found itself a hit with the 29"er "Yelli-Screamy" model, and 29"er freaks were all over this bike when it came out back then. This sudden popularity of small brand hard tail and full suspension bikes with big wheels eventually got the bigger brand's attention. It took a few years, because the industry's dalliance with 27.5" stuff had to run its course first, but then 29"er hard tail and full suspension rigs started dominating the lines of the big brands by the mid to late 'twenty-teens'.  

So, here ya go. A hard tail which was a ground breaking model ten years ago, revamped for 'modern geometry', and at a price for a frame that, amazingly, is still pretty reasonable at $799.99. See Canfield Bikes for more.

First PRO Only "Gravel Event" In Italy:

What?!! You've never heard of Serenissima Gravel? Why, it was the very first PRO only roadie event held on gravel, that's all. (So, what is Strada Bianche then?) But you could be forgiven if you have not heard about this. It really doesn't affect many of us in the gravel community. 

But for some, this may be seen as a 'validation' of gravel as a racing surface. For me? It's nothing but PRO UCI sanctioned road racing on a different surface. Novel for roadies, perhaps, but calling this a 'gravel event' is a big misnomer. See, 'gravel events' are not just about licensed, male, elite athletes with no other riders and no 'culture' besides typical roadie fare. 

No, a 'gravel event' encompasses much more than racing. It is about finding one's limits, learning about how to be a self-sufficient cyclist, learning about caring for others, and it is all-inclusive. It is NOT just for the highest categories of male (and female, one would think) racers. However; Serenissma Gravel held its PRO only event with just one day of males racing. No females. And, of course, you could ride the next day on the course the PROs used (gasp! Really! You let them do that!) in a 'fondo'. Woo.....

But again- some may think this sort of thing is the bee's knees. And that's fine, but it is not 'gravel racing'. This is a gravel event, if you are wondering what I might mean. And so is the next item .....

Remembering When Things Were 'Iffy':

About a year ago this weekend I did something I thought was a bit daring. Some would say I was being a bit cavalier about the situation, and risking too much too soon. I went out of town to volunteer at a gravel event.

And now you think that sounds really mundane, right? I mean.....so what? I went somewhere and did a good deed. Why on earth would that be 'risky'? 

Well, I think we all have kind of forgotten how tense we all were just a year ago with this whole COVID deal still ongoing. (And really, we still are not out of the woods yet) There was no vaccine, there were still social distancing and mask mandates, and fear and anxiety was high. People were unsure of what was 'okay', and doing a bicycle race was barely on that side of the line of being something folks wouldn't get too upset about if you were to engage in that activity. 

I had not driven beyond the bounds of Black Hawk County, at that point, in nearly six months. I had only been in a few towns by bicycle outside of Waterloo in that time, and we went once to Cedar Rapids for a football game my son was in. I had not seen anyone outside of Waterloo in nearly half a year. So, going to volunteer at the Spotted Horse marked a line, a breakthrough of sorts, and socially it was a bit of a shock and a relief. It actually was so uplifting that I felt guilty for doing that when so many other people were left sitting around in fear. 

Like I say, we are still dealing with this pandemic, but a year ago we were still engaged in fear and anxiety at a much higher level than we are now, in my opinion. The Spotted Horse, for me, was a big release of tension and a day which gave me some hope that we would, at some point, be doing things again socially. And that has mostly come true. 

I just wanted to mark this anniversary and say 'thank you' again to Dori, Sarah, and Steve, the RD's of the Spotted Horse. Good luck on your event this weekend.

That's a wrap for this week! Have a great weekend and thank you for reading G-Ted Productions.

Friday News And Views

Canfield Yelli-Screamy

Canfield Bikes Announces Third Generation Yelli-Screamy:

Another long-low-slack geometry hard tail? (yawn) But there is a reason I post on this particular model today. It has more to do with its influence and history than it does with this third generation of the bike. 

Go back ten years ago. 2011 was a time, if you can recall, when many said that 29"ers would "never be in the long-travel categories or be all that good for anything playful and fun on real mountains". They were decent XC bikes, sure, but - you know - serious mountain biking? That was the province of 26"ers and the , at that time, new 27.5"ers. 29"ers would certainly never be 'that bike' you would ride on rowdy mountain trails. 

Then Canfield Bikes, and a few other niche brands, started fooling around with 29 inch wheels. The parts were barely  serviceable for such exploits, but they made it work. Canfield found itself a hit with the 29"er "Yelli-Screamy" model, and 29"er freaks were all over this bike when it came out back then. This sudden popularity of small brand hard tail and full suspension bikes with big wheels eventually got the bigger brand's attention. It took a few years, because the industry's dalliance with 27.5" stuff had to run its course first, but then 29"er hard tail and full suspension rigs started dominating the lines of the big brands by the mid to late 'twenty-teens'.  

So, here ya go. A hard tail which was a ground breaking model ten years ago, revamped for 'modern geometry', and at a price for a frame that, amazingly, is still pretty reasonable at $799.99. See Canfield Bikes for more.

First PRO Only "Gravel Event" In Italy:

What?!! You've never heard of Serenissima Gravel? Why, it was the very first PRO only roadie event held on gravel, that's all. (So, what is Strada Bianche then?) But you could be forgiven if you have not heard about this. It really doesn't affect many of us in the gravel community. 

But for some, this may be seen as a 'validation' of gravel as a racing surface. For me? It's nothing but PRO UCI sanctioned road racing on a different surface. Novel for roadies, perhaps, but calling this a 'gravel event' is a big misnomer. See, 'gravel events' are not just about licensed, male, elite athletes with no other riders and no 'culture' besides typical roadie fare. 

No, a 'gravel event' encompasses much more than racing. It is about finding one's limits, learning about how to be a self-sufficient cyclist, learning about caring for others, and it is all-inclusive. It is NOT just for the highest categories of male (and female, one would think) racers. However; Serenissma Gravel held its PRO only event with just one day of males racing. No females. And, of course, you could ride the next day on the course the PROs used (gasp! Really! You let them do that!) in a 'fondo'. Woo.....

But again- some may think this sort of thing is the bee's knees. And that's fine, but it is not 'gravel racing'. This is a gravel event, if you are wondering what I might mean. And so is the next item .....

Remembering When Things Were 'Iffy':

About a year ago this weekend I did something I thought was a bit daring. Some would say I was being a bit cavalier about the situation, and risking too much too soon. I went out of town to volunteer at a gravel event.

And now you think that sounds really mundane, right? I mean.....so what? I went somewhere and did a good deed. Why on earth would that be 'risky'? 

Well, I think we all have kind of forgotten how tense we all were just a year ago with this whole COVID deal still ongoing. (And really, we still are not out of the woods yet) There was no vaccine, there were still social distancing and mask mandates, and fear and anxiety was high. People were unsure of what was 'okay', and doing a bicycle race was barely on that side of the line of being something folks wouldn't get too upset about if you were to engage in that activity. 

I had not driven beyond the bounds of Black Hawk County, at that point, in nearly six months. I had only been in a few towns by bicycle outside of Waterloo in that time, and we went once to Cedar Rapids for a football game my son was in. I had not seen anyone outside of Waterloo in nearly half a year. So, going to volunteer at the Spotted Horse marked a line, a breakthrough of sorts, and socially it was a bit of a shock and a relief. It actually was so uplifting that I felt guilty for doing that when so many other people were left sitting around in fear. 

Like I say, we are still dealing with this pandemic, but a year ago we were still engaged in fear and anxiety at a much higher level than we are now, in my opinion. The Spotted Horse, for me, was a big release of tension and a day which gave me some hope that we would, at some point, be doing things again socially. And that has mostly come true. 

I just wanted to mark this anniversary and say 'thank you' again to Dori, Sarah, and Steve, the RD's of the Spotted Horse. Good luck on your event this weekend.

That's a wrap for this week! Have a great weekend and thank you for reading G-Ted Productions.

Trans Iowa Stories: It's About The People; Part 2

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

In this special edition of Trans Iowa Stories I wanted to pause again to take a look at the folks who became an integral part of the event from T.I.v8- T.I. v11. Some are volunteers and some are people who rode in the event during those years. 

Some of the characters of Trans Iowa carry over from my "Part 1" of this mini-series within the Trans Iowa stories. You can click that link to go back an re-read that if you'd like. 

From L-R: Robert Fry, Jeremy Fry, Cornbread, Jason Boucher- T.I.v9 CP#2

I need to stop in this series for a bit to acknowledge the people integral to the event from the period of Trans Iowa v8- v11. I found this previously used image from v9 that has three folks I need to acknowledge and that were very important to having Trans Iowa at all, in one case here, and definitely in having the event run as well as it did for the last half of Trans Iowa's run. 

So as you may have picked up on by reading previous entries, Jeremy Fry became my right hand man in terms of putting on Trans Iowa. We did recon together, bounced ideas off each other, came up with ideas for courses together at times, and Jeremy's math talents were leaned upon heavily by me. Cue mileages and descriptors were often only as good as they were due to the diligence of Jeremy Fry. 

As if that wasn't enough, Jeremy often was a checkpoint volunteer, most often at checkpoint #2, and so many riders got to know him a bit from seeing him throughout the years. I also should mention that Jeremy participated in four versions of the event- v5, v6, v7, and v14., finishing two them. 

My favorite things about Jeremy are his cutting, dry sense of humor and his dogged determination to help make Trans Iowa as good as it could be. Sometimes I think Jeremy was more adamant about that than even I was! 

Another Fry, Robert Fry, a native of the U.K., was another figure in this time period of note. Robert was a distinctive individual in that he had toed the line at the very first Trans Iowa and had been around to see the beginnings of things since he is a resident of Waterloo and an avid cyclist who knew Jeff Kerkove. Robert was also heavily involved in randonnuering, so things like cue sheets, time cut -offs, and long distances were ideas not foreign to Robert. Besides riding in the first Trans Iowa, he rode in v8 and in v10, posting finishes in both events. 

Robert also was a huge help in volunteering at checkpoint 2, with Jeremy Fry, and Robert played off of that by declaring he and Jeremy as the "Brothers Fry", although they are not related. One of the more notable things about having Robert help out during this period was that during these years we had a few fellows come over from the U.K. to ride Trans Iowa. Robert, being an ex-pat U.K. fellow, was their biggest champion. 

This Jason Boucher shot of rider Paul Errington from the UK. at T.I.v9 ended up becoming an iconic Salsa Cycles catalog image.

Finally from the image above we have Jason Boucher, who was responsible for the email after T.I. v3 which influenced me to keep Trans Iowa going. I seriously doubt I would have continued on without his influence then. Jason also was connected to Salsa Cycles and took a lot of inspiration and information from Trans Iowa which informed gravel product for years to come. He was very influential in getting other Salsa/QBP related employees into Trans Iowa by way of talking up the event, and so we would not have had champions like Joe Meiser, or John Gorilla, more than likely, had we not had Jason Boucher in Trans Iowa's corner. 

Jason's passion is photography, and he brought his formidable talents to bear at Trans Iowa on a few occasions which not only was an honor for me, but also enhanced our event experiences and obviously preserved a lot of important memories from over the years. Not only that, but the story of Trans Iowa was told to far more people than it otherwise would have been because of the influence of Jason.

Greg Gleason pulls a line of riders up a hill at T.I.v10 Image by Wally Kilburg

Greg Gleason was a rookie rider at Trans Iowa v10 who no one knew anything about. After the finish, everyone there wanted to know who the heck this guy was that just won Trans Iowa. Well, we all found out in the years that passed since that Trans Iowa who Greg was. Just a very talented, fast, durable cyclist that animated every Trans Iowa after that until the end. That's all.

Greg was always one of my favorite riders at Trans Iowa. Always affable, kind, and supportive of myself and Trans Iowa, Greg became an ambassador of gravel riding there for a hot minute after he floored us all at T.I.v10. I'll have more to say about Greg in my last part of this mini-series. 

Another rider that started showing up around this time was Sarah Cooper. She had been involved in ultra-distance cycling and gravel riding was a fairly new thing for her. Yet she persevered and became a winner of the Womans Open class twice in her four attempts. She also figures heavily as an influencer of the event behind the scenes and in another way which I will get around to in my last post in the mini-series. 

Monica Sattler (L) finishing T.I.v9 with Paul LaCava

Monica Sattler who was from Germany, also was a pretty impressive rider from this period. She only rode in Trans Iowa one time, but she not only finished, but she won the Woman's Open! That's impressive! She then took her experiences from Trans Iowa and a few other gravel events and wrote an inspirational book which featured a bit from her Trans Iowa ride. Again, an ambassador for the event, spreading the word far and wide which we would never had the pleasure of having without her one ride in the T.I.v9.

Not only that, but I recall the banter we shared at the finish line that morning as being really enjoyable. I don't think I've had an exchange like we had with anyone else at any Trans Iowa. 

Jana Vavre is one of the most notable figures in Trans Iowa history. She became the first woman to ever finish a Trans Iowa at T.I.v7 and the first woman to repeat as a finisher when she came in 2nd in the Open Woman's class, 6th over all, at Trans Iowa v9. Jana's breaking of that barrier in v7 made it known that it was a possibility for other women to finish Trans Iowa. It was obvious that after her finish that more women started trying Trans Iowa, and I credit her valiant effort in v7 for this. By repeating as a finisher Jana only cemented this fact even further. Jana is a very influential, and underappreciated woman in the overall gravel scene in my opinion. She also figures into my last post in this mini-series. 

From the sponsor side we had a couple of what I would call "Super-Supporters" of Trans Iowa. One was a bit more behind the scenes, but Josh Lederman, who also rode in Trans Iowa, was my contact for sponsorship through Ledermann Bail Bonds. This sponsorship kept Trans Iowa going by way of financial support during times when I did not have the funds to do a lot of the things I wanted to do to enhance the experiences of those who came. Things like the 10th anniversary t-shirts, getting my truck repaired one year, and so on. Josh, and Ledermann Bail Bonds were vital to how Trans Iowa came out for several years there during this time period. 

The other "Super-Supporter" of Trans Iowa was Will Ritchie, then with WTB. It was Will's passion for Trans Iowa and for how I did things which caused him to become a huge advocate for Trans Iowa, and gravel riding in general, during that time. In fact, it could be said that without Will's insistence that WTB get a hold of this gravel grinding thing, and support Trans Iowa, a few things may never have happened. I'll have a lot more to share about Will and WTB in my last post in this series. 

Just as I have started this post with talk of volunteers, I am going to end it with volunteers. One of the biggest super-fans of Trans Iowa was the group known as the Slender Fungus. I counted on them heavily during these latter years of Trans Iowa for their unwavering support. Ari Andonopoulous, Mike Baggio, Arik Gum, and T.J. were indispensable and an integral part of various bits behind the scenes and as volunteers. 

Next; A Moment Of Reflection

Trans Iowa Stories: It's About The People; Part 2

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

In this special edition of Trans Iowa Stories I wanted to pause again to take a look at the folks who became an integral part of the event from T.I.v8- T.I. v11. Some are volunteers and some are people who rode in the event during those years. 

Some of the characters of Trans Iowa carry over from my "Part 1" of this mini-series within the Trans Iowa stories. You can click that link to go back an re-read that if you'd like. 

From L-R: Robert Fry, Jeremy Fry, Cornbread, Jason Boucher- T.I.v9 CP#2

I need to stop in this series for a bit to acknowledge the people integral to the event from the period of Trans Iowa v8- v11. I found this previously used image from v9 that has three folks I need to acknowledge and that were very important to having Trans Iowa at all, in one case here, and definitely in having the event run as well as it did for the last half of Trans Iowa's run. 

So as you may have picked up on by reading previous entries, Jeremy Fry became my right hand man in terms of putting on Trans Iowa. We did recon together, bounced ideas off each other, came up with ideas for courses together at times, and Jeremy's math talents were leaned upon heavily by me. Cue mileages and descriptors were often only as good as they were due to the diligence of Jeremy Fry. 

As if that wasn't enough, Jeremy often was a checkpoint volunteer, most often at checkpoint #2, and so many riders got to know him a bit from seeing him throughout the years. I also should mention that Jeremy participated in four versions of the event- v5, v6, v7, and v14., finishing two them. 

My favorite things about Jeremy are his cutting, dry sense of humor and his dogged determination to help make Trans Iowa as good as it could be. Sometimes I think Jeremy was more adamant about that than even I was! 

Another Fry, Robert Fry, a native of the U.K., was another figure in this time period of note. Robert was a distinctive individual in that he had toed the line at the very first Trans Iowa and had been around to see the beginnings of things since he is a resident of Waterloo and an avid cyclist who knew Jeff Kerkove. Robert was also heavily involved in randonnuering, so things like cue sheets, time cut -offs, and long distances were ideas not foreign to Robert. Besides riding in the first Trans Iowa, he rode in v8 and in v10, posting finishes in both events. 

Robert also was a huge help in volunteering at checkpoint 2, with Jeremy Fry, and Robert played off of that by declaring he and Jeremy as the "Brothers Fry", although they are not related. One of the more notable things about having Robert help out during this period was that during these years we had a few fellows come over from the U.K. to ride Trans Iowa. Robert, being an ex-pat U.K. fellow, was their biggest champion. 

This Jason Boucher shot of rider Paul Errington from the UK. at T.I.v9 ended up becoming an iconic Salsa Cycles catalog image.

Finally from the image above we have Jason Boucher, who was responsible for the email after T.I. v3 which influenced me to keep Trans Iowa going. I seriously doubt I would have continued on without his influence then. Jason also was connected to Salsa Cycles and took a lot of inspiration and information from Trans Iowa which informed gravel product for years to come. He was very influential in getting other Salsa/QBP related employees into Trans Iowa by way of talking up the event, and so we would not have had champions like Joe Meiser, or John Gorilla, more than likely, had we not had Jason Boucher in Trans Iowa's corner. 

Jason's passion is photography, and he brought his formidable talents to bear at Trans Iowa on a few occasions which not only was an honor for me, but also enhanced our event experiences and obviously preserved a lot of important memories from over the years. Not only that, but the story of Trans Iowa was told to far more people than it otherwise would have been because of the influence of Jason.

Greg Gleason pulls a line of riders up a hill at T.I.v10 Image by Wally Kilburg

Greg Gleason was a rookie rider at Trans Iowa v10 who no one knew anything about. After the finish, everyone there wanted to know who the heck this guy was that just won Trans Iowa. Well, we all found out in the years that passed since that Trans Iowa who Greg was. Just a very talented, fast, durable cyclist that animated every Trans Iowa after that until the end. That's all.

Greg was always one of my favorite riders at Trans Iowa. Always affable, kind, and supportive of myself and Trans Iowa, Greg became an ambassador of gravel riding there for a hot minute after he floored us all at T.I.v10. I'll have more to say about Greg in my last part of this mini-series. 

Another rider that started showing up around this time was Sarah Cooper. She had been involved in ultra-distance cycling and gravel riding was a fairly new thing for her. Yet she persevered and became a winner of the Womans Open class twice in her four attempts. She also figures heavily as an influencer of the event behind the scenes and in another way which I will get around to in my last post in the mini-series. 

Monica Sattler (L) finishing T.I.v9 with Paul LaCava

Monica Sattler who was from Germany, also was a pretty impressive rider from this period. She only rode in Trans Iowa one time, but she not only finished, but she won the Woman's Open! That's impressive! She then took her experiences from Trans Iowa and a few other gravel events and wrote an inspirational book which featured a bit from her Trans Iowa ride. Again, an ambassador for the event, spreading the word far and wide which we would never had the pleasure of having without her one ride in the T.I.v9.

Not only that, but I recall the banter we shared at the finish line that morning as being really enjoyable. I don't think I've had an exchange like we had with anyone else at any Trans Iowa. 

Jana Vavre is one of the most notable figures in Trans Iowa history. She became the first woman to ever finish a Trans Iowa at T.I.v7 and the first woman to repeat as a finisher when she came in 2nd in the Open Woman's class, 6th over all, at Trans Iowa v9. Jana's breaking of that barrier in v7 made it known that it was a possibility for other women to finish Trans Iowa. It was obvious that after her finish that more women started trying Trans Iowa, and I credit her valiant effort in v7 for this. By repeating as a finisher Jana only cemented this fact even further. Jana is a very influential, and underappreciated woman in the overall gravel scene in my opinion. She also figures into my last post in this mini-series. 

From the sponsor side we had a couple of what I would call "Super-Supporters" of Trans Iowa. One was a bit more behind the scenes, but Josh Lederman, who also rode in Trans Iowa, was my contact for sponsorship through Ledermann Bail Bonds. This sponsorship kept Trans Iowa going by way of financial support during times when I did not have the funds to do a lot of the things I wanted to do to enhance the experiences of those who came. Things like the 10th anniversary t-shirts, getting my truck repaired one year, and so on. Josh, and Ledermann Bail Bonds were vital to how Trans Iowa came out for several years there during this time period. 

The other "Super-Supporter" of Trans Iowa was Will Ritchie, then with WTB. It was Will's passion for Trans Iowa and for how I did things which caused him to become a huge advocate for Trans Iowa, and gravel riding in general, during that time. In fact, it could be said that without Will's insistence that WTB get a hold of this gravel grinding thing, and support Trans Iowa, a few things may never have happened. I'll have a lot more to share about Will and WTB in my last post in this series. 

Just as I have started this post with talk of volunteers, I am going to end it with volunteers. One of the biggest super-fans of Trans Iowa was the group known as the Slender Fungus. I counted on them heavily during these latter years of Trans Iowa for their unwavering support. Ari Andonopoulous, Mike Baggio, Arik Gum, and T.J. were indispensable and an integral part of various bits behind the scenes and as volunteers. 

Next; A Moment Of Reflection

Trans Iowa Stories: A Prank Entry And Registration Madness: Part 3

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

This entry in the series will feature some of the unusual gifts I was given via the registration process. Some items were meant as "sponsorship" for the ride, but were really a gift to me/Trans Iowa from individuals who wanted to give back somehow. I have also included those but actual sponsorship efforts will be covered separately. There were gifts from volunteers as well, and those will also be covered separately. Otherwise there will be commentary as necessary. The next post after this in the series will show off some of the treasured post cards I have kept over the years, so stay tuned for that next. 

Before things got complicated: An 'edible' post card for T.I.v5 (Info redacted to protect the innocent)

 

T.I.v9 and 10 riders, Pete Jaros and Bill Pontious gifted me this jersey after v10. This is especially poignant since Bill died shortly after I received this.

Don Daly, a Trans Iowa rider for several years, gifted the banner here for T.I.v11

Flowers were a popular item which I would receive during registrations.

Trans Iowa stickers from Kevin Wilson which were gifted for T.I.v6, but were used until the last T.I.

Probably the second T.I. inspired t-shirt was this design for T.I.v5 from rider Rusty Kay. It is from the header designed by Jeff Kerkove for the T.I. site that year.

Cigars and a cigar cutter gifted via registration by Lance Andre. I never did smoke these because I kept saving them 'for a special occasion'!

Kind of a weird one here, but these were tasty!

An example of a "flower registration" from v6

Another odd one: Petrified shark's teeth from v6's registration.

Don Daly strikes again. This was the gift he sent for T.I.12 along with hats for the volunteers.

Not pictured: A case of Northland oil from Warren Wiebe for a T.I.v6 entry, which really threw me for a loop since I thought it was for the shop owner! I received several fifths of whiskey and craft beer selections during registration over the years. I also received several small and not-so-small gifts of money to help with the gas and time put into the event.Some were outright sponsors, some were volunteers, and that will get covered later. However; some were anonymous or wanted to remain so, and I will continue to respect their wishes in the matter. Just know that there were several folks who gave cash and gift cards to help out with the event over the years. I appreciate all of you! Then there were various other gifts which slip my mind right now......

Oh! A couple more I found here.....

With the crazy T.I.v11 registration we got the most flowers and plants ever.

 

A gas gift card and two Red Bull energy drinks which came with a T.I.v6 registration

A gift from Jeremy Fry back when he rode in Trans Iowa. This was for v6.

Okay, well, you get the idea! Trans Iowa folks were generous and never failed to humble me with their gift ideas over the years. I was supremely privileged to have been on the receiving end of all of this attention and gift giving. It's something I'll never forget. I mean, how could I? 

Next: Some post cards I have kept over the years....

Trans Iowa Stories: A Prank Entry And Registration Madness: Part 3

 "Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

This entry in the series will feature some of the unusual gifts I was given via the registration process. Some items were meant as "sponsorship" for the ride, but were really a gift to me/Trans Iowa from individuals who wanted to give back somehow. I have also included those but actual sponsorship efforts will be covered separately. There were gifts from volunteers as well, and those will also be covered separately. Otherwise there will be commentary as necessary. The next post after this in the series will show off some of the treasured post cards I have kept over the years, so stay tuned for that next. 

Before things got complicated: An 'edible' post card for T.I.v5 (Info redacted to protect the innocent)

 

T.I.v9 and 10 riders, Pete Jaros and Bill Pontious gifted me this jersey after v10. This is especially poignant since Bill died shortly after I received this.

Don Daly, a Trans Iowa rider for several years, gifted the banner here for T.I.v11

Flowers were a popular item which I would receive during registrations.

Trans Iowa stickers from Kevin Wilson which were gifted for T.I.v6, but were used until the last T.I.

Probably the second T.I. inspired t-shirt was this design for T.I.v5 from rider Rusty Kay. It is from the header designed by Jeff Kerkove for the T.I. site that year.

Cigars and a cigar cutter gifted via registration by Lance Andre. I never did smoke these because I kept saving them 'for a special occasion'!

Kind of a weird one here, but these were tasty!

An example of a "flower registration" from v6

Another odd one: Petrified shark's teeth from v6's registration.

Don Daly strikes again. This was the gift he sent for T.I.12 along with hats for the volunteers.

Not pictured: A case of Northland oil from Warren Wiebe for a T.I.v6 entry, which really threw me for a loop since I thought it was for the shop owner! I received several fifths of whiskey and craft beer selections during registration over the years. I also received several small and not-so-small gifts of money to help with the gas and time put into the event.Some were outright sponsors, some were volunteers, and that will get covered later. However; some were anonymous or wanted to remain so, and I will continue to respect their wishes in the matter. Just know that there were several folks who gave cash and gift cards to help out with the event over the years. I appreciate all of you! Then there were various other gifts which slip my mind right now......

Oh! A couple more I found here.....

With the crazy T.I.v11 registration we got the most flowers and plants ever.

 

A gas gift card and two Red Bull energy drinks which came with a T.I.v6 registration

A gift from Jeremy Fry back when he rode in Trans Iowa. This was for v6.

Okay, well, you get the idea! Trans Iowa folks were generous and never failed to humble me with their gift ideas over the years. I was supremely privileged to have been on the receiving end of all of this attention and gift giving. It's something I'll never forget. I mean, how could I? 

Next: Some post cards I have kept over the years....

Rear View 2020: The Fourth Quarter

The Quest took up almost all my riding for the last quarter of 2020.

 Hello Readers! Once again I am doing the annual retrospective on what went down over the year of 2020. This is the last post and will cover the Fourth quarter and the previous three quarters have been posted already for a total of four, one each week of December on Thursdays. This is the fourth "Rear View" post of the series. 

October kicked off with my announcement that I was not going to continue on with cataloging gravel events anymore. The chaos induced by the pandemic caused everything to be in flux and one man trying to ride herd on 500+ events was not a tenable situation going forward. Besides, the whole situation previous to the pandemic in relation to taking care of the calendar was time consuming and did not reflect in any perceived benefits to either the site or myself. So, that's that. I kind of hated to call an end to something I started in 2008, but it wasn't a realistic expectation for me to carry it on either. 

The Fall saw my rides to complete "The Quest" ramp up considerably. The days were windy, dry, and the routes got more convoluted and weird. The need to get roads done dwindled down to a point that by December I had a minimal amount of roads to cover. Finally, on the last nice day of 2020, where the temperatures reached about 60°, I completed 'The Quest", and that was on December 10th.

On a personal level I was attending my son's final high school football games. The away games were all at the same stadium in Cedar Rapids with the exception of the final game which was at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. Attendance was strictly relegated by the schools, so it was a weird experience. The West Wahawks won a play-off game and were awarded a special banner to be hung in the school gymnasium and a trophy for the trophy case. My son was proud of his accomplishments on the field and it was kind of rewarding to be a small part of that.  

One other notable thing I did was that I volunteered for the Spotted Horse gravel race in October. This marked the first time I had driven out of town for anything other than football games since the last day of February. It also marked the first time I had personal contact with anyone outside of my family and employer since mid-March. In fact, I got three hugs. It was.......weird, wonderful, and risky. I actually felt a touch guilty about it all. Still do......

Work was another thing that dwindled down to nearly nothing by December. Since new complete bikes were as rare as hen's teeth, only repairs were keeping me working and those dried up, which wasn't a surprise. The Winter would be a sparse, low-key affair for me going forward due to this. Of course, this gave me more opportunities to finish up "The Quest". So it wasn't a total loss. 

And that's a wrap on the year. Once again, I want to extend my deepest thanks and appreciation to all those who have come here to read this blog. Either on a daily basis, occasionally, or even rarely. All of you matter and I am honored and privileged to have you all as my audience. 

As 2020 draws to a close, and after 15 years of blogging, I am still amazed that anyone even ventures to read my writings. I still am energized to write stories and convey thoughts and opinions. I hope to continue sharing my experiences in words and images for a long time into the future. But I realize the future is not guaranteed. This year has brought that thought into sharper focus more than ever. 

Next: A look at the images of the year, a Top Ten Most Read Posts article, and a look into the future of the blog and my exploits for 2020.

Rear View 2020: The Fourth Quarter

The Quest took up almost all my riding for the last quarter of 2020.

 Hello Readers! Once again I am doing the annual retrospective on what went down over the year of 2020. This is the last post and will cover the Fourth quarter and the previous three quarters have been posted already for a total of four, one each week of December on Thursdays. This is the fourth "Rear View" post of the series. 

October kicked off with my announcement that I was not going to continue on with cataloging gravel events anymore. The chaos induced by the pandemic caused everything to be in flux and one man trying to ride herd on 500+ events was not a tenable situation going forward. Besides, the whole situation previous to the pandemic in relation to taking care of the calendar was time consuming and did not reflect in any perceived benefits to either the site or myself. So, that's that. I kind of hated to call an end to something I started in 2008, but it wasn't a realistic expectation for me to carry it on either. 

The Fall saw my rides to complete "The Quest" ramp up considerably. The days were windy, dry, and the routes got more convoluted and weird. The need to get roads done dwindled down to a point that by December I had a minimal amount of roads to cover. Finally, on the last nice day of 2020, where the temperatures reached about 60°, I completed 'The Quest", and that was on December 10th.

On a personal level I was attending my son's final high school football games. The away games were all at the same stadium in Cedar Rapids with the exception of the final game which was at Drake Stadium in Des Moines. Attendance was strictly relegated by the schools, so it was a weird experience. The West Wahawks won a play-off game and were awarded a special banner to be hung in the school gymnasium and a trophy for the trophy case. My son was proud of his accomplishments on the field and it was kind of rewarding to be a small part of that.  

One other notable thing I did was that I volunteered for the Spotted Horse gravel race in October. This marked the first time I had driven out of town for anything other than football games since the last day of February. It also marked the first time I had personal contact with anyone outside of my family and employer since mid-March. In fact, I got three hugs. It was.......weird, wonderful, and risky. I actually felt a touch guilty about it all. Still do......

Work was another thing that dwindled down to nearly nothing by December. Since new complete bikes were as rare as hen's teeth, only repairs were keeping me working and those dried up, which wasn't a surprise. The Winter would be a sparse, low-key affair for me going forward due to this. Of course, this gave me more opportunities to finish up "The Quest". So it wasn't a total loss. 

And that's a wrap on the year. Once again, I want to extend my deepest thanks and appreciation to all those who have come here to read this blog. Either on a daily basis, occasionally, or even rarely. All of you matter and I am honored and privileged to have you all as my audience. 

As 2020 draws to a close, and after 15 years of blogging, I am still amazed that anyone even ventures to read my writings. I still am energized to write stories and convey thoughts and opinions. I hope to continue sharing my experiences in words and images for a long time into the future. But I realize the future is not guaranteed. This year has brought that thought into sharper focus more than ever. 

Next: A look at the images of the year, a Top Ten Most Read Posts article, and a look into the future of the blog and my exploits for 2020.

Volunteering At The Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra

Old DX gas station in Murray. Iowa.

 5:00am Saturday, October 24th, 2020: The alarm goes off on my iPhone and I jump up out of bed, careful not to awake Mrs. Guitar Ted, but not quiet enough for Minka The Cat. She accompanies me downstairs where I immediately feed the ravenous creature its breakfast. Then I get to making my own meal before getting kitted out to do my turn at the Spotted Horse Gravel Ultra. This event, in its fifth year, happens to be down South of me about a three hour drive away. So, I have to be quick about things to be able to hit the road by 6:00am or earlier, if I can. My turn to serve starts at 10:00am, but they wanted me to show up by 9:30am. 

My destination is Murray, Iowa, a small village West of Osceola, Iowa on US 34. Wikipedia says the population, as of 2010, was 756 people. Hmm.....I'd believe it if it was less than that. Anyway, I'd never been there, or even heard of the village, until my assignment was given via e-mail to me from Race Director, Sarah Cooper. I was to be paired up with another of the RD's, Dori, and the lead at the checkpoint was Amanda. I knew Dori and Sarah from Trans Iowa, but I had never met Amanda before. 

The Spotted Horse is a 150 mile or 200 mile event which had been modified this year due to COVID-19, and was run (kind of) concurrently with the postponed from April Iowa Wind And Rock, the 300+ mile event which was strongly influenced by Trans Iowa. I wasn't sure what to expect, since these sorts of gravel ultras are hard to train for and what with 2020 being what it has been, I wasn't even going to venture any guesses as to what the attendance might be. Added to this was the fact that it was forecast to be raw, cold, and grey for the weekend, and I wasn't thinking this was a recipe for a large turnout. But who knows?

Some Murray, Iowa flavor. I don't know how smaller villages like this hang on these days.

Besides a public school and a Casey's convenience store, this was the best maintained building in town.

I arrived a half an hour early, you know, like a good Mid-Western boy should, and sat around getting the stink-eye from locals gathering at the public area we were to set up the checkpoint at. They were gathering with their elementary school aged children for a bit of a soccer game. I have to say that I was duly impressed by the turnout. There must have been 30 children of various ages running amok at one point. Anyway, me being an outsider with non-Clarke County plates, well, I was a stranger and therefore to be suspected of.....well, I'd rather not guess what. I'm sure it wasn't 'good'. 

The forlorn streets were mostly devoid of activity, with the exception of a stray cat and dog.

I had my picture made with (From L-R) Dori, Steve, myself, and Sarah. (Image taken by Amanda)

Not long after I arrived a silver VW sedan with a bike rack turned around the corner up the street from me. Ah! The 'bike people' are arriving! It was Dori. We said our hellos and got to setting up the checkpoint. Dori is one of the RD's of the Spotted Horse and a very inspirational person to be around. Not long after this, Amanda arrived, and we were ready to go. Then Steve and Sarah, the other RD's of the event, arrived and we had a few more folks stop by as well, including the couple from Bottom Bracket Biking and Lisa, who was banged up and recovering from a bicycle accident earlier this year. 

This is always my favorite part of events like this where you get to chat for a time with folks you only see at gravel events. It's where the term, "Gravel Family" comes from, and it's a big reason why the grassroots gravel scene is so popular. 

Siphamandia Simelane came in second to Checkpoint #1

Dori's self-described "bitchy notes" for the riders at the checkpoint

As volunteers we were instructed to be wearing masks and to have riders take off water bottle tops, hand the bottles to us, and we would fill them from the spigot. This worked marvelously well, and all riders I helped were very compliant with the protocols. Other than this small inconvenience, this was basically like any other aid station/checkpoint experience I have had. 

The first riders did not show up until the stroke of ten o'clock, so we had about a half an hour of chatting freely with Steve and Sarah before they had to move along and get up the road. I found out that the situation in the Iowa Wind And Rock event had caused everyone to fall away until one was left standing- or riding, in this case. It was, no surprise to me, Greg Gleason. The two-time Trans Iowa winner was riding IWAR single speed, and some of the stories shared by Steve and Sarah concerning Greg's performance were fun to hear about. 

The situation with some of the other riders was also shared with me, which was very kind of them, and of course, told in confidence. I wouldn't say anything, but they never asked me not to. That sort of trust is rare. I appreciated their confidence greatly and always will. Anyway, Greg ended up winning and being the only finisher. Amazing! 

We were graced by a visit from the Burger King. Who knew that he lived in Murray Iowa? Crazy!

Past Spotted Horse events have been noted for their derailleur-destroying conditions. Many single speeders showed up this year as a result.

As I said, the first two riders we saw come in showed up at the stroke of 10;00am. By this time the soccer brigade had cleared out and left the forlorn streets of Murray, Iowa to us bike freaks. We went about our business, seeing cyclists come in pairs every so often, until we heard a train blow its lonesome call. A big freight train, by the sounds of it, and I was wondering, along with the others, if it was holding up some of the rider's progress to our position. 

As the rumble of the iron wheels faded we saw a slug of riders headed our way, the biggest pack we would see all morning, and sure enough, they related to us that the train had caused them all to bunch back together. We moved quickly as we could from rider to rider to service their needs and one by one they eventually all made their way back on down the road. 

Amanda was our leader and record keeper. It was great to get to know her during my time there.

A few riders getting ready to head out to checkpoint #2.

Eventually riders stopped trickling in. 11:30am came and went with no further activity. Technically speaking, we were to be done then, but we all agreed to stay on until noon to make sure no straggler was left behind. As the noon hour approached we packed up most everything and I said goodbye to Dori and Amanda, the only two left there, and made my way back home. 

While turn out wasn't spectacular for either event, everyone was stoked to be there and riding. I saw a lot of happy faces and it was good to be out doing something kind of normal for once. Oh......yeah. This is the first time I've traveled out of town for anything social since before the pandemic. It was odd, but not weird. If that makes any sense. I had a bit of anxiety about it, but overall, I am okay. I think the event was done right and we were safe, as far as you can be. 

Anyway, besides that I was very glad to be giving back to the gravel community again in a bit different role than I have before. I might have to do this volunteering thing again someday. It was pretty fun.