Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #44

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

The "second" official header for V8 that Jeff Kerkove designed

 With all my efforts focused upon putting on the best Trans Iowa I could, a few things bear mentioning that were unusual for this event. First amongst those is the film, "300 Miles of Gravel", which would be shown for the very first time during the Pre-Race Meet-Up.  67 riders and support folks were the first to witness the unveiling of  Jeff Frings' hard work over the past year. It was a bit embarrassing for me, having had a big part in the show, but it was well received by all in attendance.

Secondly, the remote nature of the course was such that convenience store opportunities were scarce, and nearly non-existent for the last 140 miles. Because of this, and the fact that I had Gu Energy and Cliff Bar downloading tons of product on the event, I took a page from the Pirate Cycling League's Gravel Worlds and used their idea of a "Secret Checkpoint". What I did was I picked out a spot in a small village with about 120 miles to go and allowed volunteers Jeremy Fry and Matt Gersib to provide whatever goods they wanted to, along with the Cliff Bar and Gu Energy stuff.

Getting settled in to watch "300 Miles of Gravel": Image by W. Kilburg

Then there was the remote 2nd checkpoint, which was really way out in the sticks this time. I think the nearest village was 10 miles away! (Not on the route either, by the way.) I really liked this particular checkpoint and fortunately the weather cooperated to allow for it to be a great part of Trans Iowa V8.

The Trans Iowa vehicle would finally be "The Truck With No Name", since I had no co-director anymore. It would be just myself slugging it out for 35 plus hours.

Media: We had Steve Fuller pulling photography duties again for V8. He along with Checkpoint #2 volunteer, Wally Kilburg, took a lot of great photographs before and during the event. Trans Iowa V8 has a ton of photographic documentation, possibly more photographs were taken for V8 than the previous seven Trans Iowa events combined, at least on a "professional, for the event" level. We also had Dave Mabel with "Iowa Momentum Magazine" as an "in race reporter".

We had a wet, ominous start: Image by Wally Kilburg

The weather was crazy. It had been bone dry leading up to T.I.V8, but the night before we started, thunderstorms let loose and stayed around till right up to the start. It was super windy from the east as well.

I awoke in my motel room at 2:30am. So, a too early start for sure! I was nervous about the weather, and nervous about how it would all go down, excepting that I knew that everything I could have possibly accounted for had been covered. Not like any Trans Iowa before V8.

My main memories from the beginning were the lights, as always, of the long train of riders. I recall stopping for a moment on a hill to watch their glow coming up behind me and then like a small, brilliant bluish sunrise, the lights spilled over the lip of a hill behind me. That was cool to see. Then it was the wind, darkness, and me feeling very alone as I struck out to the first B Maintenance road 29 miles into the event.

Things went well, actually. Typical Trans Iowa stuff from the start through to Checkpoint #1, just without any drama whatsoever. No rerouting, no miscues, nothing like that at all. It was almost.......boring! Checkpoint #1 was well manned and executed by the volunteers led by Brent Irish. Kudos to that group. They were top notch volunteers.

A steep, gravel covered hill: Image by Steve Fuller

Again, things were going great, and better than I thought. I was pretty down in the dumps about the weather, but when Brent Irish called in with the Checkpoint #1 figures, I was dumbfounded.

Brent: "It looks like we had 55 go through the checkpoint."

Me: "How many?!! Are you sure?"

Brent, (sounding a bit  annoyed), "55- By my count we had 55."

I explained I was not questioning his abilities, but I was surprised to the point of flabbergasted. It was a big turnaround for me in my countenance and I was excited once again. Further up the road, Wally and George put on a heck of a checkpoint experience, with a great atmosphere, camaraderie, and even a fire to warm a cold body beside! I still remember John Gorilla telling me that there should have been a time limitation on how long you could stay at Wally and George's checkpoint!

Checkpoint Bravo and the campfire.

Going to hang out with MG and J-Fry at the "Secret Checkpoint" was another highlight point in the event from my standpoint. Good times there. Then moving up the road, there was the trouble with finding a good place to pull over to urinate.

Yeah, when you are in the country, there usually are several places to discretely relieve oneself. However; I could not seem to find a place out of sight, or find a desolate, car free enough area to get out to do my business. I recall pulling into Pella and finding a bicycle trail that the riders were to take into town. There was a public trail head there with a parking lot. Surely there would be a public restroom facility, a porta-jon, or a pit toilet? Nope!  Nuthin! I didn't want to stray to far from the trail for fear of missing the lead riders, but I eventually found a line of trees and brush to hide behind and this was a life saver!

Then there was the late night driving in Jasper County on their freshly graveled, loose roads. I pulled over to take a call from MG and the truck just about slid into the ditch! Of course, I had already, earlier Saturday, done a full mile of squirrely B Maintenance road dirt trackin'! Some folks that knew about my near misses were concerned afterward and asked me to consider having a ride along partner. But why would I put someone else at risk? Heck, I still am going to be pushing up against the edge while driving regardless of who is in the truck!

They call me the Stat Man! Yee-yeah-a I'm the Stat Maaaaan! (Image by S.Fuller)

 There really was only one tense, not very pleasant time during all of Trans Iowa V8 for me personally, and that was when we realized that Charlie Farrow was AWOL in the night. At some point between Checkpoint 2 and the Secret Checkpoint. Remember- he had gone off course already once before CP#2, and my mind was reeling with the possibilities for a not so great outcome to this development. MG said he'd backtrack the course to see if he'd left any traces of his passage, but in the dark on unfamiliar roads, I wasn't feeling too good about MG's chances. The deal was that everyone had passed through but Charlie and that he should have passed through in the time that had elapsed, thus the concerns. As mentioned above though, MG called me and said he'd found him and that Charlie was ready to call it a day, so that crisis was averted and everything was fine from that point onward.

Trans Iowa V8 claimed a few folk's rigs: Image by S. Fuller

I ended up getting into Grinnell in the middle of the night, about 2:30-ish, and I felt a great sense of accomplishment. No snafus, no unplanned rerouting, the cues were spot on, and if anyone got lost, (and there were a few that did), they all knew it was their own mistakes that caused their issues. Now all there was to do was to wait and see who could finish the route. I'd done my job, and I felt it was the very best I could do. I sat on the tailgate of my truck, despite the cold, bone chilling East wind, and drank my last beer to celebrate.

This was a big deal for me. It was "my finish line" for a challenge I set before myself bounding down a gravel road in David's Element a year beforehand. I didn't need anyone to "celebrate" with. It was a "quiet victory" and it was a very satisfying moment for me. I won't soon forget that night.

So, with that done, I thought maybe I could catch a few "z's" before the finishers showed up after dawn. That never happened. I ended up being awake for the duration, which turned out to be a nice, pleasant time with friends. The finish, as the year before, was at the end of a road near the high school. It was supposed to have been in Lion's Park, right next door, the year before for V7, but Craig Cooper of Bikes To You kind of changed that for me and I continued to do the same for V8. It worked out real well, actually.

So, the last thing was the drive home. I was beat. I had been up for a full 36 hours and driving home on the highway was getting really sketchy. I pulled off on a gravel to relieve myself and as I did, I found that I perked right up. I ended up driving about 60 miles on gravel back home. Why not? 60 miles more was a drop in the bucket to what I had already piled on for gravel mileage for the weekend!

Next Up: Getting geared up for V9 at the same level as V8.......

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #43

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Recon for V8 started in the fall of 2011

 The Summer of 2011 was spent mostly doing other stuff, and I left Trans Iowa thoughts by the wayside. Unfortunately, I missed doing the Dirty Kanza 200 that year, an event I had been trying to get ready for, but I did go to Texas and ride in the El Paso area where I busted up my knee pretty badly!

Well, my determination to elevate Trans Iowa from the perspective of logistics and execution was still there, and by late July I was already mapping out a course and by the second week of August I was ready to announce the event. By this time I was pretty excited to get the ball rolling. I actually had some discussions with some trusted Trans Iowa friends about moving the course start and end from Grinnell. Things like going further Westward in Iowa were punted around, and even a course that might encircle Des Moines was considered strongly.

In the end, I decided that from a gravel road perspective doing Trans Iowa out of Des Moines would not work since the counties of that area had paved darn near every road leaving little to choose from. I ended up landing back on Grinnell, but it wasn't for want of trying something different! So with that decided upon, I had asked Jeff Kerkove to design another header, which he did. It was up for about two weeks when I received an e-mailed letter from some lawyers to "cease and desist". Whoops! I ended up having Jeff cook up another header pronto!

The trade show season interrupted recon starting until October, but I got out there and did a huge chunk of it on my own. Going along much of the proposed "Des Moines" based route I had worked on from the Summer, I was driving in territory far from Waterloo, and in an area I'd never been in before. It was a lot of fun from that standpoint for me.

The second run of recon found me driving alone again in late November. I sussed out the run in to Checkpoint #1 and got lost which added a really cool section towards the end of the event. Registration happened shortly after this and all spots were filled up with about 15-20 folks over the limit which were placed on The Waiting List. I still had a big ol' chunk of the course to recon, and I didn't know when I'd get to it. Winter held off for the most part and the days rolled by. December passed, and we were in January with this big chunk of the course not finished up yet. I was getting pretty anxious.

Finally, on January 7th, 2012, I did an over 300 mile day and finished off a major goal. That was to get the recon bagged to the point I could format cue sheets. It was a super long day, but Trans Iowa was on the right track. I had detailed notes on turns, intersections, and possible trouble spots. Nothing had ever been done like this for a Trans Iowa before. Once the cue sheets were formatted they were sent off to be proofread and in late March the course was driven by my "Checkmates", Wally and George. We found a road closed! I had to reroute, but in the end, we had a lot of fun and almost got Wally's rig stuck in a B Road just Northwest of Grinnell.

Oakley came on board with prizing, we had Grinnell's awesome support again, and all was lined up for another spectacular running of Trans Iowa. Would the weather hold out? That was the only question mark going in for me. The cue sheets were spot on and done, the roads double checked. I was confident there would be no mistakes from my end on T.I.v8.

Next: The event takes off....

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #43

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Recon for V8 started in the fall of 2011

 The Summer of 2011 was spent mostly doing other stuff, and I left Trans Iowa thoughts by the wayside. Unfortunately, I missed doing the Dirty Kanza 200 that year, an event I had been trying to get ready for, but I did go to Texas and ride in the El Paso area where I busted up my knee pretty badly!

Well, my determination to elevate Trans Iowa from the perspective of logistics and execution was still there, and by late July I was already mapping out a course and by the second week of August I was ready to announce the event. By this time I was pretty excited to get the ball rolling. I actually had some discussions with some trusted Trans Iowa friends about moving the course start and end from Grinnell. Things like going further Westward in Iowa were punted around, and even a course that might encircle Des Moines was considered strongly.

In the end, I decided that from a gravel road perspective doing Trans Iowa out of Des Moines would not work since the counties of that area had paved darn near every road leaving little to choose from. I ended up landing back on Grinnell, but it wasn't for want of trying something different! So with that decided upon, I had asked Jeff Kerkove to design another header, which he did. It was up for about two weeks when I received an e-mailed letter from some lawyers to "cease and desist". Whoops! I ended up having Jeff cook up another header pronto!

The trade show season interrupted recon starting until October, but I got out there and did a huge chunk of it on my own. Going along much of the proposed "Des Moines" based route I had worked on from the Summer, I was driving in territory far from Waterloo, and in an area I'd never been in before. It was a lot of fun from that standpoint for me.

The second run of recon found me driving alone again in late November. I sussed out the run in to Checkpoint #1 and got lost which added a really cool section towards the end of the event. Registration happened shortly after this and all spots were filled up with about 15-20 folks over the limit which were placed on The Waiting List. I still had a big ol' chunk of the course to recon, and I didn't know when I'd get to it. Winter held off for the most part and the days rolled by. December passed, and we were in January with this big chunk of the course not finished up yet. I was getting pretty anxious.

Finally, on January 7th, 2012, I did an over 300 mile day and finished off a major goal. That was to get the recon bagged to the point I could format cue sheets. It was a super long day, but Trans Iowa was on the right track. I had detailed notes on turns, intersections, and possible trouble spots. Nothing had ever been done like this for a Trans Iowa before. Once the cue sheets were formatted they were sent off to be proofread and in late March the course was driven by my "Checkmates", Wally and George. We found a road closed! I had to reroute, but in the end, we had a lot of fun and almost got Wally's rig stuck in a B Road just Northwest of Grinnell.

Oakley came on board with prizing, we had Grinnell's awesome support again, and all was lined up for another spectacular running of Trans Iowa. Would the weather hold out? That was the only question mark going in for me. The cue sheets were spot on and done, the roads double checked. I was confident there would be no mistakes from my end on T.I.v8.

Next: The event takes off....

Friday News And Views

A gravel bike?

Breadwinner Cycles is a frame building concern from Portland, Oregon and was started by two-time Trans Iowa winner and frame builder Ira Ryan and his partner, frame builder Tony Pereira. They debuted their Breadwinner Cycles brand at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, (NAHBS), and they will be back this year again showing a couple of new models. One is dubbed "B-Road".

It'll be interesting to see just how the name is used here. On one hand, this could be a "650B road bike", and on the other hand, it could be a reference to the minimum maintenance roads in Iowa called "B Maintenance Roads", making one think it may be a gravel road bike design. My guess? Both!

Their will be several "new" things popping up on the radar screens of gravel road enthusiasts soon, and perhaps this Breadwinner model is one of those things. I already have been tipped off to another thing that will be announced Saturday and will have a connection to Trans Iowa. (You'll have to wait till Monday to find out here.) UPDATE: See announcement here.

The growth in gravel road related product seems to be continuing unabated, and I suspect it will rankle some feathers, give fodder for the punter's blog postings, and fuel the keyboard jockey's angst out there. The thing is, the growth in the participation in gravel road riding, as I see it from my seat, is still rising. Events are posting bigger attendance figures, and I have been getting new submissions for the Gravel Grinder News calendar on a regular basis for months. On the order of about 3-5 events per week over the past three months, as a matter of fact.

So, people will have some backlash to this stuff, but it doesn't negate the reality of it. Gravel road riding is popular, the events are growing and increasing in number, and the bicycle industry is going to see if they can capitalize on that. Would you expect anything less than that? I wouldn't.

Image by A Andonopoulous.

Logistics:

I have started to fire up the Trans Iowa v10 machine again. There is a little over two months to go, and there is much to get organized yet.

I have the Grinnell Steakhouse lined up again. They provide Trans Iowa with a free venue to hold the Pre-Race Meat-Up and in return I deliver warm bodies that will eat and drink at their establishment. It's been a very beneficial relationship for both parties for the last four years.

My job now will be to contact each racer and get a head count on meals, what the menu choice will be, and to communicate the meeting details via e-mails which should start going out next week. This has also worked to serve the secondary purpose of finding out if folks on the roster are actually going to show up. That helps save costs on my end in both time and money.

I also will be doing Trans Iowa recon with my two cue sheet checkers, Wally & George, in late March. This will make sure of the clarity of the cue sheets and whether or not they are correct, or need to be changed due to road closures. The side benefit here is I get to see how the roads are coming along.

This Weekend: I have the final four posts in the "Trans Iowa Tales" series going up and then the weekend posts will be reserved for the current Trans Iowa coming up. The Frostbike report will go up Monday, and maybe there will be a couple of posts, depending upon the events going down.

UPDATE: 45NRTH announces a fatter Dillinger. 

Stay tuned, otherwise have a great weekend and ride your bicycles!

Friday News And Views

A gravel bike?

Breadwinner Cycles is a frame building concern from Portland, Oregon and was started by two-time Trans Iowa winner and frame builder Ira Ryan and his partner, frame builder Tony Pereira. They debuted their Breadwinner Cycles brand at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, (NAHBS), and they will be back this year again showing a couple of new models. One is dubbed "B-Road".

It'll be interesting to see just how the name is used here. On one hand, this could be a "650B road bike", and on the other hand, it could be a reference to the minimum maintenance roads in Iowa called "B Maintenance Roads", making one think it may be a gravel road bike design. My guess? Both!

Their will be several "new" things popping up on the radar screens of gravel road enthusiasts soon, and perhaps this Breadwinner model is one of those things. I already have been tipped off to another thing that will be announced Saturday and will have a connection to Trans Iowa. (You'll have to wait till Monday to find out here.) UPDATE: See announcement here.

The growth in gravel road related product seems to be continuing unabated, and I suspect it will rankle some feathers, give fodder for the punter's blog postings, and fuel the keyboard jockey's angst out there. The thing is, the growth in the participation in gravel road riding, as I see it from my seat, is still rising. Events are posting bigger attendance figures, and I have been getting new submissions for the Gravel Grinder News calendar on a regular basis for months. On the order of about 3-5 events per week over the past three months, as a matter of fact.

So, people will have some backlash to this stuff, but it doesn't negate the reality of it. Gravel road riding is popular, the events are growing and increasing in number, and the bicycle industry is going to see if they can capitalize on that. Would you expect anything less than that? I wouldn't.

Image by A Andonopoulous.

Logistics:

I have started to fire up the Trans Iowa v10 machine again. There is a little over two months to go, and there is much to get organized yet.

I have the Grinnell Steakhouse lined up again. They provide Trans Iowa with a free venue to hold the Pre-Race Meat-Up and in return I deliver warm bodies that will eat and drink at their establishment. It's been a very beneficial relationship for both parties for the last four years.

My job now will be to contact each racer and get a head count on meals, what the menu choice will be, and to communicate the meeting details via e-mails which should start going out next week. This has also worked to serve the secondary purpose of finding out if folks on the roster are actually going to show up. That helps save costs on my end in both time and money.

I also will be doing Trans Iowa recon with my two cue sheet checkers, Wally & George, in late March. This will make sure of the clarity of the cue sheets and whether or not they are correct, or need to be changed due to road closures. The side benefit here is I get to see how the roads are coming along.

This Weekend: I have the final four posts in the "Trans Iowa Tales" series going up and then the weekend posts will be reserved for the current Trans Iowa coming up. The Frostbike report will go up Monday, and maybe there will be a couple of posts, depending upon the events going down.

UPDATE: 45NRTH announces a fatter Dillinger. 

Stay tuned, otherwise have a great weekend and ride your bicycles!

Frostbike 2014: Preview

What will pop up on the screen this year?

Frostbike is happening this weekend up in Bloomington, Minnesota. Yes......I will be there. I should be haunting the TC area from about Friday afternoon till sometime Sunday when I will sink back Southward to Iowa where I belong.

This has become something of a yearly tradition for me. I do not keep count of such shenanigans, but I should say I've been to Frostbike almost every year for 10 years or so by now. Anymore I just figure that sometime in mid-February I'll be heading up to the Twin Cities for some geeking out on bike stuff, and more importantly, to see some great people.

Let's see- I've seen the first fat bike I ever saw at Frostbike, I rode my first 36"er at Frostbike, I have almost gone into the ditch going to Frostbike, I got a good friends car impounded at Frostbike, I've seen the holy grail of bike piles while attending Frostbike, I've gotten inebriated several times while attending Frostbike, and I've even injured myself while attending Frostbike. (Note: Not all these things happened while at QBP, so you legal hounds can relax, okay?)

Let's just say that Frostbike has been mostly about people, goofing off, and maybe getting a bit of news here and there along the way. Hey! Whatta ya expect from a guy that has been frozen out of the mountain bike trails, and has been hand shoveling piles of snow for two or three months? A guy has to let off some steam now and again. But this time I think Frostbike just may be a bit heavier on the news side of the equation. Yes.....I do know about a few things, but those things alone would not constitute my feeling that this time I just might be busier tapping out keyboards instead of kegs.

Fat bikes obviously will be something of note, as will the attendant componentry. I think we'll see some non-fat bike stuff on the hardware side and, of course, gravel tidbits. I understand All City has something coming out, (maybe that disc brake edition of the Macho Man), and I'm sure there will be some surprises.

Stay tuned for a full report on all the goings on here Monday.

Frostbike 2014: Preview

What will pop up on the screen this year?

Frostbike is happening this weekend up in Bloomington, Minnesota. Yes......I will be there. I should be haunting the TC area from about Friday afternoon till sometime Sunday when I will sink back Southward to Iowa where I belong.

This has become something of a yearly tradition for me. I do not keep count of such shenanigans, but I should say I've been to Frostbike almost every year for 10 years or so by now. Anymore I just figure that sometime in mid-February I'll be heading up to the Twin Cities for some geeking out on bike stuff, and more importantly, to see some great people.

Let's see- I've seen the first fat bike I ever saw at Frostbike, I rode my first 36"er at Frostbike, I have almost gone into the ditch going to Frostbike, I got a good friends car impounded at Frostbike, I've seen the holy grail of bike piles while attending Frostbike, I've gotten inebriated several times while attending Frostbike, and I've even injured myself while attending Frostbike. (Note: Not all these things happened while at QBP, so you legal hounds can relax, okay?)

Let's just say that Frostbike has been mostly about people, goofing off, and maybe getting a bit of news here and there along the way. Hey! Whatta ya expect from a guy that has been frozen out of the mountain bike trails, and has been hand shoveling piles of snow for two or three months? A guy has to let off some steam now and again. But this time I think Frostbike just may be a bit heavier on the news side of the equation. Yes.....I do know about a few things, but those things alone would not constitute my feeling that this time I just might be busier tapping out keyboards instead of kegs.

Fat bikes obviously will be something of note, as will the attendant componentry. I think we'll see some non-fat bike stuff on the hardware side and, of course, gravel tidbits. I understand All City has something coming out, (maybe that disc brake edition of the Macho Man), and I'm sure there will be some surprises.

Stay tuned for a full report on all the goings on here Monday.

Tough Gig

I usually try to keep things bicycle related here and I don't often stray from that. However; from time to time I will, and this is one of those times.  It was one of those times I'd rather not have to write about, in one sense, but on the other hand, it might be a really good thing. Well, here goes.....

It's about a death.

I knew this guy, he was a musician, (and a whole lot more than that), and he used to play in the church band with me. He succumbed to cancer last week. So, yeah.............

Anyway, we got the band, as it was when he played on it, back together and we played for his "Celebration Of Life" ceremony. It wasn't a funeral, really. A funeral wouldn't rock as hard as this gig did. That said, I found it to be a tough gig. I seem to have been a bit too close to this emotionally than maybe I was anticipating. That said, I made it through and everything went just fine despite myself.

This guy was one of those special folks. A person you'd never forget, if you'd have known him. He was that sort of a character. But beyond this, I often find it is at these times when I am reminded that things like wondering if there should be a fat bike class in races, if "gravel bikes' should be a specific design or not, or if enduro is stupid or not, doesn't matter at all. It is just fluff. Meaningless, really.

Love, Life, and Living it to the fullest extent. Relationships. Being a great father, friend, husband, and human being.

There ya go...........

Tough Gig

I usually try to keep things bicycle related here and I don't often stray from that. However; from time to time I will, and this is one of those times.  It was one of those times I'd rather not have to write about, in one sense, but on the other hand, it might be a really good thing. Well, here goes.....

It's about a death.

I knew this guy, he was a musician, (and a whole lot more than that), and he used to play in the church band with me. He succumbed to cancer last week. So, yeah.............

Anyway, we got the band, as it was when he played on it, back together and we played for his "Celebration Of Life" ceremony. It wasn't a funeral, really. A funeral wouldn't rock as hard as this gig did. That said, I found it to be a tough gig. I seem to have been a bit too close to this emotionally than maybe I was anticipating. That said, I made it through and everything went just fine despite myself.

This guy was one of those special folks. A person you'd never forget, if you'd have known him. He was that sort of a character. But beyond this, I often find it is at these times when I am reminded that things like wondering if there should be a fat bike class in races, if "gravel bikes' should be a specific design or not, or if enduro is stupid or not, doesn't matter at all. It is just fluff. Meaningless, really.

Love, Life, and Living it to the fullest extent. Relationships. Being a great father, friend, husband, and human being.

There ya go...........

Fargo Refresh: Part 2

The snow is piled taller than a 29"er tire!

No school yesterday as we got about 4 inches of fresh snow dumped on us. I stayed home with my two children to take care of them through the day. We watched it snow all morning, ate lunch, then shoveled for an hour or so. In between things, I managed to mount up my Planet Bike Cascadia 29"er fenders on the Fargo.

I have to drill a hole into the rear fender yet at the brake bridge, because the Salsa has a fender mount there, but it faces downward, toward the fender, and the Cascadia fender uses a bracket to work with a bolt that would go through the brake bridge 90° to how the Fargo's braze on is aligned. Bah! I zip tied it on for now, but I will drill that out and use a small bolt when I get the bike to work some day.

But beyond that, this is just needing a sealant refresh and I will be done for the season with the maintenance on this ol' girl. My plan is to do some slop-season gravel rides on this until things firm up enough to move on to these skinny 32's I'm supposed to be testing. These rides need to start soon too. Time is running short to get ready for the Renegade Gents race coming up in the beginning of April.

Fargo Refresh: Part 2

The snow is piled taller than a 29"er tire!

No school yesterday as we got about 4 inches of fresh snow dumped on us. I stayed home with my two children to take care of them through the day. We watched it snow all morning, ate lunch, then shoveled for an hour or so. In between things, I managed to mount up my Planet Bike Cascadia 29"er fenders on the Fargo.

I have to drill a hole into the rear fender yet at the brake bridge, because the Salsa has a fender mount there, but it faces downward, toward the fender, and the Cascadia fender uses a bracket to work with a bolt that would go through the brake bridge 90° to how the Fargo's braze on is aligned. Bah! I zip tied it on for now, but I will drill that out and use a small bolt when I get the bike to work some day.

But beyond that, this is just needing a sealant refresh and I will be done for the season with the maintenance on this ol' girl. My plan is to do some slop-season gravel rides on this until things firm up enough to move on to these skinny 32's I'm supposed to be testing. These rides need to start soon too. Time is running short to get ready for the Renegade Gents race coming up in the beginning of April.

Fargo Refresh

Gave the ol' girl some much needed love.

The Salsa Cycles Fargo I've had around since 2008 has been my go-to gravel exploration rig and is a bike that I've just always felt immediately comfortable on since I acquired it. That's why I've been rather loathe to retire it, and why should I? It's a perfectly good bicycle. Well.......as long as everything is in running order, that is!

I have been teaching a mechanics class at the shop where I work the past two Saturdays. It was a hands on, tune up/maintenance class. For an "example bike", I brought the ol' reliable BMC "Orange Crush" bike the first week. This past Saturday I brought out the Gen I Fargo. I knew it was rather dirty and in need of some love, but I did not know how badly in need it was of this maintenance!

In the class we checked over the bikes and made any necessary adjustments. My ol' Fargo was in pretty sad shape! The chain was shot, the cassette, having seen duty on several bikes, was surely just as bad, and I had been wanting to swap out the crank's chain rings for a better ratio for some time. I also noticed that the rear section of derailleur housing was very badly cracked. Wow! I had no idea this bike was so much in need of some maintenance. It was a good "example bike" all right. A perfectly good example of a bike that needed some lovin'!

Hey there Dave Z- I am your old cranky-crank!

Meanwhile, I had a repair job come through earlier in the week, and the owner of the bike wanted a crank set and bottom bracket removed. The old parts? I could have 'em if I wanted 'em. Turns out that the crank set in question was an old Shimano square taper, '98 model Deore XT crank with the four arm, removable spider/outer chain ring set up. We just so happened to have a new 42T outer assembly for that crank in stock at the shop. My wheels started turning....

We also had a 36T ring, and it was a middle. The old crank set I was using was a double with a 44T and a 28T granny. The 44T was just too much sometimes and dumping into the 28 was just too severe. This was most obvious at the Odin's Revenge ride last year. If I used a 42/36, with a 22T bailout granny, it might actually make more sense for my gravelly needs. Kind of a lower ratio cyclo cross set up with low geared back up.  Anyway, I figured I would give it a try.

A new 11-34T Shimano cassette was found at the shop, a new chain, and this new crankset, with another of my stockpiled UN series bottom brackets to make it all work. Things went together okay, but my OE Shimano XT front derailleur didn't work with this set up. I figured a road triple would have to be sourced, since the Fargo is down tube, bottom pull routed. However; upon further inspection at home, a DynaSys 10 speed front was found with a low mount, and it worked perfectly with my friction shifting Retroshifter. Done and done!

Next up: Cascadia fenders and some sloppy gravel riding. Stay tuned......

Fargo Refresh

Gave the ol' girl some much needed love.

The Salsa Cycles Fargo I've had around since 2008 has been my go-to gravel exploration rig and is a bike that I've just always felt immediately comfortable on since I acquired it. That's why I've been rather loathe to retire it, and why should I? It's a perfectly good bicycle. Well.......as long as everything is in running order, that is!

I have been teaching a mechanics class at the shop where I work the past two Saturdays. It was a hands on, tune up/maintenance class. For an "example bike", I brought the ol' reliable BMC "Orange Crush" bike the first week. This past Saturday I brought out the Gen I Fargo. I knew it was rather dirty and in need of some love, but I did not know how badly in need it was of this maintenance!

In the class we checked over the bikes and made any necessary adjustments. My ol' Fargo was in pretty sad shape! The chain was shot, the cassette, having seen duty on several bikes, was surely just as bad, and I had been wanting to swap out the crank's chain rings for a better ratio for some time. I also noticed that the rear section of derailleur housing was very badly cracked. Wow! I had no idea this bike was so much in need of some maintenance. It was a good "example bike" all right. A perfectly good example of a bike that needed some lovin'!

Hey there Dave Z- I am your old cranky-crank!

Meanwhile, I had a repair job come through earlier in the week, and the owner of the bike wanted a crank set and bottom bracket removed. The old parts? I could have 'em if I wanted 'em. Turns out that the crank set in question was an old Shimano square taper, '98 model Deore XT crank with the four arm, removable spider/outer chain ring set up. We just so happened to have a new 42T outer assembly for that crank in stock at the shop. My wheels started turning....

We also had a 36T ring, and it was a middle. The old crank set I was using was a double with a 44T and a 28T granny. The 44T was just too much sometimes and dumping into the 28 was just too severe. This was most obvious at the Odin's Revenge ride last year. If I used a 42/36, with a 22T bailout granny, it might actually make more sense for my gravelly needs. Kind of a lower ratio cyclo cross set up with low geared back up.  Anyway, I figured I would give it a try.

A new 11-34T Shimano cassette was found at the shop, a new chain, and this new crankset, with another of my stockpiled UN series bottom brackets to make it all work. Things went together okay, but my OE Shimano XT front derailleur didn't work with this set up. I figured a road triple would have to be sourced, since the Fargo is down tube, bottom pull routed. However; upon further inspection at home, a DynaSys 10 speed front was found with a low mount, and it worked perfectly with my friction shifting Retroshifter. Done and done!

Next up: Cascadia fenders and some sloppy gravel riding. Stay tuned......

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #42

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Easter Sunday and riders coming in to finish T.I.v7

 It was over. Trans Iowa V7 was done, but I had a "Dirt Rag" story to write, sponsors to thank, and some emotionally charged situations going on that seemed to put the endurance factor of Trans Iowa v7 on much longer than I imagined. There was the tension between David and I, my buddy MG was ticked off, and I had just about reached my limits in terms of being able to take any more. There was only one thing that fueled my desire to do another Trans Iowa- that was my complete and utter determination to put on a flawless Trans Iowa. Before the event was even done, I had silently vowed to myself that I would take Trans Iowa on and dominate the logistical and promotional parts of the event and show how it really could be done. I knew it could be way better. But there were things that would need to be taken care of. Difficult situations lurked in the future.

In the short term, I had a tremendous outpouring of support from the riders in the event for the most part. That really helped a lot. Secondly, and I cannot remember exactly how it went down, but some of the struggles that David had been having were coming to light and I had a better feel for why things went awry on his end before the event.

Shaking an exhausted Charlie Farrow's hand.

Here are some things I wrote concerning my feelings after T.I.V7 on the blog back then;

".....you know, most folks just have no idea how it almost all came unraveled. I won't go into that here. Just know that this Trans Iowa was as stressful as T.I.V3 was, and from my perspective, the event is considered one of the most difficult things I have gone through in a long time.
To have it go as well as it did is great, but I am not celebrating. I'm just glad it is over...........I am tired and emotionally drained"


Later in the Summer I received an e-mail from David that said "....I quit". It really didn't say why, but I found out a lot more about his situation that Summer. He had been working 15 plus hour days for weeks on end in the winter, (which explained why I had not heard from him), and he was majorly stressed out due to cutbacks in his department. Trans Iowa was probably not real high on his list of concerns. Then he lost his job, or quit, or something, but in the end he got a job with a geology/mining concern and moved himself and eventually his whole family to the island of Fiji!


I just wish that back then he could have shared his struggles and let me take the load, but he didn't, and then it didn't matter anymore after that June e-mail. I was on my own, and I was already making new plans to get a Trans Iowa V8 going. In the meantime, MG and I made amends, and he actually made plans to volunteer for a checkpoint for V8. I had a couple of friends throw in their hats to help out if needed. So with my determination, and some encouragement from others, a new version of the event was planned.


There would be a complete recon before Winter. There would be a review of a final draft of the cue sheets by someone else other than myself, and I would get someone to actually drive by my cues a month or so out from the event to make sure the cues made sense. Finally, I would drive the first 100 miles the day before the event to ensure there would be no last minute snafus again. It was a tall order, but I was going to do it this way or I was going to cancel doing the event. Time would tell how it would all work out.


Next: The recon and planning takes shape for a V8.

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #42

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Easter Sunday and riders coming in to finish T.I.v7

 It was over. Trans Iowa V7 was done, but I had a "Dirt Rag" story to write, sponsors to thank, and some emotionally charged situations going on that seemed to put the endurance factor of Trans Iowa v7 on much longer than I imagined. There was the tension between David and I, my buddy MG was ticked off, and I had just about reached my limits in terms of being able to take any more. There was only one thing that fueled my desire to do another Trans Iowa- that was my complete and utter determination to put on a flawless Trans Iowa. Before the event was even done, I had silently vowed to myself that I would take Trans Iowa on and dominate the logistical and promotional parts of the event and show how it really could be done. I knew it could be way better. But there were things that would need to be taken care of. Difficult situations lurked in the future.

In the short term, I had a tremendous outpouring of support from the riders in the event for the most part. That really helped a lot. Secondly, and I cannot remember exactly how it went down, but some of the struggles that David had been having were coming to light and I had a better feel for why things went awry on his end before the event.

Shaking an exhausted Charlie Farrow's hand.

Here are some things I wrote concerning my feelings after T.I.V7 on the blog back then;

".....you know, most folks just have no idea how it almost all came unraveled. I won't go into that here. Just know that this Trans Iowa was as stressful as T.I.V3 was, and from my perspective, the event is considered one of the most difficult things I have gone through in a long time.
To have it go as well as it did is great, but I am not celebrating. I'm just glad it is over...........I am tired and emotionally drained"


Later in the Summer I received an e-mail from David that said "....I quit". It really didn't say why, but I found out a lot more about his situation that Summer. He had been working 15 plus hour days for weeks on end in the winter, (which explained why I had not heard from him), and he was majorly stressed out due to cutbacks in his department. Trans Iowa was probably not real high on his list of concerns. Then he lost his job, or quit, or something, but in the end he got a job with a geology/mining concern and moved himself and eventually his whole family to the island of Fiji!


I just wish that back then he could have shared his struggles and let me take the load, but he didn't, and then it didn't matter anymore after that June e-mail. I was on my own, and I was already making new plans to get a Trans Iowa V8 going. In the meantime, MG and I made amends, and he actually made plans to volunteer for a checkpoint for V8. I had a couple of friends throw in their hats to help out if needed. So with my determination, and some encouragement from others, a new version of the event was planned.


There would be a complete recon before Winter. There would be a review of a final draft of the cue sheets by someone else other than myself, and I would get someone to actually drive by my cues a month or so out from the event to make sure the cues made sense. Finally, I would drive the first 100 miles the day before the event to ensure there would be no last minute snafus again. It was a tall order, but I was going to do it this way or I was going to cancel doing the event. Time would tell how it would all work out.


Next: The recon and planning takes shape for a V8.

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #41

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Waiting for the racers to check in for Trans Iowa V7 at the Steakhouse

 So with everything in place and ready to roll, we were set for the Meat-Up once again. It went smoothly with the check in and waivers signed, along with the media releases, (a first at Trans Iowa), and David and I ran the meeting without a hiccup. I introduced Jeff Frings and he had been busy talking with a lot of the racers that evening, many of whom appeared in "300 Miles Of Gravel".

After the meeting we headed down to Bikes To You where the shop was open a little later for an "Oakley Swap Meet" and we had a couple beers before retiring to the motel. I can't really remember anything too exciting beyond that. We did get a record number of starters, (76), and a record number of rookies and women starting for V7, which probably can be attributed to our raising the field limit to 100, and the attrition of that number wasn't as dramatic as it had been in years past. Of course, that record stood for only two years as it was broken in V9.

I won't spend a lot of time on stuff that is covered in the film Jeff Frings made of this event. I recommend checking it out though.

Giving my "fatherly admonitions" before the start of V7

I will only give you all a couple of behind the scenes stories not told on the film, or not really told clearly. This next remembrance is a key event during T.I.v7, and I did write up a bit of this on the blog back then.

It has to do with the "snafu" right out of the gate during the event. David and I were in the Element, and I gave the command to make the next Left, but when we reached it there was a road closed sign! Panic ensued, and we suddenly were on a mission to re-route the event probably 10 miles after the start. Riders would be showing up at any minute!

Complicating matters was the fact that the roads in this section were not gridded out in the usual way, so we were making quick decisions and staking corners as fast as we could go. We'd just get done and we'd see the glow of the rider's lights coming and we'd peel out to the next corner, and so on. Here is where it gets weird.....

We staked out the final corner. Going straight made the riders go into a B Road, but we routed to the left. The stake and flag were next to some higher weeds, and well.......the riders went straight into the B Road! This caused major confusion, time wasted, and riders had to stop to figure out where to go. Later on riders reported the corner was not marked, but David and I clearly remembered marking it. It was what it was, but this part is still a mystery to this day.

Furthermore, I had Steve Fuller drive the route a week ahead of T.I.V7 and the road closed during the event was still open. This whole incident precipitated my running at least 100 miles of Trans Iowa courses the day before the event since then.

Trans Iowa continued to be hard on equipment during V7

So, that put a lot of riders in arrears, and then a big West wind came up and really put the hurt on the riders. Several did not make the checkpoint in Baxter. I felt somewhat responsible for not being on top of that, and the plans were turning in my head as we rolled past Baxter to go on North and East to checkpoint #2. On the way, we rolled through Montour where a house was on fire and the fire department was there trying to douse the flames. It was kind of a surreal scene, as I recall.

The way to Checkpoint #2 was largely course that I had reconned or set into cue sheet draft ahead of the event. There was really not much drama or problem with any of that until we went on past Checkpoint #2 into the evening of the first day of T.I.V7, and on to David's part of the cue sheets. We had another re-route, but I felt okay with it. However, just North of Belle Plaine, there was a mighty confusion where we realized that there were two roads with almost the exact same names running North/South separated by two miles. We even got snookered by that. Then we marked the intersections in question and went into town for a sit down supper at Pizza Hut, as I recall. Anyway, back on course, we found other confusing signs coming out of town that were not well described on the cues. It was very frustrating.

Charlie Farrow hams it up for the camera

Going down the road further into the night, we were both getting tired, and I was internally getting a bit upset by the lack of detail on the cues and was wondering how I would approach that in the future. But eventually we both decided to pack it in and get a bit of rest back at the motel. I don't know if I slept an hour or whatever, but at about 4:00-4:30am, the cell rang and it was my good buddy MG, who was in the race, and he was ticked off about becoming lost several times. The cues were off, and he was lost. I was pretty alarmed by this. Remember, I had already thought things weren't what I would have done, so I was very, very concerned. I suggested to David that we needed to back track the course to find the 20 riders we knew were still in the event.

There were some tense moments on the road when my mind, which had been turned inside out with anger, worry, and trying to read cues backwards, decided to shut down for a bit. I finally got it back together though, and we went onward. We started seeing riders, of course, but we needed to keep chugging along. We did stop and talk with a couple of groups that were gathering up their companions to go to the finish. All were in good spirits and generally had no complaints. That wasn't the case with riders 19 and 20 that we found though. These would end up becoming the only two left out that would not finish that day.

So it was that David and I were not at the finish line to see Dennis Grelk come in. I regretted that, but we were stoked to have Dennis be the champion that year. The rest of the 17 riders came in, and the last was Janna Vavre, our very first women finisher of a Trans Iowa. David and I couldn't have been more proud.

I don't recall exactly how David put it, but he wanted to leave, and seemed rather in a hurry to do so. I needed to ride back with him to get my truck, so I went along despite there being folks at the finish line yet. I don't recall there being a lot of conversation, and David bid me farewell and headed out without a wave or a look back. It was the last time I would see him....

Next- The aftermath of Trans Iowa V7 and the major changes it precipitated.....

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #41

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Waiting for the racers to check in for Trans Iowa V7 at the Steakhouse

 So with everything in place and ready to roll, we were set for the Meat-Up once again. It went smoothly with the check in and waivers signed, along with the media releases, (a first at Trans Iowa), and David and I ran the meeting without a hiccup. I introduced Jeff Frings and he had been busy talking with a lot of the racers that evening, many of whom appeared in "300 Miles Of Gravel".

After the meeting we headed down to Bikes To You where the shop was open a little later for an "Oakley Swap Meet" and we had a couple beers before retiring to the motel. I can't really remember anything too exciting beyond that. We did get a record number of starters, (76), and a record number of rookies and women starting for V7, which probably can be attributed to our raising the field limit to 100, and the attrition of that number wasn't as dramatic as it had been in years past. Of course, that record stood for only two years as it was broken in V9.

I won't spend a lot of time on stuff that is covered in the film Jeff Frings made of this event. I recommend checking it out though.

Giving my "fatherly admonitions" before the start of V7

I will only give you all a couple of behind the scenes stories not told on the film, or not really told clearly. This next remembrance is a key event during T.I.v7, and I did write up a bit of this on the blog back then.

It has to do with the "snafu" right out of the gate during the event. David and I were in the Element, and I gave the command to make the next Left, but when we reached it there was a road closed sign! Panic ensued, and we suddenly were on a mission to re-route the event probably 10 miles after the start. Riders would be showing up at any minute!

Complicating matters was the fact that the roads in this section were not gridded out in the usual way, so we were making quick decisions and staking corners as fast as we could go. We'd just get done and we'd see the glow of the rider's lights coming and we'd peel out to the next corner, and so on. Here is where it gets weird.....

We staked out the final corner. Going straight made the riders go into a B Road, but we routed to the left. The stake and flag were next to some higher weeds, and well.......the riders went straight into the B Road! This caused major confusion, time wasted, and riders had to stop to figure out where to go. Later on riders reported the corner was not marked, but David and I clearly remembered marking it. It was what it was, but this part is still a mystery to this day.

Furthermore, I had Steve Fuller drive the route a week ahead of T.I.V7 and the road closed during the event was still open. This whole incident precipitated my running at least 100 miles of Trans Iowa courses the day before the event since then.

Trans Iowa continued to be hard on equipment during V7

So, that put a lot of riders in arrears, and then a big West wind came up and really put the hurt on the riders. Several did not make the checkpoint in Baxter. I felt somewhat responsible for not being on top of that, and the plans were turning in my head as we rolled past Baxter to go on North and East to checkpoint #2. On the way, we rolled through Montour where a house was on fire and the fire department was there trying to douse the flames. It was kind of a surreal scene, as I recall.

The way to Checkpoint #2 was largely course that I had reconned or set into cue sheet draft ahead of the event. There was really not much drama or problem with any of that until we went on past Checkpoint #2 into the evening of the first day of T.I.V7, and on to David's part of the cue sheets. We had another re-route, but I felt okay with it. However, just North of Belle Plaine, there was a mighty confusion where we realized that there were two roads with almost the exact same names running North/South separated by two miles. We even got snookered by that. Then we marked the intersections in question and went into town for a sit down supper at Pizza Hut, as I recall. Anyway, back on course, we found other confusing signs coming out of town that were not well described on the cues. It was very frustrating.

Charlie Farrow hams it up for the camera

Going down the road further into the night, we were both getting tired, and I was internally getting a bit upset by the lack of detail on the cues and was wondering how I would approach that in the future. But eventually we both decided to pack it in and get a bit of rest back at the motel. I don't know if I slept an hour or whatever, but at about 4:00-4:30am, the cell rang and it was my good buddy MG, who was in the race, and he was ticked off about becoming lost several times. The cues were off, and he was lost. I was pretty alarmed by this. Remember, I had already thought things weren't what I would have done, so I was very, very concerned. I suggested to David that we needed to back track the course to find the 20 riders we knew were still in the event.

There were some tense moments on the road when my mind, which had been turned inside out with anger, worry, and trying to read cues backwards, decided to shut down for a bit. I finally got it back together though, and we went onward. We started seeing riders, of course, but we needed to keep chugging along. We did stop and talk with a couple of groups that were gathering up their companions to go to the finish. All were in good spirits and generally had no complaints. That wasn't the case with riders 19 and 20 that we found though. These would end up becoming the only two left out that would not finish that day.

So it was that David and I were not at the finish line to see Dennis Grelk come in. I regretted that, but we were stoked to have Dennis be the champion that year. The rest of the 17 riders came in, and the last was Janna Vavre, our very first women finisher of a Trans Iowa. David and I couldn't have been more proud.

I don't recall exactly how David put it, but he wanted to leave, and seemed rather in a hurry to do so. I needed to ride back with him to get my truck, so I went along despite there being folks at the finish line yet. I don't recall there being a lot of conversation, and David bid me farewell and headed out without a wave or a look back. It was the last time I would see him....

Next- The aftermath of Trans Iowa V7 and the major changes it precipitated.....

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #40

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Fresh gravel in Tama County pre-TIV7

 So the whole media thing surrounding Trans Iowa had always been a fringe deal. We had two photographers at T.I. v4, nothing at all lined up for V5 or V6, and now all of a sudden here we have a guy wanting to film it, a guy wanting to shoot it, and "Dirt Rag" asked me to write a feature story about it! Okay, write for my favorite mtb publication of all time? Twist my arm! Of course, I said "yes", and then found out the story was due one week after Trans Iowa was over! Doh! Nothing like extra pressure......

Oh, and speaking of "extra pressure", that happened in another way. All Spring I was trying to see if I could get an advance copy of the cue sheets to review. Oddly enough, I hadn't heard from David since around Christmas time. Time went on and communication was sparse to non-existent. What I did not know at the time was that David's job was demanding a lot from him in terms of hours on the job. He simply could not spend any extra energy on something like a gravel road race. The thing was, at the time, I did not know anything about this.

A Leaping deer seen on T.I.V7 recon

I was spending a lot of time checking and rechecking spots on my end of the course though, and still no cue sheets! Finally, about two weeks prior to the event, David shot me over his end of the cues, and they were absolutely a mess! I was besides myself with frustration and anger. (Again, not knowing anything about his struggles)  I was struck dumbfounded. Once again, as in the year before, a very stressful few days of calls and e-mails resulted in a somewhat of a coherent course. The thing was, it wasn't reconned at all on his end. It was almost all different from what we had originally looked at the previous year. But hey! We had cue sheets and we could go forward with the event. That was a small victory in itself right there. Again- it was another near miss and I was beginning to have some serious doubts about how Trans Iowa was going to work out going forward.

Reconning a bit of rail trail used in T.I.V7

So, with a near disaster averted, I kept my anger in check and we moved forward with Trans Iowa V7. The thing I remember next was meeting in Grinnell for the pre-race stuff and David and I were in our room settling in when I was contacted by Jeff Frings, the film guy, and he wondered if either of us had any time for a brief interview on camera. I offered David the chance to be on camera with me, but he deferred to me. Well, I am not shy about getting in front of a camera and just flying by the seat of my pants, so I was in my element.

It's kind of an odd thing, having the asset of being able to look at "300 Miles Of Gravel" now, but all those shots of me sitting there with my orange cap on were all from this half hour to 45 minute interview I gave at the time. Everything was completely unrehearsed and straight off the top of my head. I guess it didn't come out too badly! Well, that was a one take deal that Jeff Frings seemed oddly, (at the time, so it seemed to me), rather pleased with. Then it was on to the Pre-Race Meat-Up, which was held once again at the Grinnell Steakhouse where we were to have the grill yer own style meal, then the meeting proper.

Basically, it was anew course with everything about the set up in Grinnell being the same except the finish line. It didn't work out to get the barn again, because in an epic oversight of mine, I picked Easter weekend to have Trans Iowa v7 on. The family who own the barn and the land were going to be gone, and they weren't about to allow some vagabonds access if they weren't going to be there. Can't say as I hardly blame them!

Next: A big snafu early on......

Trans Iowa: Ten Years Of Tales #40

In mid-November, the idea of Trans Iowa was hatched. The year was 2004. In the ten years since then there have been many stories and memories. These posts will tell of the most prominent ones to my mind. Maybe I'll even spill the beans on some things you never knew....

Fresh gravel in Tama County pre-TIV7

 So the whole media thing surrounding Trans Iowa had always been a fringe deal. We had two photographers at T.I. v4, nothing at all lined up for V5 or V6, and now all of a sudden here we have a guy wanting to film it, a guy wanting to shoot it, and "Dirt Rag" asked me to write a feature story about it! Okay, write for my favorite mtb publication of all time? Twist my arm! Of course, I said "yes", and then found out the story was due one week after Trans Iowa was over! Doh! Nothing like extra pressure......

Oh, and speaking of "extra pressure", that happened in another way. All Spring I was trying to see if I could get an advance copy of the cue sheets to review. Oddly enough, I hadn't heard from David since around Christmas time. Time went on and communication was sparse to non-existent. What I did not know at the time was that David's job was demanding a lot from him in terms of hours on the job. He simply could not spend any extra energy on something like a gravel road race. The thing was, at the time, I did not know anything about this.

A Leaping deer seen on T.I.V7 recon

I was spending a lot of time checking and rechecking spots on my end of the course though, and still no cue sheets! Finally, about two weeks prior to the event, David shot me over his end of the cues, and they were absolutely a mess! I was besides myself with frustration and anger. (Again, not knowing anything about his struggles)  I was struck dumbfounded. Once again, as in the year before, a very stressful few days of calls and e-mails resulted in a somewhat of a coherent course. The thing was, it wasn't reconned at all on his end. It was almost all different from what we had originally looked at the previous year. But hey! We had cue sheets and we could go forward with the event. That was a small victory in itself right there. Again- it was another near miss and I was beginning to have some serious doubts about how Trans Iowa was going to work out going forward.

Reconning a bit of rail trail used in T.I.V7

So, with a near disaster averted, I kept my anger in check and we moved forward with Trans Iowa V7. The thing I remember next was meeting in Grinnell for the pre-race stuff and David and I were in our room settling in when I was contacted by Jeff Frings, the film guy, and he wondered if either of us had any time for a brief interview on camera. I offered David the chance to be on camera with me, but he deferred to me. Well, I am not shy about getting in front of a camera and just flying by the seat of my pants, so I was in my element.

It's kind of an odd thing, having the asset of being able to look at "300 Miles Of Gravel" now, but all those shots of me sitting there with my orange cap on were all from this half hour to 45 minute interview I gave at the time. Everything was completely unrehearsed and straight off the top of my head. I guess it didn't come out too badly! Well, that was a one take deal that Jeff Frings seemed oddly, (at the time, so it seemed to me), rather pleased with. Then it was on to the Pre-Race Meat-Up, which was held once again at the Grinnell Steakhouse where we were to have the grill yer own style meal, then the meeting proper.

Basically, it was anew course with everything about the set up in Grinnell being the same except the finish line. It didn't work out to get the barn again, because in an epic oversight of mine, I picked Easter weekend to have Trans Iowa v7 on. The family who own the barn and the land were going to be gone, and they weren't about to allow some vagabonds access if they weren't going to be there. Can't say as I hardly blame them!

Next: A big snafu early on......