A note from Ari (My Trans Iowa Report)

I have been struggling with writing a blog post regarding my Trans Iowa this year. I basically just wanted to not think about it and move on. My buddy Ari sent an email one night that caught me while I had a pretty good buzz going and he asked how my ride went. So I babbled on and on about it...


Hey ari, 

Thanks for reaching out. I too had a rough race. I had a good weekend though, I think it is good for my boys to get out and travel. 

As for my race, I honestly don't know what happened. I had it made, 5 hours ahead of the cut off at the second check point and all I had to do was coast in. But there was no coasting. The sun shine and tail winds all day turned to headwinds, a flat tire, and riding alone. 

Around 5pm Saturday I started climbing the hills, no one else in my group wanted to push on the climbs so I went alone. I formed a pretty large gap and skipped a Casey's. For about an hour I rode alone hoping the winds would die down, but they didn't. I saw another long stretch of headwinds on the cue sheet and decided to stop and wait for the group. They seemed happy to have me back but since I dropped them I could no longer be trusted. So I rode with them for another hour or so and got a flat. 

The group left, not surprisingly because the memory of me leaving them was still fresh in their minds. Besides it was my problem anyway. I fixed it and got back on the road. I still felt good, in fact really good for having ridden 200 miles at this point. My head was in a bad place though. I was pretty negative about it. 

Sunset came and I got caught by a single speeder. He was riding alone as well and left me pretty easily. We hit a tricky b road, finally, after skipping them all day long. I love B roads, I get bored riding along on easy stuff.

So that made me happy and carried me till about 10pm when I ran out of water. I pulled a small apple pie from my jersey pocket and attempted to eat it while still riding. When I opened it the pie sprung from the tin pie pan and landed on the gravel. This upset me very much. I don't know why I got so upset, almost childish. I carried that pie for at least 100 miles and now it was ruined. Again my head was not in the right spot. 

Then of course being out of food and water I began to not feel very good. I decided to try and sleep. I had plenty of time so I figured it would probably help. On the side of a long gravel hill I used the ditch as a recliner and tried to sleep. I was pretty happy to be where I was at that point, even not feeling well, the moon was big, the air was not too cold and everything was quiet. I fell asleep but I don't know for how long and I would guess that as soon as I fell asleep I awoke again. I was a little freaked out that I had slept too long, even though I hadn't slept at all, and started riding again.

I rode to about 260 miles into the race, which I now know was only 5 miles to the next gas station. It really didn't matter as I couldn't go any further. Just before midnight I called Christina.

Unfortunately this did not bring immediate relief, I tried to give her my location but my cell service was poor and couldn't tell exactly where I was. I told her I would head toward Marshalltown. I picked that direction because it was downhill. That down hill ended and there was no god damn way I was going any further. 

I called her again and said I will be next to the stop sign at 29th and parker? I'm guessing on the names of roads. "If you find me that's great, otherwise come back tomorrow. I'll be by the stop sign." I was done, done thinking, done moving, done navigating. Laying in that ditch was 100 times more comfortable than riding my bike.

That was it, she got lost a couple times and started crying, because her cell reception was limited as well. Eventually she found me and we went back to the comfort of civilization.

This time hurt me deep. At this point I don't see myself doing any endurance racing again. Especially overnight events. To go from feeling so good and then feeling so bad was really hard. 

Again thank you for reaching out to me, I have been struggling with what to say about the ride and it feels good to talk about it. I planned on just pretending it never happened. For now I will be changing my plans. Next weekend I will be racing the wisconsin endurance mountain bike series in the 3 hour division instead of the 10 hour. 

Life is good. I know that, because my biggest suffering is on a bike.

David

B Road

And thats how iowa gravel is made

Friday afternoon pre-ride

The B road I wasn't supposed to take

It got dusty

And windy

My dudes

Hugh Jass Fatbike Series Race #3

Photo from Hughjass.bike

Over 100 people showed up to race the third round of the Hugh Jass Fatbike series. We finally got some snow to race to make it feel like a real fat bike race. I had never ridden the Alpha trails before, but they are worth checking out if you are in the area. We did 5 laps of the 3 mile loop, starting with a bomb run down the sledding hill, turn and come right back up to separate the field a bit.

Photo from hughjass.bike

There is a 3 way points battle for the series going on between Brad, Dave, and myself. I had been sick the week heading up to the race so I wasn't sure how things would go. It was my lucky day though, as we went into the first corner Brad and Dave got tangled up. Not bad enough to put anyone on the ground, but enough to lose momentum and a few positions. This allowed me to sneak away behind WORS pro Cole Haus and Cat 1 racer Randy Rollins.

They both took off and left me pretty easily. So my first lap was pretty easy, then on the second lap we got into lapped traffic. The Alpha trails are tight so passing is impossible unless the rider pulls to the side. This involved a lot of communication and patience but during a race patience is not always something I have a lot of.

Brad and Dave were able to move through the traffic better than I was and on the last lap were able to work right onto me. I turned it down a bit to recover knowing they wouldn't be able to pass on the single track. It would all come down to the last sprint up the sledding hill.

I gave it everything and it hurt pretty bad, but I was able to hold them off. That is the way it has worked out every race so far. None of us has won a race yet, but we always finish together and consistently in the top 5. It makes for a fun and exciting series.

Photo from Hughjass.bike

My dad has been doing the series as well, and seems to be really enjoying himself, he finished 59th of 96 in the open men class. The promoters put on an event that is fun for all levels of skill and everyone is there to have a good time.

Next race is January 16th in Glendale, WI. Hope to see you there!

WEMS race at Southern Kettles

WEMS race at the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine was Saturday.  I typically do the long/solo division, but decided to help out with registration and scoring during the day and race the short/solo version. I had a great time hanging out with Jamison and Jason all day, we took it super serious and had no fun at all (read that sarcastically).  I put nearly all the 6 hour folks into the computer, so if something went wrong with your time I apologize.  If nothing went wrong then it was probably due to beginners luck!

I saw some pretty impressive performances out there.  I haven’t looked at the official results yet, once I do I will add some comments and story to the report.

If you see yourself or a friend in a photo, feel free to take copy or share it.

Almanzo 100 2015

                Friday night I left straight from work to meet up with Mike and Kurt, they were kind enough to let me borrow a spot on their hotel room floor for the night.  Once I arrived we just hung out, discussed plans, life, and watched some goofy movies Kurt had.

                We woke up Saturday, got some breakfast and watched the weather. It rained a bit before the start, which made for some gravel splatter everywhere.

                I got in a large group of strong riders and we were hitting it pretty hard. All different genres of bikers were represented in the group. The roadies were trying to get everyone to rotate and work together, but the group was too large to get everyone on the same page. The cross and mountain bike riders attacked the down hills, making the roadies shake their heads in discomfort. We made it to Preston in just over two hours. I hung onto the group till mile 60, when a few of the guys started to turn it up.

 

                I had zero interest in bonking that day so I backed off and held a steady pace for a while. I stopped at the 3^rd checkpoint for a banana and a beer, and then cruised on to mile 90. This is where I got bored of the steady pace and decided to push really hard for the finish.

                I passed a bunch of guys in that last ten miles, but I didn’t stick around to see the results.  I didn’t plan on staying the night again so I wanted to get on my way.

                I stopped at A+W for a burger and Root Beer float which tasted like heaven and vanished quickly, and I hit the road.

                Another great trip to Minnesota – David S

Update 5/19/15 - results are in, 55th of 543 finishers @ 6 hours 12 minutes.