the 2 dirty kanza geniuses with, joe fox & warren weibe drove up to trans iowa this last weekend.this time i was going as the support driver i had the easy job. i had tried & failed my 2 attempts at trans iowa the first 2 years. so jim & company decided to try out the iowa gravel . my 2 years were awful years to race it. the first year there was a 20 mph cross headwind from the northeast the whole time.the temps stayed in the 30s until night & i finally cracked around mile 190ish. the next year at the start it started raining & getting colder . we walked for a few of the unimproved roads & slogged through the gravel to pull out about mile 80. after that i decided to never do it again.
the kc crew looked strong & ready to take on the iowa gravel.
guitar ted in blue & david pals not pictured here are the geniuses behind trans iowa. some very sick people but sexy as heck. 300 plus miles of gravel is not for a sane mind.
the race started off fast too fast. we averaged 22 mph for the first hour & a half. i got a flat & had to ride in to the first check point i was amazed to hear i got in 7 minutes after them. the sunrise was perfect.a guy i passed on the way in found out he brought schrader tubes buy mistake. i gave him my two spares .
joe lost his derailleur due to a crash ( not his). 39 by 19 is not a great gear. then riding to the start i remembered i had no spare tubes not a good feeling. when one of your wheels is tubless. but the flat gods were kind to me.
i got to the motel , cleaned up got a milk shake & some beer & headed to the second check point to help score.
on the way to the check point i found this in grinell . a louis sullivan building, just think of a world famous architect doing a small building in a town of 3000. i love the details in this building.
love it.
cornbread lookin good at the mid check point.either people looked fresh or they looked cooked.
the winner of the mortons sweat prize.he had so much salt on his face you could fill a salt shaker with it.
he also was the second of three rear derailleurs to be ripped off .
the pizza was a hit. this was the long stop in the race. most stopped for about 30 minutes.
this was the usual excitement most had to going on.
just imagine the squeeking the styrofoam would make on a gravel road.
warren never stopped smiling even when we picked him up at midnight in beaman. he was sleeping in a space blanket outside the post office. we almost missed him thinking it was a homeless man.we all had a great ride. no finishers from kc this year but mabey next.
guitar ted , david pals , the pals family& all the other people made this a special race. good gravel , good people, good times.
big grin…joel
dream beautiful dreams
I wondered why you weren’t at coffee on Saturday. I hope you had a satisfying time in Iowa.
Too kind. Mmmm ethiopian! We just ran out. I have a scondary mission about a week from now.
we have the gravel warming up just for you…glad you liked it.