Trans Iowa 2008

Ready to roll
Mile 100.
in the distance another downhill
Uphills in Iowa

So for all the people that come to the midwest and say there are no hills you need to visit the North-east corner of Iowa. What a beautiful place it is.

We left on Friday early from Sycamore, Il to make it to the meeting at Tbocks in Decorah, Iowa. There we received the cue sheets and all the warnings and advice. We ate, went back to the motel, readied ourselves and tried to sleep for a couple hours.

We had been tracking the weather and it was to be cold, and windy.

Cold= 24 degrees

Windy= 20-30 mph with gusts of over 40mph.

Our first checkpoint was to be at mile 109. With the severe winds and the incredible amount of hills it all but destroyed the whole field. I rode at 4 mph on the headwind, 10 mph with the cross and 25-30 mph on the tailwind sections.

The hills were conquered on the 34 x 26 with full power being applied to the pedals. It was hard to find the right group to ride with. Most people became demoralized with the wind and could not make the required 11 mph to make the first checkpoint. Time was ticking away and at that point I decided to go for it solo. I rode and rode and kept a close eye on the watch. Incredibly I was running out of time and finally missed the first checkpoint. I was gassed, out of water, my legs were cramping and I was angry.

I tried to call for a ride back to Decorah but the celly had no reception. I decided to ride back with some other riders and again we raged against the wind. We made it to west hudson where we were lifted and brought back. My total mileage turned out to be 132. The race was cut from 345 to 250 because of dangerous flooding and even more dangerous road conditions.

As I rode, I thought I would never do it again. I finished the ride, got to the hotel and already started thinking of next year. I arrived home and was happy to see my girls. My first nights were strange. I could not sleep, I had this savage feeling. Last night I suited up and left the house at 10:30 pm for a long night right.

I have been thinking about this race for months and now it will take time to get it out of my head. I learned a whole lot about this type of riding. I met some wonderful people and realized how nice it is to just ride a bike.

out,

Ari