The Changes

The changes for TIV13 had mainly to do with registration. I had far too many names on the past roster that were inactive. Far too many folks to let come in if they wanted to anymore, and some frequent fliers that deserved a spot if they wanted it. A big change was the lottery for rookies and veterans. No longer would any past finisher get a free pass in to TransIowa. You had to be an active rider, having ridden in TIV8 or later, and those that had six or more TransIowa attempts with at least one in TIV8 or afterward were allowed in via postcard only. Otherwise, it was all via lottery now.

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The Lead Up

Strangely enough, there was no push back or complaints about this new wrinkle to TransIowa’s registration ahead of the fact. As it turned out, there was no need for a lottery for the veterans and the lottery for the rookies went smoothly. The roster ended up having the largest women’s field ever, and there was the distinct possibility that more rookies than ever would be taking the start of TIV13, if there were low numbers of drop outs. After registration was over there were some grumbles about lotteries and not letting in all the women and more. Nice timing! Overall, though, it wasn’t a big deal with me on this end.

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We ended up with 124 total on the roster with four of those being volunteer exemptions. In January, I had a guy who hadn’t cashed in his volunteer exemption since TIV8 try to use it after registration had been closed for over two months. This kind of thoughtless abuse of privileges caused me to cancel any future usage of this exemption going forward. January also saw the first drop out from the roster, which was earlier than it had been for a few years. By mid-March the drop rate, which was rather steady, caused the roster to drop below the record set in TIV10, and by the first day of spring is was down to 102 (not including volunteer exemptions). By April 13, the number had dropped to 93 and we were down to three volunteer exemptions.

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Course recon was done once again with Jeremy Fry and we took off on a cloudy October 17 and drove the proposed course from Grinnell. A bridge which was out on a B-road used in TIV12 caused me to scrap the entire first leg, and there were too many stretches of long pavement along with a couple sketchy highway crossings. That said, the concept of circumnavigating Des Moines was sound and I just needed to redo some bits and go back to check them out later. I thought this might happen right away, but it did not. I didn’t get out to redo the first section until late February and the rerouting down around Winterset didn’t happen until early March. Full course recon happened on April 8 with Wally and George again. I had also rewritten the last 12 miles of the course by this time as well. The ending was slated to be at Miller Park at Lake Nyzanta, which is on the southeast side of Grinnell. Finally, TIV13’s course was locked in!

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TransIowa Radio was again hosted by Ben Welnak/RidingGravel.com. During final course recon, we stopped in to eat at the Grinnell Steakhouse and they seemed excited to have us back again. I had to purchase more number plates for the event and I had those all personalized by the first week of April. WTB sent 13 cases of tires for every finisher and some of those were a brand new, never before released model of a 650B tire called the Byway. I also had 37mm and 45mm Riddler tires to pass out. The t-shirts, paid for by Lederman Bail Bonds, were done and picked up by mid-April thanks to Sam Auen’s help. Cue sheets were finalized and Mike Johnson once again stepped up to provide the printing and costs to cover that. Those were sorted and bagged by one week out. Things were coming together fairly smoothly. MG was on tap to drive me, and Tony McGrane and Mike Johnson were also available as course checkers again. Dennis and Christina Grelk, who were on board as volunteers at CP1, offered their services to extract any riders in need. All good stuff, but the forecast was looking cold and soggy.

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What was maddening and a bit befuddling was the three drop outs the week of the event. Weather related? Who knows if that is what finally pushed them over the edge? Then two days before the event a full six more dropped out. It seemed in all cases that decisions could have been made sooner and that would have saved us money and time. The weather was forecast to be wet. How that would actually pan out was a topic of much chatter leading up to the event.

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The Event

Friday recon went well, but it rained lightly most of the day. The pre-race Meat-Up was another success. With all the drop outs and a few no-shows to the Meat-Up, the roster went down to a low of 75 starters, the lowest number of starters since TIV8. Will Ritchie from WTB was in attendance and gave a short talk about the Byway, a new 650Bx47mm tire introduced in conjunction with TIV13.

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The morning of the event we experienced chilly temps in the upper 30s and a stiff NE wind which never relented during the entire event. Fortunately for the riders, the event went mostly west to start with after an initial loop to the east and north. We had 23 people miss the cutoff at CP1, mostly due to the early difficulties with the wind and a 1-mile stretch of muddy B-road. Two more dropped shortly after the checkpoint, but then we went well in to the afternoon before seeing mass attrition set in. That was about the time the rain got worse and the tailwind section was over for the riders. As the day wore on, riders kept dropping out until by midnight on Saturday we were down to less than 15 riders on course.

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Rain and cold wind were the main culprits this year. It began to rain around noon on Saturday, and although the intensity of that rain varied, it never really quit until Sunday morning. By then the field had been whittled down to eight and only six actually finished. An amazing event with outstanding rides put in by all.

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75 starters total. There were 33 rookies in the field. Six is the second lowest number of finishers (there were two years that saw no finishers), since TIV4, which was shortened due to road conditions and saw five finishers.

 

The Aftermath

The event was brutally tough and was deemed another classic TransIowa with only six finishers. Dan Hughes triumphantly declared himself the Triple Crown holder since he had been victorious in Gravel Worlds, the Dirty Kanza 200, and now in TransIowa. That is something Dan came up with. It wasn’t anything I or any other promoter put out there. The typical thank yous and comments regarding the event were experienced, but perhaps to a lesser degree. Not sure why that was. I did not see anything negative reported, nor did I get any complaints.

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The running of another TransIowa was not a given afterward. In fact, I wasn’t motivated at all to even think about doing another. The circumnavigation of Des Moines and the route running by covered bridges during TIV13 marked off the last of my goals for doing TransIowa. That the event was a classic TransIowa just further reinforced that my time putting on this event was over. However, there was the nagging issue of how to say goodbye. I enlisted the help of a few close confidants and received good advice. This is what led to the announcement of TIV14, which would be the final TransIowa.