TransAm Bike Race Dropbox

One of the things you can do to support yourself is to pre-ship yourself supplies to spots along the course. Typically these are bike shops and post offices. One of the most popular is Newton Bike Shop, in Newton, KS. It's kind of in the middle of the route. They have been doing this for racers and tourists for quite a while, and are well equipped for such duties.

Today, I shipped my dropbox to them.

Contents include:

Fresh Clothing:
Castelli Velossimo San Remo Speedsuit
Castelli Core Mesh Sleeveless Baselayer
Castelli Merino Socks
Castelli Quattro 9 Socks
Rapha Lightweight Socks (like airconditioning)
Specialized Grail gloves (after 3k miles, I'll probably need new ones)

Parts and such:
2 new tyres and a broken in spare vacuum packed
2 new tubes
Fresh sealant and valve cores
2nd half services cards
TP
Fresh Chain (Wipperman 11sx, stripped of factory lube, setup with Dumonde Tech Lite, cut to length, run in and relubed) and spare link
brake pads
batteries for HRM/Cadance/TEMPE
lip chap
packets of clothes wash
patch kit (not pictured)

also not pictured more food bars

TransAm Bike Race Setup and Gear

This will be geeky

This is the rig, loaded and mostly ready to go

2014 Raleigh Tamland One
Shimano 105 5700 brifters, front dérailleur, crankset (after the stock set imploded)
Shimano 9sp XT rear dérailleur with a SRAM 12-36 1070 cassette
Wipperman 11SX chain
Velocity Aileron rim, Sapim Race DB spokes, DT350 rear hub, Shimano XT dynohub front
TRP Spyre brake fitted with Shimano pads and XTR rotors 160mm
Salsa Cowbell bars, Profile T2+ DL aerobars, two layers of Deda tape
Brooks C17 saddle on Lynskey Ti seatpost
Crazy expensive combo of Jagwire Elite Sealed Shift, Sport XL Brake and Elite Ultra Slick Polished cables
Trio of Camelbak bottles in Tacx cages, with the one above the bars mounted on a King Cage TopCap

That about covers the mechanical bits; for electronics, I'm keeping it pretty simple

Garmin Etrex Touch 35 as my main nav
Garmin Etrex 30x as backup
B&M IQ-X headlight
Cygolite Expilon 400 backup headlight
B&M Secula Plus taillight
Cateye Blinkies and a Planet Bike Superflash as added rear lighting.

No dyno powered USB charger to power the GPS or charge phones. I'll just use batteries and wall chargers.

The Kit

This is what I'll be wearing everyday. Yes, I'll look like a Castelli ad, but it works, and I got all of it on sale.

Velossimo San Remo Speedsuit. I was pretty shocked how comfy this is.
Castelli Core Mesh 3 sleeveless baselayer
Castelli UPF 50+ arm and knee skins (cuts down on sunblock needs, and honestly I don't do a good job reapplying throughout the day, so this is better)
A couple headwear options (don't wanna burn my noggin)
Specialized Grail gloves (love the new pad shape in these, and the colour will help my hand signals stand out during the day)
Specialized Recon shoes (so much love, I bought a second backup pair)
Giro Synthe helmet (the non MIPS version to save a few grams from causing neck issues)

Bedrock Bags Entrada pocket:
first aid kit
spare eyeglasses and lens cloth
tp
gloves and papertowels in ziplock to deal with any messy repairs.
allergy meds, toes warmers, hand lotion, a couple Woolite packets
plastic bags for sock liners is shit gets bad
the black bundle is a reflective vest

ignore the upsidedown-ness of the pic

Bedrock Tapeats:
Electronics: phone, chargers, backup gps, backup headlight, powerbank, wallet

also upsidedown

ATMhandmade Snack Sack
Mini lock, knife, (just add food)

The Rogue Panda Alamo bag at the stem is more food, while their Rincon at the seatpost carries my repair kit.

Wipperman links, FiberFix Spoke repair, patches, boots, spare cleats, multitool, tyre levers, zip ties

The remaining layers of clothing, yup more Castelli,and as much fluoro yellow as I could manage, packed into my Bolder Bikepacking seatbag

Flanders Wind Short Sleeve Baselayer
Smartwool liner gloves
Smartwool Liner socks
Castelli Wool socks
Castelli Pimaloft/Silk socks
Castelli Nanoflex+ Leg and Armwarmers
Castelli Perfetto vest
Castelli Superleggera vest
Castelli Riparo rain jacket
Endura Helium rain knickers
Castelli Velocissimo Long sleeve thermal jersey
Castelli Nano shoe covers
LG helmet cover
Buff UV buff
Specialized Deflect overgloves
Pactimo Changing Kilt
Spare tyre (vacuum sealed, to minimize packing volume and keep it from snagging the clothes)

The bag is so voluminous that when pulling out everything for the pic, I actually missed the drybag of socks in the bottom!

On top of the Bolder Seatpack is a Revelate Spocket, with my SPOT tracker, sunscreen, lipchap, and chainlube.

My home for TABR

Sleeping gear stored in the main body of the Bedrock Entrada:
SeatoSummit Ultralight pad, and Coolmax fitted sheet and Aeros pillow
Enlightened Equipment Prodigy APEX 50F quilt
TiGoat Kestrel Bivy
Emergency mylar blanket

TransIowa V13 Turning Back

After my arrival at checkpoint one it was time to take stock of where I was physically. I'd not managed to eat during the ride in and while I felt good, I knew that it would be a tough ride to make checkpoint two, and the weather forecast was still in the back of my mind.

I went into the little market to grab some items (I scarfed down an entire tube of Pringles) and stood on the entryway, out of the wind, to fumble with my phone to check weather and location. As I was working on that, another rider who had been one of the last two to make the checkpoint came over and asked if I wanted to ride back to Grinnell. I told him I was just trying to decide whether to ride back or call my support person, but since I had a chance to have company for the ride, I was in. Nice to meet you Scott.

We hung around a bit to see if we could get some others in out group, and talked with a couple of the awesome volunteers from the checkpoint who happened to have a map. After a while we had gotten together a group of 4 and determined that we had basically 2 turns to make to get back to our hotels.

We had plenty of time to chat as we pedaled 19 miles straight into a headwind on rolly HWY F 17. It was slow, but it turns out that Scott had raced the Trans Am Bike Race two years before on the same single speed mountain bike that he was riding here in Trans Iowa. Hard core!

I spent quite a bit of the ride back picking his brain for tips and discussing packing lists, stopping a couple times along the side of the road to let everyone get some fuel and a bit of a break from the constant slog.

The rain started coming down, and the wind picked up even more. We were lucky to break 10mph under these conditions. Finally about 4 miles out, I decided I really needed a break from the headwinds, so consulted the GPS and suggested we travel South for a bit and come into Grinnell from the West side, instead of continuing East straight into the wind, and turning and coming in from the North. Everyone seemed to think that was a fine idea. WooHoo! We got to coast for the first time in 19 miles. We soon arrive at a bike path, and we follow that into town. It's then just a high speed, wet run down West St to the hotels. Total of 82 miles for the day. I'm pretty happy with that.

TransIoawv13 The Race

2am in the morning comes early, but I'd managed to sleep pretty well. I shuffle around making coffee and heating up a couple breakfast burritos. I get dressed, reassure my support person that she doesn't need to come out in the cold to see me off, and soon I'm rolling down to the start.

I look up the road as I'm pedaling in and see many blinkies going, as it looks like many of the riders have chosen to get a little warmup in the chilly temps. It's in the low 40s, and I've chosen this morning to wear a mix of winter jacket, with a shortsleeve baselayer, and thermal/water-resistant bibshorts with matching legwarmers. The new shoes I'd bought were matched with the also new shoecovers, and inside them were a synthetic/silk blend sock with a tall wool liner sock to complete the footwear. Gloves were a pair of fullfinger summer weight gloves topped with a thermal overglove.

Upon arrival a the start, I go about making sure I have my computer all zeroed out and in the right mode (a special setup I created with no mapping capabilities, just mileage and performance stats). I always get kind of self-absorbed at the start of these things, and wish I was more personable later, so as to get to know the other racers, but also so perhaps someone might actually take my picture. Alas, I find no pics of me in any of the shared albums I've run across. Oh, well. I hit the restroom in Bikes to You, and it's time for pre-race directions and thanks to everyone helping and to those racing.

MG lays on the horn, and off we go. I had lined up in the back of the group and was determined not to blow up right off the line. A couple turns through the streets and soon we're on gravel. The riders string out, and from my spot in the back of the peloton, it appears that we stretch out for miles, as all I see is blinkies and blackness.

Soon we make our first left since the neutral rollout and there has been a huge gap opened up between the small groups of riders. It's a roll-y road, right into the wind, and while I'm not trying to draft the lone rider in front of me, I just can't get past them, as every time I pull out, the wind kills the idea. We chat a little bit, but it's mostly silence as we struggle to not loose sight of the tailights that continue to get further and further away.

Soon enough we turn out of the headwind, and I put a bit of distance between myself the the other rider, but by then I'd lost track of the riders ahead, and due to my own stupidity don't pay close enough attention to the cues and miss a turn! I don't catch the mistake until the road comes to a "T", and I spend a few minutes consulting the cues and looking at the road signs. I turn around knowing that now I'd be doing maths the whole way, trying to figure out distance to the next turn, as well as distance and speed needed to reach the checkpoint. I get back to where I made the wrong turn, do some maths, check and double check the signs and cue sheet and continue on.

I see no other riders at this point. I figure I must be dead last. I check my HRM and bump up my effort. Soon I see a bunch of riders ahead. I don't bother to look at my cues as I'm riding into them, and as I get closer and my headlight starts to shine upon them, I realize they're walking. I've noticed the road was sloppy, but have no need to dismount as of yet and as I ride up to the rearmost I ask them if this is the "B" road we were warned about. She doesn't even look back, but yells at me "Are you riding this shit?" All I can respond is "So far" I continue on, slowly making my way past 8-10 riders before the road became so filled with footprints and tyre tracks that I was afraid that I was gonna lose it and end up on my back in the mud. I jump off and since my wheels were still rolling freely, I just start running down the muddy pit, with the bike there to help me balance if I lose footing. I edge to one side and found that to be significantly less firm than the center, so move back to center, running past another several riders trying to carry or drag bikes that wouldn't turn their tyres as they were blocked up with muck.

I arrive at the end, literally peel the mud off the tyres, run a finger through the chainstay to make sure they're clear and spend much more time trying to get the cleats on my shoes into working order. Quickly, though I'm off and riding. Alone.

I see no other riders, either ahead, or in my mirror, for several miles. I do see a wonderful sunrise, though. I keep pedaling, keeping tabs on my HRM to keep my effort up, and my timer on my watch to make sure I keep hydrated. After a while I start to see another rider up ahead, then realize there is another just beyond him. Going up and down the rollers, I can't tell whether I'm making ground or not, until finally I see the closest rider on the backside of a hill just as I crest, I pass them as I gather momentum for the next hill, then due to my own negligence, drop a chain. It jams good. As I survey the situation, the other rider asks if I have everything I need, I assure them I've got it.  A few brute force yanks and I get it unstuck, and I'm chasing again, but the riders ahead are now out of view again.

I consult my cue sheet and do more maths. I need to pick up the pace some more. I'm starting to nudge my average speed in the right direction. Every turn, it's more maths. Time Speed Distance. I do eventually recatch and pass the rider ahead of me again, and also the one in front of them, who was riding a single speed mtb!

I'm calculating that I'm about 4 miles out, when on a steep, curving climb, I'm forced to dismount as the gravel on the right is too loose to maintain traction and I refuse to ride far enough to the left as the risk of a vehicle coming around the wide, blind corner isn't worth it. I cuss.

Soon at the top of that hill though I can see the next turn and the maths are good. I now have a firm cushion of time to make the checkpoint. Now it's just a matter of making sure I don't miss the flagged corner we were told about and I'm good. Seeing those flags and rolling into the checkpoint with a solid 7 minutes to spare really made my morning. The smiling faces of the volunteers welcomed me as I rolled in arms stretched like I'd just won the Tour. That was awesome. I made sure to safely tuck away the set of cues they gave me for the second leg and unclipped to eat something.

TransIowaV13 Revisiting TIv9

Waking Friday morning, I found the temps had dropped a not insignificant amount. It was chilly, so after breakfast, I donned some thermal bibknicks, wool socks, and some wool DeFeet Kneekers to bridge the gap, some thermals up top, a vest and was ready to roll.

Using the pressures I found I was running the day before, I guessed as to how much more pressure I'd need and took a stab at 34 front and 38 rear, then rolled.

I had a recording of the TIv9 route from when I had attempted that, so I loaded it into the Garmin and went to where my riding on Thursday and it intersected to pick it up.

Wind, I was fighting with the wind and gusts for sure, and man were they cold. The roads though felt so different than my memories. But then, my memories of them are in pitchblackness, surrounded by dozens of other riders, and the exhilaration of my first TransIowa. Memories flood back to that first nighttime start. All the lights, the fear I'd be dropped in the first section of gravel, the shock of someone catching the road edge and going down so close in front of me, that I was afraid I was going to roll right over them. I recall that night being muggy (though I could be wrong), while today the wind and cold cut mercilessly.

Some of the roads are so well packed, I'm down in the aerobars hammering into the headwind like I'm on paved roads, others are deeper fresh gravel, and a few are rutted. There are no B-Roads today, as TIv9 didn't have any of those until after the first checkpoint, and I'll not get that far today, as I need to get back before too long and get clean before the Pre-Race Meat Up. On ones of the faster, flat roads, I pass a grader, and the road turns to marbles. It was just scraping enough to bring the larger pieces up to the surface and scatter them on top of the hard dry dirt. Blech.

Soon I begin to feel a few sprinkles of rain. I knew this was coming, so I continue on, and come to a wooden bridge. I flash back to riding across this bridge in TIv9. I was having a really nice conversation with the owner of Bikes To You, who I don't think was officially part of the race, just tagging along until he had to turn back to town to open up the shop.

A few miles further, as the rain started to pick up and hold at a steady drizzle, I stopped to consult my gps map to see if there was anything interesting coming up on the route, or to go ahead and turn around, a couple in a truck asks if I need directions. I assure them I have some idea where I'm going, and thank them. I decide there is no reason to not turn around where I was and head back the way I came.

I always find it odd how different roads are in the opposite direction, and wow that grader seems to have ruined all the smoother roads I had ridden on the way in. Also the bit of rain that had fallen had already started to change the roads. With a lot of rain expected to fall through the afternoon and evening, that could be bad. Really, really bad. But then I knew that before I even drove up here. Heck, that's why I'm here. Bring it.

The whole time, I'd been constantly making mental notes about how the tyres had been interacting with the surface. I thought I was really close on pressure, but perhaps a bit too high, and with the roads to soften, I took another guess and decided that I wouldn't touch them, and whatever air leakage occurred naturally overnight would probably be about right.

I'd also been making notes about my comfort level, or lack thereof. I was okay, but as the rain continued, I could see myself being miserable on a much longer ride. Headgear was inadequate. Gloves were sodden, hands too numb to shift by feel. I arrived back at the hotel, luckily the wet roads had cleaned much of the dust off the bike, and I took a big loop through the wet hotel lawn to give the tyres a good scrub and I was clean enough I didn't feel like I was going to cause a mess in the lobby.

42 miles. Perfect morning test ride.




I cleaned up, got in contact with my support person (thanks again for driving down from Milwaukee), then just rested until she arrived and it was time to go sign in, find dinner, back for the actual meeting, and off to bed. It really is a crush of things that happen really fast then you have to unwind to get to bed, because a 2am alarm is really early.

TransIowa v13 Arrival in Grinnell

After an uneventful drive to Iowa, I arrived, checked in and promptly kitted up to get in some relaxing miles around town. A new facebook event page happened to have a loop going around the outskirts of Grinnell, focusing on the gravel and B-roads, and I would like to thank Katherine and Jess for organizing that.





The weather was fairly warm, armwarmers and vest type conditions, so I donned my Riding Gravel kit for my first spin.

Off I went, finding plenty of fresh gravel and a shocking number of B-Roads, considering how close I was to town

What I realized about halfway through the loop, is that I hadn't checked my tyre pressure, and it felt a bit splashy. I made a mental note to see what it was when I got back to the hotel, because while lower than I would like, it would give me an idea how low I could really go. Turns out I was running right around 30psi in both front and rear. I was a bit shocked by that.

Anyway, back at the hotel, I washed and went to find some dinner. Knowing it's small town Iowa, I had done some research and knew there were two places with promise for getting a vegan friendly meal. It was just before 8, so I thought I'd try the one that had a few more options first. Upon arrival, I found the closed sign out, but seeing someone inside, I waved them to the door to ask. Yup, closed. I knew they opened at 5, so inquired, and was told they open at 5 and close when their last reservation leaves. Mind-blowing. I asked about other vegan friendly options and they sent me to the other place I already knew about. I thanked them and let them know I'd be there right at 5 the next day. I went off to the other restaurant and dined, then off to bed.

Trans Iowa v13 Lead up to the race

In the weeks and days leading up to this year's Trans Iowa, there was much looking at the forecast and worrying about what may come. Rain and cold and wind are all factors that could turn the event on its head.

At some point I just started laying clothes on the bed and trying to figure out what work work for what conditions, what -if any- gaps I had that needed filled. Since I had been steadily loosing weight since last summer, I had been stocking up on kit as I found it on sale, with lots of winter kit in the selection, since that's what I needed most when I started sizing out of my older stuff late Fall through Winter. The one thing I couldn't decide on was the shoes. I mean. I had a really nice pair that would be great, but I also wanted to use them for TransAm, and didn't want to trash them before that. With about a week to go, I found a deal on a low end mtb shoe that I knew would fit, since it is of the brand I wear. I had them in hand 2 days later, switched out to a well broken-in insole from another pair, and was in business, I added some shoe covers and fresh cleats to the order just to cover all the bases. I then logged about 150 miles before the race in them just to make sure there were no issues.

All that, and seeing what other riders were choosing as their shoes for the race, I could have just used my insulated winter mtb boots. Live and learn.

Packing was kind of hilarious. Street clothes for diner and the meat-up and such consisted of 2 tshirts, 2 button up shirts, one each jeans and underwear. I then had 3 bags of bike kit. a dozen pair of socks, 5 different gloves, 5 jerseys, 3 jackets, 2 vests, bibs, knickers, tights, arm and leg warmers (each in both wool and synthetic), 4 baselayers, 4 or 5 hats, plus rain gear.

3 bags of food, both on bike fuel and easy breakfast and snacks to deal with eating vegan in small town Iowa were added to the mass of luggage in the backseat of my car, as the trunk was full of tools and workstand and washbucket and a cooler of beer.

I had set my reservation at the hotel to run Thursday night through Monday morning, so while I had packed all the bags in the car Wednesday Night, the bike didn't go on the roof until Thursday morning, in a downpour, and I was on the road around 7:30am headed to Grinnell.