A Night O' and Morning O' Dirt

Oakley Rob's Nite O' Dirt featuring Rob (as himself), Fuller, Paul, Sumpter, Chuck, and Kyle, with an appearance from Matt.

Had a great ride last night. Despite the line of storms that blew
through after getting home from work, 9 of us left Kyle's bikes in
Ankeny at 8:30 AM for "Oakley Rob's First Annual Night Of Dirt". Our
route took us straight north to Ames (we literally made 4 turns
getting onto the gravel and nothing after that). After a quick bite,
Matt from Skunk River Cycles joined us around 11:00 PM and we headed
back south, with 6 of us then heading over to Huxley and Cambridge and
back on the HOINT (very nicely groomed dirt/gravel trail), then back
to Ames for a quick 2 AM burrito fix. Matt went home, leaving Mr
BikeIowa, Oakley Rob, Kyle and Chuck from Kyle's bikes and myself to
ride straight south back to Ankeny, arriving back at the shop around
3:30 or 4:00AM. Kyle, Chuck and I called it a morning with 80 miles on
the odometer. Rob and Sumpter kept rolling around town to get their
remaining mileage in. So there you have it, a quick night metric to
keep myself active in the "One 'o Month" club. Talk of doing another
one in August if there's interest (and even if there's not).

Dave and Dee's 17.8th annual early morning O' Dirt: Metric #2 for the mables and Fishy. Langer joined but only got 55 or so. Lot's o hills, lots o miles, lots o dogs - and a picture perfect Iowa morning. Ride ended with coffee at Amici - that's what I call a perfect start to a perfect day - the conclusion of the day will entail our daughter Anna's dance recital, followed by an overnight drive to mountain paradise... Estes Park - yep - a perfect day.

Peace - Dave

Catching up and adding some new!

Our friend from the East, Darcy Sanford, got a little twinge of motivation last week when I requested reminders of missed hundies... so she joined Norbert Koenigsfeld, Sandy Kessler and Lisa DeShano for a dirty old ride. (come to find out Norbert is an old friend from my days at UNI!... GO CATS!) She logged 111 miles on the 22nd of June - well on their way to some Mississippi Mud! Nerbert added the full century to his count as well -

Steve Fuller is a card carrying member of the One-a-month club - with 2; 2; 2; hundies in May! (you remember that Certs commercial, don't you???) He ventured to Kansas for the Dirty Kanza - a 200 mile epic through the Flint Hills - middle of nowhere - Kansas... 19 hours, 6 minutes and 48 seconds of riding brought him in 36th out of the 75 starters - I can't even imagine... well maybe, but not really.. Great Job Steve! With those 2 centuries, it brings Steve to 5 hundies and 2 metric hundies - he's only one away from a Cup O' Mississippi Mud - I think he's on for a full cup, though...

I also got a note from another old friend - back in 1995 Pete Ylvisaker and some crazy buddies hosted a January 1 race in Cedar Rapids - I remember it well as it as a cold 7 mile slog through rural Linn County on gravel roads (see a theme?) and some river bottoms trail - all covered in fresh snow (geez - it is all coming together for me now - the gravel, the snow covered trail run, the craziness...). The race was the Hellinback 7, named, not for the fact that we were running to hell and back - but for a long forgoten homesteader near Cedar Rapids - George (?) Hellinback - who was lost in the snow or something... anyway, the winner got a wooden paddle for a year and got to put their name on it - My name graces that paddle to this day, as the winner of the inaugural Hellinback 7 - a proud moment in my storied athletic career!! ;)

Anyway - Pete is joining us on the chase - guess the paddle is getting lonely - and he needs a cup to sip some hot-cocoa from after his 7 mile run on New Years Day this year... He logged 4.6 hours of outdoor fun on his 46th birthday with 100k of gravel roads on a P.O.S. single speed followed up with a 4k run. Welcome to the chase, Pete!

Well, Dee and I nailed our first metric of the year - on dirt anyway. We've each got a century... but on CE-ment - so we got the tandem out with Fishy and Benson for a fast gravel grinder to Perry and back for some Leadville prep - felt good and we're hoping for another buckle this year... tune in August 9th!

And finally - I'm gunna post his email - cuz I liked it - so from Tom Anderson:

You can increase my tally by 2 to 6 total. I'm still in the hunt for 1 a
month status (the only thing I'm chasing this year).

I just finished a ride today, a new personal best of 7:14 for 100; 7:44 with
stops. Amazing to look back at the January Hilly Hundy with Squirrel,
Fuller, Grelk and Sumpter and how that one was 11hours or something like
that (and I was dead tired for days).

I've been doing most of my riding west of Des Moines, some north and some
south. Anyone that is looking for rides can go to www.motionbased.com and
do a search for Urbandale. My rides are uploaded via GPS and they will give
others a good starting point.

June Hundy: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6046777
May Hundy: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5765987

Thanks again for posting this challenge. I've lost close to 25lbs and am
probably in the best shape of my life.

Tom>

Happy Trails - Dave

June Cup-dates

While there was a flurry of activity in early June - it got pretty quiet for a couple of weeks as folks were busy sandbagging, pumping out basements, moving to higher ground, and generally trying, each in their own way, trying to mitigate the effects of the flooding that made the Floods of '93 look like a puddle at Chequamegon (which can be massive, mind you... but is a puddle none-the-less).

All that anti-flood work going on around the state aside - there has been some recent action, and some missed action (ie- missed postings and updates by me). First of all - about the only place to catch a mtn bike ride around here are the gravel roads, as lots of trails follow some type of stream or river, and are under water or 6 inches of mud right now. That and- it's just nice to get out and go for an enjoyable gravel ride to escape the challenges of the day(s).

So - Here's what I know...

The Cedar Falls crew, seemingly lead by that dirty old man, John Adamson, has been racking up the metric centuries, both as an escape and as Leadville training (and, it would seem, in pursuit of the Cup!). Johny, has rounded up a crew of 8 from the Bike Tech squad and have been riding riding riding! Latest folks to join the chase include Chris Congdon, Steve Bullerman and Doug Keiser (who has 2 now).

Scott Sumpter has the century that woulda-coulda-shoulda been... but alas - even he won't count it. He took off in the final days of May to maintain his One-A-Month Club status - and headed north for a gravel ride to, like Mason City or something. Well... the first 9 miles took him 2 1/2 hours.... can you say 'peanut butter'? Realizing that he'll never make his destination at that pace - he took to the CE-ment (anyone remember the Beverly Hillbillies?) and finished out the ride. 104 miles that just don't count (until 2009 and the Cup O' CE-ment... kidding.)

Dave (that'd be me) and my beautiful and talented bride, Dee broke the ol' tandem out last weekend for our first metric century. With Dee's new interest in bike racing...she is in great shape - we ROLLED! Joined on the ride by Brian Benson and Dave Fish, we spend a good deal of time around the 20mph mark... even on the way home with a bit of a head-breeze. Really - I now know who's been puttin' all the power into that tandem at Leadville and Chequamegon all these years! Dee has officially become a cyclist - just look at this picture of our living room - this NEVER would have happened - even a year ago - but get the lady a sweet pink LeMond - teach her some racing skills - and look out! Everything changes... and now, even I get to keep my sweet green Guru in the living room!! Honestly - cycling changes people -wouldn't you all agree?!


Now - I think I've got the tally correct on the left there- but I admit that I might not... so, I need your help! If, after reading this and checking the tally, if I've got this all wrong - or you have a short story about a great ride that I need to post, send (I know you've done it already... but, well....send it again!) and make your subject line 'Cup O Dirt' so I can sort through my hundreds of emails and get your story posted.

I do know that Mr. Oakley, Robbie V, is heading out for a darkened century next Friday night - leaving from Ankeny around 8 or 8:30pm - riding to Ames for some chow... riding back to Ankeny - for some chow.. then riding back out for the final 30miles and home in time for a cat-nap before dawn breaks. That does sound like a BLAST - but alas, the Mable-mobile can not make it due to a dance recital and the fact that I'm driving overnight on the next night for a week in Colorado... and two sleep-deprived nights in a row might spell disaster... so Dee and I are heading out from West Des Moines at 5am on Saturday the 28th for a 5-6 hour ride in the hills. All are welcome at each of these - send me a note if ya wanna come to either (I'll hook you up with Versteghehghehgheggehe if ya need).

In the mean time - we'll be enjoying the road bikes in West Des Moines at the Hy-Vee tri tomorrow. Robbie V is pulling some dude who cannot pull himself - as part of a team to give this guy tri-experience - Cheer them on as they cruise by - I bet they'll stand out.... it'll probly be the only trailer on the course! I am really impressed with this effort - Dee and I ran a camp for folks with disabilities prior to this whole real estate thing - and spent some time with Rick and Dick Hoyt, Rick has Cerebral Palsy and Dick, his Dad, pushes and pulls him in the freakn' Ironman, Boston Marathon and all over the freakn place. We had the opportunity to ride/run a day with them in 1992 or 1993 as they rode/ran across the entire country. We did 75 HILLY miles through West Virginia with them - a day we will never forget. Anyway - Rob - that rocks - we'll be rooting for you and your whole team tomorrow!

That's enough for now folks -

Peace - Dave

Tour De Parkersburg

Bike Tech Racing racked up another 9 dirty hundys this weekend. Kathleen Porter and John Adamson had a long trip to Trear and back for some very fine long miles of gravel. Kat thought it was very long gravel.
On Sunday fellow LT 100 hopefuls Mike Johnson and Paul Meyermann joined Kat and John as the group continues to make the adjustment to riding their mt. bike. Riding X bikes and keeping the pace very fast were Pete Berendzen, Steve Bullerman and Robert Fry. Hoping for another cup of dirt we rode west of CF looking at the storm damage north of New Hartford, on to Aplington and back to Cedar Falls. None of us were prepared for the devastation that we saw with our stop in Parkersburg.
All I can say is that I had trouble finding the house - even the location of the house where we raised our boys and lived for 17 years.


photo by Kathleen Porter
Other than that - the day and riding were grand and we all feel like we are making progress for our trip to Columbine and back
John