Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Trans Iowa v13: Course Reboot

So there has been a bit of a change in the Trans Iowa v13 course. As those of you have followed things along know, the beginning section of Trans Iowa had to be scrapped due to a small bridge closure. It could not easily be gotten around due to a lack of roads in the area.

So, I scrapped the entire first leg to do another 'sketch" for a beginning sector. That has to be reconned so I don't have some other "surprise" waiting for me this Spring to reroute around. I hope to get down that way soon, as there is no snow cover and the roads look to be clear right now.

There is one other issue that has been bugging me lately. We saw the route last October and there was a section coming into a town that showed on the maps as gravel but which had recently been paved over. Instead of a half mile of gravel we ended up seeing two miles. That didn't set well with me and I had that sitting in the back of my mind for weeks afterward. Now there was another small reroute we planned on immediately after the recon in October which wasn't far away from this area. I ended up coming up with an idea based upon using the reroute we planned on with a new section of course. This new section and reroute would eliminate the pavement I did not want, plus it gave us a safer crossing of a highway.

Guerilla Brewing is out of Waterloo, IA
I still have to get down to see this 30 mile stretch of course as well. Assuming it all works out, then I can draft cues. If it doesn't work out........that means more course planning. 

Now with the holidays out of the way I plan on getting to some unfinished business behind the scenes and when that gets sorted I should have a couple of announcements to make. One announcement I can make is that Trans Iowa will have some bottles of craft brew to award our first place class finishers with at the finish line. A small, craft brewer in Waterloo called Guerilla Brewing has agreed to set us up with three nice bottles of craft brew for the winner of the Mens Open, Womens Open, and Single Speed/Fixed gear classes. Thanks to Guerilla Brewing for that award! If you are ever in Waterloo, Iowa, look up the Guerilla Brewing beer on tap at the Lava Lounge, the only place on Planet Earth you can get this beer at.

Stay tuned for more on Trans Iowa v13 soon......

1 comment:

Ari said...

Sometimes I have nightmares that all gravel roads will get paved. I highly doubt that will ever happen. It would probably cost billions of dollars to do that!