2019 Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational - The Thunder Rolls

Friday night we pulled up chocks in Nebraska and made our way over to Grinnell for the 14th annual GTDRI and then on Saturday morning we successfully recreated every awkward family photo of my youth. Always that one sibling not entirely committed to joining the family and having permanent evidence.


After a few last minute route updates and instructions to remember not to blink during photos, it was time to get rolling.




Temps were fairly mild with clouds and a gentle breeze, if things stuck like they were at the start it would be an ideal day for 92 miles on the gravel. Pretty decent sized group also, 14 of us in total I believe.





On the menu for the ride were the dirt roads around Poweshiek county and we hit them early and often. Some of my favorite roads on a bike have been those not maintained much by the state or county so I was pretty excited to see what Iowa had to offer. Some of the roads seemed similar to when we were over for the COG and Prairie Burn but I'm not sure if we ever did ride on any of the exact same roads.





Sun kept playing peek-a-boo through the clouds for most of the morning but the roads were rolling fast, dry and a tad dusty in spots.




The roads around Grinnell were mostly steady rollers with the occasional hill tipping over the 10% grade mark but the views were pretty spectacular from the tops of the hills at times.


Some views weren't as spectacular, Tim ended up breaking a quick link on his chain and catching his derailleur in his spokes. Thankfully Tim had an extra quick link and we were able to bend things back enough that they would shift enough to get him moving again without needing to set him up single speed.


As we performing road side emergency surgery on the bike however, we started to hear the distant rumbling of thunder and started seeing tell tale signs of possible rain heading our way.




There weren't any towns on the route until about mile 70 so GT had made arrangements to have two water stops along the way to Brooklyn. The first was at mile 30 and supplied by Jon Duke, organizer of the Prairie Burn and Grinnell local. Pastries, water and even a splash of Coke could be had for riders at the stop, those mini strudels really hit the spot.





After the break it was more of the same, miles of gorgeous MMR (Level B) roads. There were so many great MMRs in this part of Iowa that they even had intersections where two of them would meetup! I've seen a lot of odd things riding gravel but I can't recall ever riding where one MMR would intersect with another MMR out in the middle of nowhere. Fun times and so far no rain, so both of those things were good.


Also had a shirtless tire repair class on the side of the road, this ride really sort of had it all.





With storms all around us our luck finally ran out and we got caught in two sprinkle rains and one pretty decent soaking rain. We even stopped under a tree for a bit to get out of the liquid sunshine, it was kind of and odd rain because you'd be getting rained on and then half mile down the road it would be bone dry, even the roads weren't showing any signs of rain and then suddenly you'd be in it again.


We carried on until mile 60 and the second water stop hosted by none other than Michaela, there were chips, sodas, gatorade and red/white/blue peanut M&M's (dubbed freedom nuts) to be had. I was soaked to the bone and Doug was feeling the lack of cycling this year so we both called it a day and watched the group roll out before packing it up and driving back to Grinnell.





Back in Grinnell we showered up and then decided to hit the town and ended up at an old soda fountain place called Candyland Station, really good floats and ice cream sodas. Unfortunately it was also the last day ever for the place, a few hours after we stopped in they were shuttering the doors for good. Glad we got to see what it was all about before it went out of business. The GTDRI was a great time, not even the rains could damper our enjoyment. This is my second time doing the ride but probably won't be the last one, it's not too far away, a good time and I get to see roads and views I wouldn't normally see. Plus a little mini vacation is always worth it.

Next Saturday is the third annual Kolache Ride to Wilber, also a great time and a ride I am looking forward to participating in, check back next week for the ride report.