Naturally, Pugsley got the nod as the bike of choice for the adventure, I personally am sorry to see her go from the list of complete bikes from Surly. In single track she is a bit clumsy and tends to step on her own toes but on gravel she is one of the most comfortable bikes I've ridden on gravel. Since adding the somewhat crazy looking Surly Moloko bars the comfort level has only increased, I know a lot of folks have gone the drop bar route on the Pugsley for gravel and the hand positions that drops provide but there is also a ton of expense associated with doing that as most times it means new bars, levers, shifters, sometimes even a new rear derailleur. That seemed like a lot of time and expense vs. the hand positions offered by the Moloko bar and really what better bike than the odd looking Pugsley to rock a pair of odd looking handle bars.
Not wanting to get up at the colon of dawn (much darker and deeper in the night) I drove up the night before so that I just had to get up at the butt crack of dawn to make the 6 am start, 4 am is a more manageable time to get up vs. the 1 am wake up I would have been facing in order to drive out from Omaha. I'm a bit of a morning person anyway and it was a gorgeous morning with a rather spectacular sunrise so I wasn't complaining at all, I sometimes prefer these early starts in the summer as you can beat some of the heat. That would not be a problem today, temps were in the 50s at 6 am... in August!
Somehow I ended up arriving first to arrive in the sleepy yet quaint town of Reinbeck but it wasn't too long before other riders started trickling in, with some pretty rad rides I might add. I've got my eye on the 2018 Fargo in 27.5+, would have loved a 2017 but finding one of those was near impossible, so seeing two Fargos show up for the ride was nice, the Ti one is very drool worthy but who has Ti money? Not this guy.
I didn't know any of the other riders, except Mark who I had met once or twice at Odin's Revenge and Gravel Worlds, so it was nice to see that Kevin made it on time for the start... even if he came screaming around the corner of the sleepy downtown area like Needles racing Marty McFly. I guess that probably would have been me as well had I opted to drive in from Omaha in the morning but Kevin makes a better Flea than I do so I'll leave the all night racing to him. He had mentioned that he was going to try to make it on Friday night but I wasn't really counting on seeing him, it's easy to say you'll get up at 2 to make it for a 6 am ride the night before, it's a whole other beast to actually get up at 2 am and get rolling.
Since Kevin did race across Iowa to make the ride, we decided to give him a few minutes to get stuff ready before taking off. I rode a few circles in the downtown area trying to stave off some of the chill in the air.
Once we got going and warmed up a little, it was easy to see how beautiful the area around Reinbeck was and that it was going to be a great day to be out on a bicycle. Temps in the 50s in August with almost no humidity or wind, you almost can't get that nice of a day in October.
The roads were in great shape at the beginning of the day, or so I was told by the locals, they have a bit more chunky rock to them than we have for the most part around here which lead to a bit more effort to keep rolling and a bit more vibration in the undercarriage and hands. I was kind of hoping for at least one other fat bike on the ride but the fattest the other fellas were pushing was a 2" 29er. This wasn't all that surprising though as the fat bike has sort of seen a decline in gravel use over the last year during the warmer months or at least that's been my observation. All those folks that bought them and really liked the change in pace and focus that the fat bike brings seem to have all jumped ship and gone back to the need for speed. Not that a fat bike can't be "fast" on gravel, it'll never be as fast as a strong rider on a more traditional gravel bike but in the right hands, or legs, a person can mostly hang with the skinnies with a little more effort. With the pace we were pushing I knew it was going to be a long day on the Pugsley but that too isn't all that unfamiliar of territory and the price you pay for being the lone fat bike in a group of groadies. Don't get me wrong we weren't sprinting but it was a nice brisk pace, I think the chill in the air added to the pace as we were a bit cold at the start and a quicker pace helps to keep you warm.
The route itself was a great mix of gravel and dirt, some of those level B roads were fantastic and rolled really smooth and quick. There had been some threat of rain on Saturday earlier in the week but when I looked that morning the rain chances had almost vanished.
I'm not sure how much bicycle traffic these roads get but the cows seemed to spook a lot easier than they do around here, several of the herds stampeded away shortly after they saw us.
As I said earlier, other than Kevin and Mark to a lesser extent, I had never met any of the guys on the ride previously but we just sort of fell into a groove and rode like we'd been riding together for years. Early on in the ride I was feeling pretty good and even found myself up near the front a few times but I tried not to spend to much time setting the pace and tried to reserve energy for the later miles of the ride when the legs would be a little more tired and I might need those reserves.
I had no idea where I was but it was nice to see all the new sites and the differences in roads and buildings between Iowa and what we find in Eastern Nebraska.
And the strange cows man, the cows!
We even managed to find a few roads that none of the group had ridden previously, being a less populous area than Lincoln/Omaha there were plenty of dirt and gravel roads to be had. I'm not sure what this was other than an old homestead that someone was still taking care of, the house was gone but several columns remained with writing on them and everyone caught the picture taking bug.
Shortly after the homestead we started finding the hills, some of them pretty decent steepness and length for another state that is relatively flat. My time near the front was becoming less and less as the effort to push the Pugs up and down the hill required a bit more effort than I had been putting out to this point and not being familiar with the area I had no idea what was ahead of me.
It just wasn't Dave's day that day, here he sprung a leak on his tubeless setup but thankfully it sealed quick and just required a little air. That was not the last of his troubles though, he would have a centerlock disk that kept coming lose on the ride but the stops to fix that issue were welcomed and would be more so as the day stretched on.
Cool old barns and wind farms were very abundant on this ride and in Iowa in general from what I could tell, not too sure on the wind farms but I'd love to have more cool barns in good condition around here.
Taer was our first real chance to refuel and was also our lunch stop, we were making really good time up to this point. I think Garmin had us at just a little under 3 1/2 hours of rolling time for the first 50 miles, of course total time was a bit longer than that due to regroups and breaks but we were still only at about 11 or so in the morning and according to Mark way ahead of his estimated schedule.
Also caught this guy in Traer, while not as popular as the Beetle by any means, I always kind of had a soft spot for the Karmann Ghia and hadn't seen one in any condition since I left California in the mid 1990s and definitely hadn't seen one this nice in a long time.
The hills, level B roads and breaks kicked up a bit more on the second half of the ride but I wasn't complaining. It was way too beautiful out to be in a huge hurry, probably won't see an August day like that in a long time.
The views weren't too shabby either.
Some of the roads were probably less than level B roads even though they were labeled as level B roads, I loved seeing these as the Pugs had a bit of an advantage over the skinnier tires on these rough, barely there double track roads.
This picture doesn't really do it justice but the corn terraces shown here were pretty amazing.
Rolled into Garwin at mile 75, this was our last town stop before arriving back in Reinbeck so we took a longer break here and got some food and drink and lounged on the sidewalk for a bit. It was a welcomed oasis for me, even if it was bit of a shady looking establishment.
75 miles of Iowa right there, those 4" tires definitely kick up a bit of dust onto you.
These were the last two pictures I took on the home stretch, everyone seemed to find their second wind but to be honest I was struggling a little bit. This is where the TMI part of the story comes into play, so turn away now if you want. While my legs were still in the game but I was having other physical issues that slowed me down a bit and it's something I need to figure out soon. I'm not sure why but on rides longer than 60 miles there are times when the seams, edges, whatever of the chamois will really start to rub and chaff in places you don't really want chaffage or rubbing. I'm not talking about the ass either, being a bit sore there is to be expected to some degree after 75 miles but in my case the chaffing is in the frontal region around the fupa and twig and berries. As you can imagine it gets to be a bit painful quickly and pedaling faster or the process of getting out of the saddle and back in the saddle just seems to exacerbate and accelerate the issue. If that wasn't bad enough you really don't want to know how it feels when the sweat starts to roll down south and into those open wounds. It's become such and issue that I'm looking at either compression shorts or a jock to wear under the bibs... I'm really at a loss for what else to do, I've tried chamois cream and that seems to help in the beginning but it just sort of either sweats off or becomes ineffective later in the ride. I know people are going to say I need tighter bibs but I don't think that's the issue as they are plenty tight at the beginning but as time goes on I'm not sure if it's water weight loss or what but they start to not fit quite as tight and I think that's where the rubbing comes into play. Other than riding naked or bringing a dry kit to change into the only thing I can think of is to put something between the tender bits and the chamois where it's rubbing... I'm not above riding with a hand towel down there as I've done that before to keep from freezing them off on the Frozen 40 but I'm not sure that's the best solution for hotter times. Any way as you can imagine the mental struggle becomes a tough one as your mind keeps telling you that if you just stop the chaffing will go away and things will stop hurting, and it's not wrong which is the bitch of it. However when you're out in the middle of nowhere, stopping isn't an option really so you just figure out how to keep going and minimize the damage... the shower afterwards ain't no picnic either. So pictures are about the furthest thing on my mind at that point and thus the lack of digital memorializing.
The ride did end eventually and at a brewery no less, beers were had. Good quality, craft beers were had.
Friends don't let friends drink shitty beer, just NO.
All in all it was a great ride and I felt good for the majority of it, legs actually felt good for the entire ride so if I can figure out the other issue that started popping up I think things will be good for the upcoming Gravel Worlds. Looking forward to my third one, hoping the weather is more like last year and less like two years ago but I guess we will just have to wait and see on that. As for the GTDRI, well, I highly recommend it! Great route and great people to ride with and not being a race, riders tend to not take it as serious or competitive and you can ride at a pace more prone to conversation. Thanks for putting it on Mark, I'm going to try my best to make sure this one gets on the calendar next year.
