Packing for RAGBRAI

Its time. Let the debauchery begin. The cast of characters=, from left to right: Cousin Natalie, her husband Gary, brother in law Bill and my sister Kirsten. I also stopped by Rob's tonight and he said he is riding Monday and Tuesday. Cool. It should be fun.

Wonder what Beav is doing? I turned in an app to be on his Ragby Drinking Team today. I hope it gets accepted.

Feel free to continue with the blog comments during the Ragby, but don't be offended if I don't reply. I will be a little connection challenged for the next week.

Seven Oaks Work Day

After all of the trouble I've had in the past few days, you would have thought I would have stayed home on a work day at Seven Oaks.

Oops. I showed up.




Cutting a thousand planks.


It is starting to look like a bridge



Putting the planking on:


Two bridges loaded on a trailer:



Sliding the bridges down from the top of the ski hill. This is harder that is looks.









We got them here, now what do we do?




Looks like we put them in their place



Bridges done. Cool.

I've Had Better Days

It all started on Friday night when I was riding home from work. Somehow the waist strap on me messenger bag came unclipped, and said strap then got tangled in the front wheel. Over the bars I went. Ouch! %$#@*$. I sat on the side of the bike path and swore for a while, then picked myself up and limped home.


The crash had put my front wheel out of true, so I had to unhook the front brake. To make matter worse, my other brake hood was also knocked around.


Not a good way to start the weekend. I went home and iced up everything that hurt. Meanwhile I got a call from OP. We decided that I was OK enough to go do 4-5 hours of gravel the next day (Saturday).



That went great! No issues from the previous night's fall, and the weather was great for a bike ride. Just a little bit of rain, almost no wind, and temps in the 65-75 range.

OP likes his new kit.


OP also likes to take phone calls on long gravel rides. He is a devoted husband and father.

We went through parts of Story, Boone, Hamilton, and Hardin counties. All told I did about 58 miles.

About 8 miles from home, I was leaning back in the saddle stretching, and snap! My seat post rail clamp bolt snapped off, and I was in the dirt again for the second time in 24 hours. Ouch! It didn't hurt quite as bad at first because it was on gravel.

I rode the last six mikes standing. Now that hurt a little.


Notice the lack of a seat at the top of the post, and also notice the seat in my jersey pocket. Also notice the elbow.


When we got close to home we took a singletrack short cut to save about a mile.

Try taking a picture when you've been standing up for the last 5 miles, are chasing OP, and are at the end of long day.




And, after all of that, I'm still smiling.

Iowa Games Postponed

I just found out the Iowa Games mountain bike race has been postponed to September 13th. WhooHoo! That means several things:

1) There is much more time to get the Peterson's Park trail system back in shape.

2) There are seven, (count them) seven mountain bike races in August and September. If you planned a training peak for June this year, I'm sorry. If you are looking at the mountain bike season as training for 'cross season, you are in luck!

3) I get to race at the Iowa Games!

The Iowa games has always been one of my strongest races. It plays to my strengths (flat, fast, and in my backyard). Because of a RAGBRAI/Iowa Games conflict this year I was going to miss it. Now I will be there! And it should come at about a training peak for me (I'll work that out later).

In other news, I rode my road bike again. That makes twice this year (have I mentioned that I hate cars). Two times on a road bike means I'm ready for the RAG. With all of the gravel miles I've put in, 450 miles of paved goodness should be a cake walk.

Camera Dump

Here is the promised camera dump. I've been doing quite a bit of riding - almost all of it on gravel.


I've also continued to ride to work whenever I can. It is about 50 minutes one way.


Some of my gravel rides have included "B" roads. Sometimes they have been in really good condition.



Other times, not so much.


One day I stumbled on a spot where three counties come together. It is a little hard to see, but there are three sets of street signs at this intersection. Try explaining that to a 911 dispatcher.



Here we are on the way to Council Bluffs for a race. We were driving over on Friday afternoon.



Oops, the race got cancelled while we were still about 50 miles outside of Council Bluffs. We turned around.


She's smiling, but she's thinking, "Why don't you put the camera down and drive?".



I've also been doing some riding in lake country (central Iowa) with new teammate OP.


This guy is always smiling. The hours pass a lot faster when you can do it with someone else.


On to the devastation. This is a bridge on 160th (just north of me). The water ran over the road here for a long time.



There are lots and lots of lakes like this one. Even today.


This shot is from the trail system in west Peterson's. The lake is overflowing into the river, and has create a waterfall across the trail. I rode on a little bit of the trail, and it is trashed in many, many places.



Things have been so bad around here that I even had to resort to riding on the road once.




Well, there you go. I hope it doesn't take another 6 weeks before the next post. I doubt it. I'm doing RAGBRAI, so that should generate a few decadent posts.

Later.

Can you feel that?

Can you feel it? A rumbling? A tremor? There is is again.

What you feel is my camera rumbling because it is about to puke its guts out on my poor neglected blog. If been riding, and taking a few pics along the way. I just haven't had too much to say.

There is only so much you can write about rain of biblical proportions, cancelled races, devastated trail systems, and swampy gravel roads.

There was another one. Another tremor. Its coming. I can feel it.

A Little Help

My son is in need of a new bike bike. I'm looking for a mountain bike, geared or not, in the 56-57mm top tube range. I'm not looking for a bike in good good condition, because he is going to use it to get back and forth to school, and it will sit outside in all kinds of conditions. I'm just looking for something serviceable. The ideal bike would be a Karate Monkey or 1X1 that has seen better days, but still has some rides left in it.

If you've got something like this tucked in the back of your garage, drop me a line at pcvarnum at varnum dot com, and we'll work someting out.

Something to Write About

After a few uneventful weeks of riding to work, I have something to report.

Like I said, most days are uneventful. I have a few challenging intersections (Grand and Lincolnway, 24th and Northwestern, Crossing US 69), but for the most part my commute is pretty uneventful. Most days, I'm surprised to see a car until I'm most of the way to work.

Today I decided to leave work early, and get in a little extra seat time. Good for me. I've been needing that lately. On the way home, on one of the most innocuous sections of the pavement, a Honda Ridgeline passed me. I remember it because I thought to myself, "Honda Ridgleline, I should get me one of those". After the Honda passed me, he pulled off on the right side of the road at a left turn in the road. That made me nervous. As I approached the left turn, he proceeded do a "U" tun right in front of me! WTF!

I had to lay the bike down to avoid hitting him. He stopped to see that I was OK, but when I said I was going to call he police, he said that he had other stuff to do, and could not be bothered to stick around to see how it turned out for me and my bike. Then he took off.

As it turns out, he ran over my bike, ruining the seat and the rear wheel. At the time I didn't realize that he had run over my bike. It wasn't until later when I was taking pictures that I saw how close a call I had.

Here you go:

Tire tracks across the seat and seat bag.



\


His u-turn tracks right in front of me.




My right knee.



Trashed seat.

Believe it or not, I rode this one home. It hurt!

Story County Deputy Caligiuri doing the CSI thing. He was very cool about everything.

BTW, he is rocking in Oakleys.




He did every thing he could to gather evidence.





Some single track on a different bike will fix my mood.

This perp will be paying a price. I've been told that he will be charged with "Leaving the scene", at a minimum. Other charges may be pending.

When I asked the deputy about recovering expenses for damages, he suggested small claims court. I don't care how much time it takes. I'll be doing that!

Camera Dump

Time for a camera dump. Like I said, I've been riding some, just not blogging about it.

When the weather and my schedule will allow it, I've been riding to work. Its about a 50 minute ride each way, and I try to stretch it out going home, so that I get 2-2 1/2 hours in.



Its pretty calm most mornings.


That's the way I like it. Cars over there, me over here.


Some time I take a detour, and hit up some single track on the way home. And sometimes I have company.



Single track on a fixie. It can be done, but it does increase the potential for having a "fixie moment".


I raced at Ingawanis a week ago. I sucked. A least it was dry.


Hansen rockin in the MOB kit at Ingawanis.


I also got a little boo-boo at Ingawanis.



I went to the Boone marathon race yesterday with the intention of racing, but it started to rain on the way over there. Boone mostly sucks when it's wet. They shortened up the course, and shortened up the time (2 hour and 4 hour class). twelve hearty folks line up at the start. I still left my bike in the truck. I didn't really feel like replacing my whole drive train again.


Quick, everybody hide your hands.


At the pre-race meeting, everyone was thinking, "This is gonna suck."


A few dirty pictures.




Everyone is a winner at Boone. Even Kyle and Robin's dog, Maddie,



What do you really think, Robin?


Bruce Resse eventually broke a chain that ended his day. He finished third in the 4 hour class.



David "Show me the Money" MacRunnel


My old Rig, now being abused by Taylor Webb. I kid. He's really pimped that thing out.


"You want me to do ANOTHER lap?" Mike Johnson took second place in the four hour class, and was nipping at Carney's heels for most of the race. He also gets the award for the bike that stayed the cleanest. He says Pledge is his secret weapon.


Taylor web does his best "Mark Spitz" impersonation. He won the 2 hour class.


And Andrew Carney won the 4 hour class by pounding out lap after lap. Colorado has agreed with him. He was riding strong! I'm afraid his winning days are over. He starts work at a real job in a week, and will be back to stuggling to find riding time like the rest of us.