Trans-Iowa Recon...complete.

We are finished. Guitar Ted and Myself spent Saturday and Sunday driving across the state of Iowa putting the finishing touches on the Trans-Iowa course. My car is now a nice shade of shit brown, and the inside of the car has a film of gravel on it. If you are reading this, you are about to get a heads-up on the course. I am not going to disclose any course info on the Trans-Iowa site accept for the pass through towns. But right here, right now I am going to give some course specifics.

The start of the course in non stop rolling hills for about thr first 35 miles or so. This will spread out the field very fast. The gravel is also deep and loose....mnt bike friendly only! After that, it is a mixture of "Class B" dirt roads, or I should say mud, and regular gravel to Primghar. After Primghar, you reach a huge stretch of flat gravel with no trees, no farms, no towns. If it is windy, it will SUCK! We called this the 'Death Flats' while driving it. This goes on...and on....and on....and on all the way to Emmetsburg. After Emmetsburg, it's traditional gravel with rolling and flat terrain to Algona. From Algona, it's off to Forest City. The gravel is good, but there are many stretches of nothing. Within about 7 miles of Forest City, you start to get in to some bastard climbs....short and steep. After Forest City, it's off to Osage. Just outside of Forest City you will come to Pilot Knob State Park, where you will ride on about 2 miles of singletrack....sweet! Beyond the singletrack it's more short steep climbs till it flattens off to Osage. After Osage you will have time to fuel up and get your legs ready for the hardest part of the race. Once you get to Cresco from Osage, the course is not stop up and down for the final 40 miles to Decorah. The roads are steep! I had to down shift the car to get up some of the climbs. Some climbs are 30 seconds. Some are 3-5 minutes. It will hurt. Coming down the hills in this 40 miles stretch it will be easy to hit about 40 mph!

In my personal opinion, a mnt bike is needed! Maybe even a full-suspension, cause the roads are very rough and wash'd out in spots. There is a need for larger tires due to the deepness of the gravel. Anything skinny like a 1.5 or something on a cyclocross bike will just sink in and get squirrely.

Want to see a course profile? CLICK HERE. Thanks to Rich at Oneota Cycles in Decorah for the map and for letting us run Trans-Iowa with the T.T.

Hope I got you thinking about your gear choices for the race if you are racing. If not, you better get on it.

I wonder what Guitar Ted has to say about the course?