New Chaser Scott McConnell

We have yet another new chaser in the Cup O' Dirt Challenge. I'll let him introduce himself:

Wanted to through my name in the ring for the cup of dirt challenge!  This is awesome.  My name is Scott McConnell from Nashville, Tn.  My dirty centuries have been done on a single speed.  Unofficially finished Trans Iowa this year for 3 dirty centuries (finished, but missed the official cut off). Added two dirty centuries this past weekend at Dirty Kanza.  Have four more on the calendar.  Just need to find 3 more to round out the year and this challenge will encourage me to do that!  Thanks for offering this challenge and let me know if anymore information is needed from me. 
blue skies,
Scott

Centuries 6 and 7 for Pat and Charlie Jenkins

Pat and Charlie Jenkins had this to say about their DK 200 finish. Way to keep at it, guys!

Yesterday we rode Dirty Kanza 200. This completes #6 & 7 Cup 'O Dirt full dirty centuries. This was our second DK. The weather this year was outstanding, and the gravel absolutely perfect. This year we finished just after 10pm, almost 2 hours faster than last year. We made some new friends, ate a little more KS dirt, and had another awesome experience!

Davie G's May Update

Here are all of the metrics that Dave Giegerich has reported for May. Note that he wins the May challenge for the most Cup O' Dirt qualifying miles during the month. Is anyone surprised?

Dear Sir Nick,
My May Metrics total 6. Which is kind of lame being I did 4 in 8 days, so a bit of slack'n. Time was a big issue, but it is time to get er done, Bring on June. Thanks for the Chase.
Dave Giegerich
5/5/12 =      # 18
5/13/12 =    # 19
5/16/12 =    # 20   4 Flats aghhhh!!!!!
5/19/12 =    #21
5/20/12 =    # 22
5/23/12 =   #23

May Challenge Winner

After going through a few emails about May updates, I've determined that we have a winner for the May challenge that I had proposed at the beginning of that month. The winner, with 6 metrics totaling 372 qualifying miles is none other than Dave Giegerich. What is the prize? A batch of delicious baked goods baked by none other than myself (with a lot of help from my professional baker girlfriend, Caitlin, so don't worry Dave!). I'm sure Dave will post a photo of himself gobbling down these delicious baked treats with his pitbull and Creepy Baby in there somehow. Thanks to all who sent their May updates. I'll have an update a day again for the next week or so.

Keep enjoying the chase, and stay tuned for more challenges this year.

~Nick W.

Drew Wilson's Update

Drew Wilson sent this update a while ago. Here's to playing catch up:

January-
Two tough metrics-  Triple D and The Untitled 

February-
Quick metric out to Spring Valley and then the one and only CIRREM

March-
Just one qualifying ride as a metric although the overall mileage was close to 140-

April-
The Ragnarok and my first full dirty century for 2012-

A double century with enough gravel for a dirty metric-

Then a century on my homemade carbon fatbike at BALLS

May-
The Royal 162


So, thus far this year I have 5 dirty metrics and 3 dirty centuries.  Seems all my road riding has cut into my gravel numbers.

Nick Wethington's Ride Reports

I have a couple of metrics of my own to report. The first is from my delivery of cups to Dave Giegerich. He is just as funny, quirky and fast as you can imagine from reading his blog and reports for the cup. Also, Creepy Baby is just as creepy in real life. As it turns out, she has a full wardrobe of hand-knit sweaters made by Dave's fiancée. At least she's well-dressed.

We had a great time burning up the Heritage Trail. We were looking for Lance Andre all day long, but word on the street was that he was passed out drunk in Dyersville. This was shortly after he was seen leaning over his aero bars and puking on the trail. Hey, we all gotta fill our Camelbaks with what works. Caitlin and I decided to make a weekend of it, so we camped at Swiss Valley Campgrounds after my ride with Dave on Sunday, then spent Monday at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. It was an awesome weekend.

My second dirty metric was one of my favorite rides. After a long weekend down in Arizona seeing some family and friends, but being off the bike, I needed to get a good ride in. The weather was gorgeous on Memorial Day, so I headed to the Seven Oaks mountain bike trail near Boone on my single-speed. I rode through Ledges State Park, then did a quick, dusty lap on the trail. The fee used to be only 3 bucks, so that's all I brought with me. Turns out, they've raised it to the outrageous price of $4. Can you believe it? $4 to ride on a tough, well-maintained trail that has no equal within at least 100 miles? The lady at the desk said it would be fine to pay the 3 bucks that I had in cash, but I insisted on buying the $40 season pass with plastic instead. It will at least get me out to the trail 9 more times to make it worth it. After my lap on the trail, I decided I didn't want to put too much hurt on myself because I had to ride back to Ames, so headed north through Boone. The wind was a stiff one out of the west, and was nice to have at my back on the way home.

Century #5 for Pat and Charlie

Pat and Charlie Jenkins bagged yet another full century on the tandem. With these kinda miles, Kanza will be a breeze for you two!

Pat & I rode another "dirty" full century today (#5). 130 miles total, well over 100 miles of gravel with a few pave miles between the good stuff. Today's ride was our last ride before DK-200. It was hot & windy today, and the gravel was loose & soft. Tough day in the saddle, but we got through it. 

New Chaser Tim McGovern

It's always great to see new names in the chase for the cup from exotic locales like Chicago. Glad to see that the Cup is reaching outside of Iowa! Welcome to the chase, Tim, and good luck on the upcoming races. It's amazing how doable the Cup seems to be once you get started.

I'm going to give the Cup o' Dirt the college try this year.  

Already done two metrics:
Barry-Roubaix (which was the longest ride I'd ever done to date. I realized after.)
Dirty Mudd'r (Windy Dust'r was more like it!) 

And have GGGRRR, Gritty 260, and 24 Hours of Moab on the calendar. Bagging another 7 is starting to seem doable. 

Tim McGovern
Chicago

Brad Yearwood's First Full Century

Brad Yearwood had this wonderful report about his first full century of the year. From experience, I can tell you that a dollar bill works well as a boot, though a Jackson works about 20 times as well. Har, har. Anyway...

Here for my second update...my first full century of the year.  I had hoped to do one sooner, however... I made it a good one though.  I just completed my first Almanzo 100 last weekend.  For those that may not know, it is a self-supported gravel century (with optional 162 mile race) held every May in Spring Valley, MN.  The race director, Chris Skogen, has put together an excellent race and it is one of the best organized events I have ever participated in.  On to the report...   I've been to Minnesota several times yet somehow was surprised at the amount of climbing on this course.  Most reports put it around 6500' or so of total climbing.  I had done several hill repeats and prepared myself as best I could coming from a considerably flatter state.  For the most part I felt pretty good...no major bonks or anything.  Around mile 80 is where my chance of a much-improved finish time from my last gravel century went out the window. On the minimum maintenance road portion of the course, I flatted.  Not just flatted, a sharp rock had sliced my tube and tire...well.  My race number had come off earlier in the day, so I fished it out of my bag and stuffed it as a makeshift boot into the tire.  It seemed to work.  About 3 miles later, when I was feeling confident in my 'MacGuyver-like' ability to save the day, my rear tube punctured again.  Race bib...not thick enough for a tire boot; and now, the tire slash is a little over an inch long.  Another aspect of this being a well-organized race is that they provide nice laminated cue sheets.  I thought this, being easily twice as thick as the race bib, might work.  I folded the number carefully in between the tire and (patched) tube.  Luckily, this got me all the way to the finish.  I would also like to add that at my second mechanical stop, one of the riders had stopped to help me and stayed with me all the way to the finish should I have another potentially race-ending mechanical.  His name was Cole -- Cole Rogers, according to the race results.  If any of you know him, tell him I owe him a drink. -Brad p.s.  I'm probably switching tires for next year...

Steve Fuller Ride Report

Steve Fuller had this to say about his last few rides. Good luck on Kanza and Chequemegon. Say hello to the heat exhaustion at Kanza for me! We're good friends.

A bit late, but I have a few more rides to report. 

CIRREM 2/25 - 100K+ on my fatbike. 4000 feet of climb. 5:37 moving time. One of the stupidest things I've done to my body in a long time. :) 

Gent's Race 4/7  - 66 miles in 4:43 moving time. Lots of fresh gravel and a headwind for the last 15 miles. Great team of guys to ride with for the day 

Gravel ride 4/21 - 100K. Rode most of the CIRREM course with a couple of other guys. Beautiful day. 

Training Century - 5/20 - 100.2 miles, 4600 feet of climb. 6:10 moving time. LOTS of pretty areas south and west of Winterset. The detour off my normal route to go through Pammel State Park yielded a couple of awesome climbs. Pammel Park would be worth of a gravel bike pack from DSM. It would be about 35 or 40 miles depending on where you started. 

Looking forward to Dirty Kanza and Chequemegon 100 in June!

Congraduations Gravel

A.J. Turner celebrated his graduation in true Cup O' Dirt style: by riding a full century on gravel! Good to see that you learned something valuable from all those years of education. Congratulations on the full century and the graduation, A.J. Now that you have all that time that you would have normally been studying to ride, we expect great things from you this summer.

Graduation Gravel
I finished my final year of undergraduate studies last Wednesday and decided to treat myself to a full day of riding on Friday, May 11th. It was the oh-so-perfect way to relieve the stress of finals cramming and, naturally, quite fun. Rode along the rivers past Wapello and beyond. Finished with some single track for roughly 103 miles. Chalk me up for another gravel full century.

More Metrics from Davie G.

Davie G. had a few more metrics to report. I finally made it over his way to deliver his truckload of cups from when he did 100 metric centuries in one year, plus some cups from another year that he did 48 metrics and 6 full centuries. Obviously, he earned all of those cups, and I'll probably have to rent another semi to get them all over to his house. It was a great visit, and though it was a bit cramped in his small hut I have to say that the bugs were absolutely divine.

Hey Nick, Dave reporting in with metrics 

15 4/28/12
16 4/29/12
17 4/3/12
18 5/5/12
19 5/13/12 

Mostly just wandering around gravel in NE Iowa, I have learned to live off the land as I ride. Here you see me digging into to a delicious bouquet of worms for a snack.

Here I have learned to take shelter in "tree teepees".

My Metric Century  ride on 5/13/12 was a very memorable ride. A man called Nick W along with his lady Caitlin drove all the way from Ames Iowa to deliver my Cup O Dirt awards from the last previous two years. Here is a picture of me receiving said awards and asking the crowd to keep the noise down so I can give my acceptance speech. They didn't. Creep Baby was quite proud and purchased a ring side seat for this event.

Afterwards Caitlin, Nick, and I headed out to the dirt trails on our bicycles. Caitlin  left Nick and I somewhere along the way figuring I had enough of these two and we two rode on and we shared and rode and talked some more like we knew each other for years. Such is bicyclists, we share the same passion and those that don't sure are missing out.
Here is Nick trying to pass the old guy after resting in my draft. I kicked in my Cavendish after burners and held off the attack. I think I taught that young fellow a lesson.

 

Eric Buck and His New Bike

Eric had this to say about his back to back metrics. He also attached this picture of a very, very nice Waterford with very, very nice parts on it. We look forward to hearing about more adventures on that sweet ride in Utah, Eric.

last week i was on some pretty heavy antibiotics for a minor-ish surgery i was having. i was really fatigued. i had just moved all the parts from my vaya over to my new frame and everything was dialed in. i had to ride it right? right. it wasn't pretty but you can chaulk me up for back to back metrics. saturday was a lolipop route around massena. sunday i rode to adair for pizza. found some good dirt north of I-80. here's a pic of the new go everywhere waterford i built up. we are off to utah next month!!!!     
cheers,
buck