A Century for Dave Mable

Here's Dave Mable's century report. This was delivered by telegram (unfortunately he didn't spring for a singing one) and is transcribed here directly:

Put me down for a century. Almanzo 100. Hardest day on a bike. Period.
Dee and I rode tandem. Made it. dude.

You can certainly tell who was stoking the tandem, and who was the captain.

Way to go, Dave!

The Return of a God

That's a god, not the God. Dave Giegerich is back in the saddle racking up the dirty metric centuries. Here's a couple of reports from the deity himself.

Dear Mr. Nick,
I am guilty of two things. 1. Not getting enough gravel time in. 2. Not reporting my dirty "Cs"

Ok well I am changing that.
I now have four metrics. Here are the last not reported three.
May 7, 14, and 18.
Today's right was great, started to rain and the wind whipped up, I was underdressed, so I just held onto a hard pace to keep warm.

Found out I just can't ride 1000s of miles and not do counter exercises and stretchings not at my old age anyhow. Working on shoulder and wrist injuries recovery. Going good. Hope to start banging out two "Cs" a week now.

"It's no big deal."

Hi Nick,
This weekend was a riding weekend. Saturday and Sunday I rode a Metric gravel each day that makes Metric #6 for the year. Saturday it rained for the first 20 miles, soaking me. But if you want to ride, it works best to learn to ride, rain, heat, snow, or dark, it's part of the fun.
Sunday, the legs were feeling a little tired but knew I would feel better to ride then the feeling of not riding. Ran into a large bull staring me down on the trail and turned around and back tracked, he was unwilling to move out of my way, and he was scaring me.

Attached is a picture of the trail starting to grow shut.
Thanks for the chase.
Dave Giegerich

 I just noticed that this post contains references/quotes from two separate films, both spoken by the same actor. Anyone who can identify these should speak up in the comments to win a free pony ride!

3rd Century for Courtney Hilton

Courtney Hilton has his 3rd century for the year, which he bagged on May 16th. Here's a photo he sent to me. Check out his blog for more!

Craig Irving Gets Serious

It's been a while! I have a few updates to share with y'all from the month of May. Here's the first, from Craig Irving. His report exemplifies what riding and competing is all about: the enjoyment of the sport. It takes a lot to finish a race that you won't get official credit for, and we've all been out on rides that could be made a lot easier with one cell phone call to the significant other. Hats off to Craig.

I'm giving fake Richard the day off for this one because I don't want to trivialize what this race meant to me.  At 7am on Saturday, May 14th I started the Royal 162 alongside sixty other people.  At 2am on Sunday, May 15th I finished the Royal 162 alongside two other people.  Don, Zack and I finished four hours outside the time cut.  We didn't care.  We won't be recognized as official finishers in this race.  We don't care. We fought wind, rain, cold, navigational errors  and crushing lows, but we completed this beast of a race.  For us, it was a huge matter of pride.  We all missed the first cut at Trans Iowa and we were determined to make up for it here.  Mission accomplished, in a big way.  On paper this was my worst performance of the year, second only to Trans Iowa.  In reality, it's the biggest win I've ever had in bike racing.

Courtny Hilton's 8th Metric

Courtney Hilton, our leader in the gravel metric category so far this year, has reported yet another one.

5/6 finished metric #8. Single speed mountain bike through the hills west of West Des Moines.  Now getting ready for Almonzo 100.

 The rest of ya - get on your bikes and start reporting those rides!

Another Metric for Craig Irving

Richard Simmons can eat his heart out. Here's the latest from Craig Irving:

I'm a bit late in reporting this, but I logged another metric on May 1st. 65 miles and two bonks in total.  It was one of those days where I got too caught up in the ride and forgot to eat.  Oops.  Luckily I had my nutritionist on hand to take care of my post-ride recovery meal. 

Next up on the agenda:  Royal 162.  It's gonna take a whole lotta Fake Richard to pull this one off...

 You may have to click on that there photo to read what Richard has to say, but it's worth it.

I have my own metric to report, too. I rode out to Whiterock Conservancy on Sunday to fix some bikes, eat good food and go canoeing. Ended up with 75 miles, about 65 of those on gravel. The wind blew me most of the way there, so it felt like cheating, but I rode a single-speed so that made up for it. Right?

Keep the updates coming, folks!

Chalk up Another for Courtney Hilton

Courtney Hilton has completed his second full century for the year. He's racking the rides up fast! Here's what he had to say:

106 miles, 3k of climbing, one B road that ended in an electric fence, and another that ended in a river, over the Hogback bridge complete with dog chase to the top of the hill, and a detour to climb 'cemetery hill' complete with a dog to help push me to zone 5 80 miles into my ride. GOOD DAY.

That sounds like a very enviable ride. Here's photos!

 We've been having some great weather here in the state of Iowa, so get out there and enjoy it on your bikes.