Craig Irving's Update and Moonshine Metric 2 Plug

 I spent a little time with Craig last week riding some of the sweet trails at Sugar Bottom (get it?). I showed up to find him dressed in the attire you see here. As you can also see from the poster for the Moonshine Metric Boogaloo, this appears to be his normal attire. Well, we all gotta do something special. Craig did indeed ride as shown, though he had a helmet on. Can you tell that lifting all of those Cup O' Dirt mugs makes you buff? The farmer tan is an unintended side-effect of the awesomeness.

First off:  The update.  Two weekends ago I participated in The Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational, and by "participated in" I mean "tested the limits of the no drop rule".  Apparently I spent too much time this summer riding the couch and not enough time riding the bike.  I made it halfway through before pulling the plug, which was good enough for a metric. 
Now to the nitty gritty.  On September 29th I will once again be hosting the Moonshine Madness Gravel ride, a 65 mile gravel grinder out of Mount Vernon, IA.  What's so special about it, you ask? 
It's run entirely at night. 
Sound exciting?  Well I invite all you Cup O' Dirt folks to join me on this little adventure.  For more info, check out the website at moonshinemetric.blogspot.com.

Nick W. Updates and 2011 Cups

I've got a couple rides to report for myself. I did a metric on July 4th to celebrate America. I also got to celebrate the discovery of the Higgs particle (or a particle that is new that has qualities which would be expected of the Higgs, to be pedantic). Yay for that and fireworks! Took the single-speed 29'er up the Greenbelt trail north of Ames, then went to 7 Oaks for a full lap. It started to get too hot to be comfortable, so I busted it back to Ames. 75 miles, mostly on gravel or singletrack. Finished by soaking my head in the water from the hose in the front lawn. That was freaking amazing.

My other metric was the Iowa Games Gravel Grinder. My friend and fellow Cup O' Dirt chaser Jared Morford held this event on July 7th. I was feeling pretty fast and had enough supplies for the whole 72 miles, so was able to lead the pack until my legs cramped at about 55 miles in. Matt Maxwell had been biting at my wheels for most of the race, so took the opportunity to pass me for the win. I still managed a 2nd place finish, and it was a helluva course that took us around Ames on some of my favorite roads and hills. You should make it a point to enter next year's race! After finishing, I took a quick shower and headed into work for a few hours. Needless to say, the beer after work that night tasted delicious.

A scant two days after this metric, I headed down to New Harmony pottery to pick up the 2011 Cup O' Dirt cups. Russ Leckband, who made these beautiful cups that I've been handing out, is pictured below.  New Harmony does a lot of pieces for the Iowa State Fair, so check them out if you're down there shoving deep-fried twinkies into your face. Here's a few shots of the studio, located near Earlham, Iowa. All the 2011 recipients, I'll be in contact to get you your cups if I haven't already.

Russ Leckband, showing off his hard work.

My cat Frisbee loved the paper that the cups were packaged in. 

Andrea's Hot July

I've been trying to do all my riding in the mornings these past few months before the heat gets ridiculous. Looks like this summer hasn't been the best for glorious afternoon rides. But hey, any day on the bike is better than a day not on the bike. Or something. Anyways, on to Andrea's update and photos.

The heat nearly killed me this month, as I expected it would.  I dreaded July more than January, and I was not disappointed.  Got in a Full on 7/12/12, and a Metric on 7/15/12.  Nothing too interesting to report besides feeling like a chinchilla, taking dust bath after dust bath (screw you, Schwans man, passing me like, 40 times).  Came across two free range goats in Echo Valley state park, and a sign that made me very philosophical (at least during my near-heatstroke and hyponatremia):  all pavement eventually does end, doesn't it?  And that's where things start to get awesome.  

Everyone stay safe out there in the heat!  Here's to hoping that August is ridiculously cold, or at least that Kwik Star continues to let me fill my CamelBak with ice for free.

Steve Fuller's Cheq 100

This sounds like it was a great time! Sad I missed the suffering...

Two weeks off of finshing the DK200, my Dos Niner and I headed up to northern Wisconsin for the Chequamegon 100 mountain bike race. 100 miles of CAMBA singletrack linked with fire roads and Birkibeiner ski trail. Cool and kind of wet most of the day (high of 72). Rain started about 90 minutes in and came on and off for the next 3 hours. Wet fire road sand and mud had riders and their bikes colored black and making weird noises. I finished with a time of 12 hours and 25 minutes. Definitely not as fast as this years winner (sub 9 hours). but I felt good just finishing. Long, hard day on the bike. A lot more challenging physically and mentally than this year's DK200.
Steve

Brad Yearwood's 2nd Century

Brad Yearwood is still plugging away at the metrics and centuries. Here's what he had to share with us from June so far: It's been a couple weeks, but I completed my second full century at the Westside Dirty Bnejamin in Minnesota on the 16th.  Much, much flatter than my previous century which trnaslated to a personal best of 7:40. No flats on this one either.  Good times. Good gravel. -Brad

Venteicher May/June Ride Report

Andrea sent me a mass update of the chase 'round the Venteicher homestead. Enjoy!

Howdy--i kind of missed the part about updating my May rides, so I'll just do a combined May/June email.  I quite proudly conquered the Crazy Corners full century, plus a metric version of it (rained out and rescued in Caledonia, MN, by my dear sweet husband who was watching the storm roll toward me on radar as I was blissfully unaware) in May.  This route is especially cool because it hits 3 states all in one ride--Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  It's also got a legitimate 9,813 feet of climbing according to my Garmin, which was, um, special.  On this ride i rescued a baby rattlesnake, a Polyphemus moth, and a baby Ouchita Map turtle from being run over!  (I used a chopstick technique to rescue the rattlesnake.)  I'm trying to accumulate good Karma so that perhaps I won't get run over, either.  

June had a full century down to the Sny Magill wildlife area in Clayton county (or, the "Cerulean Trench", according to bird geeks), and included a nod to the Confederacy with a trip down Jefferson Davis road (turns out he was part owner of a sawmill around here prior to his Civil War days--who knew?).  This ride had a meager 8314 feet of climbing.  Got to herd a 5-foot long Black Ratsnake out of the road.  Also got to "draft" the freaking road grader for about 16 miles into a headwind as they laid down new, right off the dump truck, gravel.  Mmmmmm.  Today had a metric to Cresco; no animals needed rescuing.
So that puts Andrea at 6 Full and 6 Metric for the year, sticking to the two-in-each-month paradigm.  And, HAH, suckah--Lee failed to do any centuries in either May or June because of this "racing" crap, so he's got some catching up to do in the fall!  I'm pretty damn proud of myself that I've got over 1000 gravel miles in my legs (plus a helluva tan) this year, and I'm only half done!  And who knows what animals I'll rescue from traffic next?  Badgers?  Whales?  Wolverines?
Thanks again for the chase!
Andrea

I'm a very upset Ouachita Map turtle!!

This is a cool bluff/bridge combination along the Upper Iowa river near Bluffton, IA

Austin Turner's June Ride Report

Austin makes his rides sound like such lovely little mini-vacations. Always happy to hear that somebody is out enjoying the dirt! Here's what he had to say about a few rides in June:

After giving my road bike some love on Saturday at the Rose Festival Road Race in Bangor, Iowa on June 16th - I switched gears to gravel for the next two days. 

Rode some new greasy and slick B-roads leaving Iowa City on Sunday June 17th with an awesome stop at the Amana Colonies for some delicious brew. More crazy B-roads on the way home for a solid metric of gravel. 

The next day on June 18th was slightly different, with a lot of single track on the 'Cross bike and miles upon miles of rolling gravel hill bliss for another solid metric of gravel.
Decent extended weekend of cycling and two more metrics for myself. Thanks again for the chase!