SPRING GRAVEL RACING

A few Twisted Spokes headed to Hills, IA., just south of Iowa City for come fine gravel racing.  This race was the first of three gravel races in the Iowa Spring Classic series.  

Kat, Mark and Scott getting ready for some gravel grinding.

 Warm and very windy conditions prevailed at the 12:00pm start. The course was mostly gravel in all the big headwind sections which also contained a series of serious rollers. The tail-wind section - about 1/3rd of the course was on blacktop. The women had a solid turnout with 15 lining up - everyone grouped together. Nothing happened much for the first part of the first lap - sticking together on the headwind sections. Short report on the women's race (25 miles 4 laps) from Kat:

Towards the end of the gravel on the first lap Cassandra Kessler  (Mercy)  make an attack - took Kim Hopkins (Velo Rosa) with her. I saw them go and no-one chasing until Amy (Q7) went to bridge. I should've followed her but didn't thinking others would. They didn't and I tried to bridge back up during the paved section at the end of the first lap; but with Mercy and VeloRosa teammates in the 2nd group there was no reason to chase I sat back down and stayed with the group. Kept the 3 in sights - with a group of 5 of working together (Andrea, Joan, Cara, Shari). Eventually Kim dropped off the leader group and by the last lap our group of 5 caught her. Hitting the pavement and tailwind - Kim, myself and Andrea picked it up - and we were racing for 3rd. Going into the Downhill and hard right turn on to gravel and the headwind to the finish line Andrea made a move for 3rd; Kim and Kat followed finishing 4th and 5th respectively. 

Wow -  63 racers for Gravel of all things. Quite a lot of Mercy Blue out there. Great results too for teammates Mark Beatty and Scott Bradfield. Mark finished 4th in a very good and fast group of 40+.  Great Twisted Spokes sponsor Scott Bradfield finishing very respectable in the 4/5s while getting a very high quality workout - worth the short race duration.  Full results can be found here - just scroll down past the race information. Congratulations to Waterloo hometown guy Kevin Tempel on winning the Pro123s.  An outstanding young racer.

Next Up - Twisted Spokes' Spring training camp in Puerto Pollensa, Mallorca, Spain.  Hopefully will be able to send pictures and reports.

Thanks for reading.