Race Update: Results & Recap

Does this bike make me look fat?
(more pictures comming soon)...

I’ll start with the volunteers, we had a fantastic group of local volunteers for this event (I suppose they were worried that someone was going to die attempting this race). Five organizations stepped up big-time to make this event a success (in only 1 month of planning):

• The Dyersville Area Chamber of Commerce was responsible for organizing the foot category starting area and the biker’s checkpoint.
• The Dubuque County Conservation Board had two Rangers on Heritage trail for the entire duration of the event checking on racers, their safety and helping with accountability. Enough cannot be said for these two individuals!
• The Asbury Snow Hawks worked with us to layout two suitable sections of their incredible private trail system to be utilized for this unique winter event. In addition, the snowmobile club volunteered one of their own to sweep the entire course on snowmobile (ensuring nobody was left for dead).
• Members from our very own local biking clubs (Chain Reaction & Dubuque Bicycle Club) formed the vast number of volunteers that patrolled the course, ran multiple starting lines and the two race finish locations.
• The Dyersville Police treated the foot category to a shotgun start.
• A luxury bus ride to Dyersville by AOK Yellow Cab and Limousine service.
• The Quick-n-Handy in Dyersville hosted the mandatory bike checkpoint.
• Durango’s own Handle Bar Inn hosted the foot & ski finish line as well as an optional bike check point.
• The Grand River Center served as race headquarters and post race party central until sometime early the next morning.

Notable mention of the volunteers that donated their entire day to this event in 35 degree below zero weather:

• Myself (the sadistic race director) - although I did get to spend half the day racing...
• John Vontalge & Nate Sisler (Dubuque County Conservation Board)
• Gene Tully (creator of the coveted Triple D sculptures – see the photo book)
• Bill Stoffel (Race Headquarters, Antique Bike Display & Bike Finish)
• Martha O’Conner-Leigh (registration and bike start coordinator)
• Traci Andre & Tim Ingram (Momentum Sports in Platteville) coordinated all the course support and sag drivers (no small feat on a race course that covered 60+ miles of remote Dubuque County countryside)
• Julie Kronlage (Dyersville Organization, Bike Checkpoint & Foot Start)
• Traci Andre, Tim Ingram, Karl Steichen, Brian Ehlers, Keith Boever, Martha o’Conner-Leigh & Paul Pettinger (course monitoring, sag, & photographers).
• Joe Schmitt (snowmobile course sweeper from the Asbury Snow Hawks)
• Tom Spalla & Willard Brimmeyer (coordinators for the private snowmobile trails used for the bike race & bypass structure for the closed bridge on Heritage Trail).
• Annie Potter & Patsi Troy (Foot & Ski finish line / I was told that this was one of the more difficult volunteer jobs, if you see these two, buy them a drink for their wonderful efforts).

Now for the weather… Conditions were nearly consistent the entire day, which at least allow racers to make small adjustments to remedy issues. All three races started at noon with the temperature at -6º F (-9º F last rider in temp) and winds straight out of the west at 15 mph, yielding a wind-chill factor close to -30! Not to menation the bikers had to head straight into this for half their ride. At least it was sunny, however, about half finished in the dark. The bitterly cold temperature led to the expected issues with frozen camelbacks (some even with elaborate 1” thick pipe insulators, and my new system with a dual backup hose setup). Nearly all bikers at one time or anther had hydration problems. While the snow was, in remarkably good condition for the skiers and runners (spite not being groomed as planned) it was barely tolerable for the bikers as most without “fat-tires” pushed much more than I think they were expecting.

Quote of the day:
“Sense when did my 29” x 2.3” tires become skinnies”
– Ben Shockey, 2008 Triple D Bike Champion

For all the racers who blog, send me a link of your experience at Triple D and I’ll add it to the results next to your name.

I’ll start the race results with the smallest categories first. The foot and ski categories are one area that could use a lot of growth if we do this event again next year as the entire planned courses were completed by all entrants (We will definatly make the ski distance a little longer, if the snow is similar to this year).

The Ski category was 20+ miles and filled by three experienced skiers; two skiing “skate style” and one conventional.
1. Michael Zeigle, 3:04 (Overall Ski Winner)
2. Jeff Barnes, 3:41 (2nd)
3. Mathew Maxwell, 5:15 (3rd) - Classical

The foot category while small still yielded some impressive results, and honorable mention goes to Jami and Jean who were way too happy for doing nearly a marathon (23.4 miles) in -6º F temperatures. Rumor has it they were being assisted on the trail by a sag volunteer who gave them alcohol at the half waypoint… but this couldn’t be verified, and thus they were not disqualified for accepting outside help.

1. Nick Martin, 3:00 (Overall Foot Winner) – that’s an 7.5 min. mile on snow in -6º F!
2. Craig Schutte, 3:48 (2nd Overall)
3. Lisa Paulos, 3:49 (1st Female)
4. Annette Hall, 4:21 (2nd Female)
5. Mike Hodge, 4:21 ( 3rd Male)
6. Jami Todd, 6:09 (Tie 3rd Female)
7. Jean Gilpin, 6:09 (Tie 3rd Female)

Now for the event that tested racers on all fronts: physical, mental & mechanical. Thirty four bikes strong, rolled out from in front of Dubuque’s Historic Star Brewery on there way to the most difficult 59-mile bike race that most of us have ever competed in. The course started with a leisurely rollout through Dubuque’s warehouse district. We then linked up with the start of the Heritage Trail… this is where things turned ugly, the pace quickened, and well, you might just have to have one of the racers explain it to you in their own words… but here’s “just the facts” ... after a "quick" 1 mile preview of the he!! to come racers had to climb 800’ of elevation in 1 mile into a 15 mph headwind on a paved city bike trail (this was substituted for 1 mile of pushing on the adjacent snowmobile trails, due to the poor snow conditions on this section. After this climb the racers would not see pavement for another hour+ as the race continued on ROW snowmobile trails and Asbury Snow Hawks private trail system, which rolled over some beautiful Dubuque country side (you did stop to view the scenery didn’t you?). After the last section of private trail the racers were “treated” with couple of miles of Dubuque style roads (i.e., again tested with back to back 400’+ climbs at 10%... until linking up with the Level B from he!!. The Route was marked, however the level B was so Level B that racers second guessed the route and some even backtracked riding back up the Level B and back down again when they had verified they were on the correct route (now that’s love of level b roads - 800' elevation drop on virgin snow). The level b marked the last time the racers would see anything but the Heritage Trail (rails to trails system) as even the 6 front runners (Ben, Paul, David, Josh, Dennis and Terry) couldn’t make the Dyersville checkpoint by the mandatory 4 hours (this was the cutoff to determine if they ride Heritage Trail Back or ride the entire course in reverse back to the start. All racers were given credit for time and miles ridden there were no DNF’s. However, appropriate credit must be given to the only four racers who completed the entire intended course without shorting or sagging:

1. Ben Shockey, 8:17 – 59+ Miles (Overall Bike Winner)
2. Joel Cahalan, 9:10 – 59+ Miles (2nd)
3. Josh Peterson, 9:16 – 59+ Miles (3rd)
4. Dennis Grelk, 9:35 – 62+ miles (4th & Frozen Saddle Award [appropriate as he’s dealing with painful frostbit on his right foot]) visit: http://nonconformcycling.blogspot.com/

If you happen to see these four around this year, yeild the right-of-way as you are not worthy, these four are super human!

…. time in, distance, actual placement not correct, nor official, based on an approximate race headquarters logbook… If you have better information from your computers, email it to me and I’ll update the information:

1. Dave Pramann, 7:15 or 8:47 – 53+ Miles (Full route to Durango CP)
2. Bruce Grell, 9:00 – 49+ Miles (into Farley & Back)
3. Maxwell Anderson, 8:07 – 43+ Miles (into Epworth & Back)
4. Corey Krosner, 8:07 – 43+ Miles (into Epworth & Back)
5. Mark Vanderwoude, 7:30 – 44+ Miles
6. Terry Brannick, 7:30 – 44+ Miles
7. Gary Aronson, 6:54 – 37+ Miles (Graf & Back)
8. David Allen, 6:47 – 37+ Miles (Graf & Back)
9. Scott Marx, 6:23 – 37+ Miles (Graf & Back)
10. Paul Jacobson, 6:10 – 30+ Miles (Dyersville) visit: http://happytraining.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-amazing-experience.html
11. Cully Todd, 5:29 – 41+ Miles (Epworth & Back)
12. Doug Zickuhr, 6:00 – 40+ Miles (near Epworth & Back)
13. Lance Andre, 4:30 – 26+ Miles (into Farley)
14. Frank Hassler, 4:40 – 27.6 Miles (Graf To Durango) http://xusa2002.livejournal.com/7343.html
15. Ned Gall, 4:59 – ?
16. Lonny Mahoney, 4:40 – 28+ Miles
17. Joe Heilmann, 4:25 – 24+ Miles
18. Matthew Brakeville, 3:41 – 20+ Miles visit: http://fatcatfive.blogspot.com/
19. Todd Erickson, 3:30 – 18+ Miles
20. Will Neumeister, 3:35 – 18+ Miles
21. Tyler Graham, 3:31 – 18+ Miles
22. Sean Mullins, 3:31 – 18+ Miles
23. Dustin Quade, 3:29 – 18+ Miles
24. Adam Blake, 3:30 – 18+ Miles
25. James Zimmerman, 3:27 – 18+ Miles
26. Nate Van Der Weide, 3:15 – 18+ Miles
27. Jerome Full, 3:15 – 18+ Miles
28. Bruce Nelson, ? – 18+ Miles
29. Matt Byrne, 2:25 – 16 Miles http://jokerracing.blogspot.com/
30. Brian Benson, 2:25 – 16 Miles

An incredible feat even to start this race, remember it was -6 to -9 with -30 wind-chill! Most people would think that it’s crazy to spend more than 10 minutes outside in this weather! This group spent HOURS out in it, and a couple of them even enjoyed it… What a race!

Email me your comments on the race, this was the first time I’ve ever been involved in something like this, and while it wasn’t supposed to be something as big as it turned out to be – it was way more work than I had originally planned to put forth for a simple "training ride" – but I couldn’t let the masses down that were wanting to get outside and do something… we may consider it again for next year… Heck you can’t have the coldest day of the year fall on the same event two years in a row can you? I sure hope not, because I and a couple more from this race will be at the Arrowhead Ultra next month (it was -24 for a high temp last year).

Cheers,
Lance Andre
PS, check out the pictures for the event (will be posted later tonight), if you have some please forward and I will include them in the race photo album.