We started at 8 AM in Hawarden, IA at the west side of the state. Our route
was set to mostly be on dirtroads heading east, right from the start we had
winds from N blowing at 22 mph average for the next 12 hours, I was told
max gusts were 38 mph (spitting into the wind was a lot of fun, it looked
like it flew all the way to Kansas....)

Minutes after the start the field split up and a fast group of about 15
riders, most of them on cross bikes, took of at a hot pace and opened up a
significant gap early on. My legs felt good and I decided to go play with
the big guys out front. I closed the bridge and started using my strategy:
I knew the field will fall apart and my plan was to just pick a couple of
the "slower" guys to ride together at a comfortable pace. This kinda
worked, and between mile 30 and 50 I rode in a group of about 8 riders -
due to road conditions and other riders joining and dropping out of our
pack we ended up having a good group of 4 between mile 50 and 80. I kept
maintaining my pace, unfortunately I ended up dropping all of them and
found myself alone riding on Iowa's gravel at around mile 80. Didn't really
matter, since the wind was so strong that drafting wasn't possible anyhow.
Still feeling good I rolled into the transition point in Algona at just
after 5 PM. Only 4 (or 5?) riders got there before I showed up, they still
sat around and had Pizza - wow, I was jealous. I only had a quick stop,
refuelled and got my gear for the night and left the aid station. First
rider out - what a great feeling.

One of the next sections of the course were about 8 miles heading pretty
much straight into the wind. Ouch, that hurt - the heartrate went up high,
but my intention was to keep it low to get some digestion going. Well,
didn't work, the digestion had to wait until the next right turn. All the
time I couldn't stop thinking about the chase group and that they will
probably catch up any seconds since they will work together - don't know if
they did, they never showed up. After about 1 hour of fighting the wind
there actually was a right turn - no more headwind, just the regular fight
with the gusts hitting from the left. I felt good, my legs moved strong and
I was quite happy, until my rear tire started slowly losing air. I had to
stop and fix it. That's when I was passed by the 4 person strong chase
group smelling like pizza. BTW, people in Iowa are really friendly, while I
was sitting in the ditch fixing my tire a farmer stopped, turned of the
engine of his tractor and asked if I need a warm place to stay for the
night...

Finally back on the bike, the sun almost set by now and a full moon right
ahead of me. Most of the time I actually kept my lights turned off, since
it was easier to see the good lines in the gravel that way. Only when I saw
a car up in the distance (Iowa is so flat in the middle part I swear you
can see it 5 miles ahead) I turned it back on to make sure nobody would hit
me. The best part was that the wind had slowed down and turned a little
towards NNW.

It must have been around 10 PM when I rolled in the town Forest City, there
was a fast food place along main street and I saw 4 cross bikes sitting
outside. I ran in there, saw the pizza guys ordering some snacks, filled up
my Camelbak and took of again. Only one of those guys, Ira - who later won
the race - decided to go out with me, but he was a little behind. I was the
leader again. I would guess that I lead the race for about 100 miles
overall.

About 3 hours later I found myself in Osage, by that time I had a hard time
eating any of the food I had with me (powerfood like bars and gels), so I
was more than happy to see the open gas station in the middle of the night
(it was around 1 AM). I walked in there, and quickly picked up a nice 5
course meal for myself: noodle soup, turkey sandwich, donut, chips and a
banana, drink of choice was a cold Red Bull. During the time I spent in
there getting fueled up and ready for the cold night Ira and Brian -
finisher #2 - must have passed me. Once I was back out on the gravel roads
I could see their tire tracks. During the night I treated myself to some
music, the IPod was running wide open throttle, and when U2's "Sunday
bloody Sunday" was on I had this visual of my butt and what it will look
like once I'm across the finish line on Sunday - luckily that picture got
out of my mind again with the next song. I mentioned that the wind slowed
down during the night, but it got cold instead, the lowest temps I saw were
28F. My left hand actually froze up completely and I couldn't shift any
more, the tips of my fingers are still tingly.

It was early in the morning when I finally caught up to Ira and Brian, just
before we hit the last 30 miles of the course. It was quite sadistic, since
there were a ton of rolling hills in that end section. I couldn't hang with
them - it didn't really bother me too much, all I had to do was make sure
nobody else would pass me and I would still be the fastest mountainbiker
(Ira and Brian both rode their cross bikes). So I rode through the rolling
hills of Eastern Iowa, turning around about every 5 minutes to make sure
nobody was moving up.

The happiest moment of the race was when I turned to the last page of our
cue sheets. I expected 310 total miles, but the sheet said "305.4: Finish"
- that was only 5 miles away. No need to say that 5 miles go by fairly
quickly after riding 300, and all of a sudden I crossed the finish line.
That was a long ride, and I certainly never expected such a good finish
after seeing the race roster and all the top notch riders that were in the
race. Good to know the training pays off!

Alex