At the end of April, local framebuilder and former bicycle messenger Ira Ryan will travel to Iowa for a grueling, 325 mile endurance race known as the Trans-Iowa.
The race is as much of a mental test as a physical one; racers must battle the monotony of two straight days of gravel roads through the Iowa countryside (let’s hope for Ira’s sake that it doesn’t rain).
Ira won the race in 2005 (the first time it was held) and hopes to finish strong this year. He’s been training on the logging roads in the hills West of Portland.
On Sunday he tackled a six-hour journey that included this exchange with a trucker on a deserted logging road near North Plains:
“…he looks me and my fendered road bike over and recommends that I don’t take the rutted out muddy road for fear of breaking down. I assure him that I knew what I was getting into and head off up the rutted jeep trail…the ruts were a foot and a half deep with huge puddles every 500 feet. I based all my navigation off a crude map and the sun in the sky.”
With his love of long-distance riding and toughness and skills from his days at Magpie Messenger Collective, Ira definitely has what it takes to do well in this event.
Ira hopes to raise a bit of money to offset expenses of his trip. If you’d like to help him out, send $10 to:
Ira Ryan
524 NE Church
Portland, OR. 97211
Good luck Ira, we’ll all be pulling for you.