After skipping a year in 2020, the Castell Grind – and consequently, the Team IPA annual birthday celebration – returned with a vengeance! The weather and the increasing availability of vaccines came together to ensure that we had a great ride and a wonderful weekend getaway. Many thanks to the organizers!
We all know how 2020 went. The team continued to ride, solo or in small groups – one of the advantages of no traffic meant we could move around town more easily, and there have been a lot of Southside and Brushy Creek rides! Hopefully these will continue, even when traffic picks back up. The race calendar is picking up – you can see our upcoming events on our shared calendar: http://www.teamipa.bike/calendar/
TMBRA races are firing back up – two of us went and swept the Spring Series ‘Rocky Hill Roundup’ this past weekend – a little too crowded in the start gate area for our liking, but we hope things will smooth out as the season progresses.
Some sweet Castell Grind gravel is coming up in a couple of weeks, and several of us are looking forward to the Big Sugar 50 and 100km races in Bentonville this fall. Meanwhile, our friends over at Capital City Racing will be putting on some local gravel races for us to enjoy.
Let the good times roll, and keep the rubber side down!
aka Singlespeed USA …
Four Team IPA Racers took part in this grueling off-road 100 miler – accompanied, naturally, by a crew of a dozen or so from across the south of the US. Congratulations to all who trained hard and took part!
A huge storm system rolling through in the morning meant a 2 1/2 hour delayed start, and the 50 km route for all riders, but boy – with that headwind, it sure felt like the 100!
[Photo credit to Pam LeBlanc and Mike Drost]
Nice work under pretty appalling conditions, Hoss (3 days 1 hr), Sheila TB (3 days 17 hrs) and Sheila Reiter (3 days 19 hrs)!
Good luck to our Team IPA racers on the GranGravel 500 this year. Keep it up, Hoss and the Sheilas!
You can follow along here.
A few of the team were able to attend the 2018 Gears and Guns biathlon, held at Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, TX. No podium finishes, but several top ten in both the male and female categories.
Two of the team took a road trip to Emporia, Kansas, to participate in the inaugural La Grind two day stage race. It was hilly, windy, dusty and hot – everything you’d want a gravel event to be!
There’s a lot of empty out there!
The best-stocked hydration stop we’d ever seen – down to someone holding your bike while a second person fills your bottles, and a third person hands you ice cold pickle juice!
The road goes on … forever?
Adding a tube in the middle of nowhere – that flint gravel is sharp.
Another fine gravel grinder put on by the folks at Capital City Racing. Jani and John managed the full 66 miles, while Gary and Tony cut the course to put in 45 miles on this hot day.
