Iowa State Gravel Championships to be held in Richmond on Saturday

The ride may be a bit bumpy, but the reward at the end will be sweet.

For the second year, the Twisted Spokes cycling team is hosting the Iowa State Gravel Championships bike race near Richmond. Cyclists will be racing around a hilly seven-mile loop south of Richmond this Saturday, competing for medals or just trying to finish to get a cinnamon roll.

?Landon Beachy?s wife bakes fantastic cinnamon rolls, and racers will race for cinnamon rolls,? said Richard Gilmore, a member of the Twisted Spokes team who organized the event.

Gilmore, who organized the event with the help of Beachy and Mark Beatty, pushed the event back three months after getting around 30 participants in the first gravel championships in June 2011.

?Last year we held it in June, and that was not a good time. Participation was low,? Gilmore said, adding that hot weather likely kept numbers low.

This year, Gilmore hopes to double the number of participants and draw cyclists from all over the state. However, timing could again hurt participation, as the annual Iowa-Iowa State football game is this Saturday.

?Since we set this up in November, we don?t always know what football games are going to be when,? Gilmore said. ?I don?t know if we knew that whether or not we would have had it on this weekend. We?ll find out what happens with our participation.?

Those cyclists who do wish to watch football may be in luck. The event might be over in time to watch the big game. The first group of cyclists will hit the course at 10 a.m. and be finished around 11:30. The second wave will go out at noon and should be done by 2 p.m., just in time for the 2:30 kickoff.

Saturday?s Iowa State Gravel Championships is just one of several state championship races held each year. There is also a roller championship, a state road championship (which was held near Riverside this year), a state time trial, a state criterium and a state cyclocross race. Gilmore said the gravel championship race draws several different types of cyclists.

?It appeals to the mountain bikers and the road racers,? he said.

Spectators are welcome at the event, Gilmore said. To get to the Iowa State Gravel Championships, turn off of Highway 1 onto 140

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Street and travel east for 0.8 miles. Turn south on Am Vets Road and park at the Am Vets center.

?There?s a downhill corner that a lot of people like to watch,? Gilmore said. ?That was the corner everybody thought there would be problems with, and it wasn?t. People fell down on the straight roads. But nobody got seriously hurt.?

Gilmore just hopes all the cyclists have a good time and get a cinnamon roll.

?It?s just a fun event,? he said. ?That?s what we?re trying to do.?