COMMUNITY JOURNALISM: On the road at RAGBRAI, Day 1

RAGBRAI participants get ready for the first leg on Sunday morning.

Editor?s note: Dale Bieber and David Sojka of the Bicyclists of Iowa City have agreed to send us daily reports from the Register?s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, which will make a stop in Cedar Rapids. The ride started today:

Here is David?s report:

At 6:14 a.m.: The first bikers were up at 430 this morning. 6 AM and time to hit the road. We can see rain on the horizon.

At 8:43 a.m.:?Today?s ride is 54 miles. One of the shorter days this week. Initially a nice morning, overcast and cool. However the wind has picked up and we now have a moderate head wind. Only rolling hills so far ? 22 miles in at this point. My brunch target ?Mr. Pork chop? awaits me 6 miles ahead.

At 1:18 p.m.:?Done for today ? ?55 miles. It is warming up rapidly, head winds were stronger than I expected today. ? All the pass through towns were well prepared for the masses. The usual teams are here.? One of my favorites ?The Donner Party? they eat the slow ones.???????????? Another rider was decked out in Hawkeye garb, pulling a black and gold speaker box that played the Iowa fight song over and over. This brought a response from the Badgers, Jayhawks, Huskers and Cyclones ? ? 65 miles tomorrow and its heating up.

The camp site on Saturday.

Here is Dale?s report:

Believe it or not, Souix Center had a little rain Saturday night.

About half the campers left the rainfly off the top of their tents as a way of dealing with the heat, and they got a little surprise when the sprinkles stated. I just had to close the ?windows? on my hot little tent about 2 a.m.. I found the best piece of sleeping equipment I brought was the noise suppressing headsets I wear when mowing the lawn?- cut out the rock concert noises and even some of the fireworks. And the air mattress didn?t leak ? Hallelujah.

This morning got the tent packed, handed off my luggage to the BIC crew truck, and I was on the road at 6:08. To me that felt reasonably early, but there were about 1,000 people ahead of me, and the road front and back, as far as the eye could see in the growing morning light, was cyclists taking over the road.

The RAGBRAI web page offers the helpful suggestion that to prepare for this you should ride 1,000 miles after the snow is gone and the temperatures warm up in Iowa. There is a problem with that. I figured out that I ride about 12 miles an hour when I am riding for more than an hour at a time, and if you divide 12 mph into 1,000 miles you get 83.3333 hours. The organizers don?t tell you how to find 83 hours in an already busy life. Nor did they tell you how to find 83 hours when the temperature wasn?t over 95 this summer.

I did my first training ride of 7 miles to work (taking the long way) but if I am late leaving work in the evening, I have to take the shorter 3 mile route home. I rode 15 miles twice on the level roads during our beach vacation in June, then rode 30 miles twice and 40 miles once. The BIC and other strongly suggest that you ride 50 miles at least one day (that will about shoot your Saturday or Sunday recreational time) before RAGBRAI. That was a milestone a hadn?t met yet. So I have this little niggling worry that I may be under-prepared for this. Still, at least my legs are skinny, so I must be doing something right as far as bicyclists are concerned.

Today?s ride was 57 miles. Started out in the wonderful little dutch town of Orange City, complete with windmill and a man making wooden shoes. On to breakfast at Alton ? the firemen had a great breakfast of all you could eat for $5 ? pancakes, sausages, eggs, juice, croissants. Wow!

By Granville at 8:30 it was time to put on the suntan lotion and sunglasses, and groan about the bit of headwind heading south to Marcus. There was some great pie (raspberry) that called my name along the way, and an ice cream cone in Marcus. At one roadside stop I saw a fella happily munching on a pork chop at least an inch thick, but I don?t usually do pork chops before 10 a.m.. Surprisingly level road ? I don?t think I can expect that to continue forever. Along the way there were thousands of friendly happy Iowa citizens, just waving ?Hi!? and wishing us well. I carried an empty gallon milk jug in my back pack filled with water, but I don?t think I will do that again ? it weighs about 8 pounds, and there are plenty of water opportunities on the way. One of the nicest things I saw today was an Iowa Conservation tent out in the middle of nowhere giving out free bananas, water and postcards that they were going to mail for free.

So I wrote one to the kids on the spot and handed it in to them.

After a WONDERFUL downhill stretch just at the edge of town, I made Cherokee about 11:30 a.m., found the BIC campsite and then a shady spot for my rapidly drying out tent. The library in Cherokee kindly decided to open on a Sunday afternoon, so RAGBRAIers would have an air-conditioned spot to do email (or just rest and snooze). That?s Iowa for you! ?And that is RAGRBAI.

Now to find a church with a good supper and not too long a line out the door.

Source: http://thegazette.com/2012/07/22/community-journalism-on-the-road-at-ragbrai-day-1/

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