RAGBRAI Report
 

I'll try and post everyday, if my phone will let me. Right now I am riding a shuttle bus from Davenport (east) to the eastern starting point. The riding starts tomorrow. This is my first RAGBRAI so I am anxious about my training. the folks I have met say that my 900 miles is plenty. We shall see.

You can't change your preparation now anyway, so why worry about it? Relax and enjoy the ride. :)

Looking forward to reading your updates. Have a blast!

I'm interested to hear how it goes. It might make a nice target to shoot for next year. Thanks in advance for keeping us informed.

Just enjoy the tour, you'll be fine. I have a bro-in-law riding, he's always wanted to.

I'll be watching too, anxious to see how it goes. As Blues said above, you can't do anything about training now,, just lean in and enjoy the ride! Good luck, I wish you the best experience ever!

Just remember that this is not a Race



Sorry- scrap that- for some it is.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/p..._id=249253&v=1 This is the journal of a young woman on tour from west coast to east. As long as she was in the neighborhood anyway she decided to join RAGBRAI. kerk, maybe you can find her in the "peloton".

First off if you have a cell that uses AT&T forget getting a signal in west Iowa. The first 4 days have all been 90-100 degreees. and humid! the first 2 days wre the toughest back to back days of riding I've ever done. the hills were crazy! the third day was better until we got to 'Twister Hill' I guess it was in the movie. anyway the toughest hill I've ever ridden. I went up partway and thought about walking when i saw a sign that said 1.3 miles to the top. i wasn't about to walk 1.3 miles! today was not too hill but still hot. my legs are starting to feel the stress.

The Davenport area got 14+ inches of rain yesterday and this morning. Be happy to just avoid the torrential rains.

'm glad w didn't see that kind of rain. Today it sprinkled in the am but nnot much. We rode 67 mils today, headwind and hills but the heat broke and we had a great day! Tomorrow should be good too as we are looking at our longest day of the week.

I'm also on RAGBRAI.

Yep - it's been very hot, with heat indeces in the low 100s (38 to 43 degrees C)

I have Verizon - reception hasn't been perfect, but has worked in most parts of the state.



My ride so far:

Sunday 60 miles / 97 km, Hilly as hell - but not the worst I've had. I live and train in MD, where there are NO flat roads. Very pretty countryside. Contrary to popular misconception, Iowa is not miles and miles of flat cornfields.

Monday 65 miles / 105 km, More hills.

Tuesday 101 miles / 164 km, Pretty flat - except for that HELLA hill at the end. Kerk isn't exaggerating. Going up the hill, some guy said to me "I've crossed the continental divide 5 times, and the eastern divide 3 times, and I've ridden across the country. And lemme tell you - THIS IS A HILL" :D. Actually, the ride was 70 miles / 113 km - but there was an optional 30 mile loop to make it a 100-mile century - which I did. Despite the hill, I managed to finish this day's ride in an average of 19.6mph - felt pretty good about that, even though I was damn-near dead at the end!

Wednesday 52 miles / 84 km, Flat, nice, easiest ride so far, but afterward, the weather was just oppressive.

Thursday 57 miles / 92 km, Head-winds for much of the ride, and and hills of about the same intensity as day 2 - i.e. constant rollers. A bit cooler, though.

Coming up:

Friday 75 miles / 122 km. I'm told it will contain lots of short rollers and 2 big hills.

Saturday 65 miles / 105 km.




My training:

I've only been cycling since April, but managed to get the recommended 1,000 miles under the belt before RAGBRAI - including several club rides and a century. I've had a lot of fun jumping on the wheels of faster riders, and getting into a paceline with them. E.g. on the century, I joined a group of 15+ people for about 40 miles - at 20+ mph.

Seems that many RAGBRAI riders get pissed if you come past them at a high speed :(

Incredible updates sir! Congrats, I don't think I'll ever get to the point of feeling like I'll be able to do something like that... I KNOW it's terrible to feel that way, and my Father put a rule into my life when I was little, it's stuck ever since, "Take two words out of your vocabulary,, "I CAN'T" I have tried to live by that all my life since, and think I have done a good job of it. Hence, you don't see me saying I CAN'T do that,,, LOL,, but I better take baby steps first, get a few centuries under my belt, ect...
Your ride is definitely something you'll be proud of the rest of your life I am sure.

I wonder if it was one of you two that was wearing a 50+ jersey on Monday going from Atlantic to Carroll! I commented on it on my way past!:p I live in "them thar parts" so the hills are my normal riding. Wish I could have done the whole week! Jealous of you both!

Not just on RAGBRAI. Passing is fine as long as you let them know you are coming.

Thanks for the report. It sounds like you are a very strong rider to be so new at it. Also it sounds like you are having a good time. :thumb:

To heck with the riding. I want to hear the "beer garden" stories.......

I bet I said "On your left" 12x400=4800 times doing the two tours in Colorado in June. The one time I didn't say anything going around a guy early one morning and giving him a really wide berth the fella hollered smartly "On your Right!". I bet he didn't have his coffee that morning. Geez. Most folks responded with "thanks" or "good morning".

It didn't bother me a bit the 2-3 times I got passed over the two weeks. Just saying........

Some people do tend to get too wrapped up in following the "rules" imho. All I expect is for people to ride safely on group rides. I don't really expect a verbal warning from someone passing several feet to my left, but I do get a little bent out of shape if they fly by inches away from me without a warning. I've been known to yell "on my left" when that happens.

+1

+2

LOL - I think I've done the same.


Might have been Kerk - I don't have one. (Do I understand that these jerseys aren't available anymore? Or can I order one somewhere? I'm very new to this forum...)



I'll be interested to hear Kerk's updates. My take on today's ride:

Rolling hills for about 20 miles, flat(ish) for about 30, then more tough rolling hills for the last 25-or-so miles. Finished at an average of just 18.2 mph, partly because I only pacelined with groups for about 15 miles or so. It was hot again (yesterday was the only slight respite from the heat) but if you start at 6:30, you can be finished by 11:00 or 11:30 (including a few drink and eat stops), and miss the worst of the heat. Also - you're only riding with a huge crowd from the overnight town to the first pass-through town. After that, the bike traffic thins out nicely.

Even though I'm from Maryland, I'm riding with Bicyclists Of Iowa City - and at the Coralville campsite our group was located right next to the aquatic park, and just a few hundred yards away from all the food and drink vendors - which was way cool. Traffic organization in Coralville was atrocious, and many support vehicles could not get to the camp ground. Pity, because most other aspects of the Coralville stopover are very pleasant.

Good summary Duncan. I'm with the oos group. I felt like crap in the am and rode pretty slowly. After the flats I did really well in the last seet of hills. btw I do not have a 50+ jersey. Tomorrow I will wear my Fidelity Investments jersey. It is red white and blue. You won't see me though because you are way faster than me.

Thanks for the updates, enjoy the ride.

50+ jersyes are a periodic project of ccorlew who designed them and once or twice a year takes a big order - at least in the past. I don't know if he is going to continue this absolutely voluntary endeavor, but I sure hope he will!!

Good RAGBRAI reports.

DITTO, I want one.

I tend to take the devil's advocate on replies. Don't know why.
I know I would enjoy the ride and the fun that goes with RAGBRAI. I'm no prude, mind you. But with all the drinking and then operating a vehicle on public roads I don't see how in this day and age, this ride hasn't suffered from that in the public's eye. And how do the cops patrol this? Just turn a blind eye? I mean it just seems strange to me.
Now 30-40 years ago might be another story.

+1. There is no law requiring you to warn another vehicle before you pass it. That's a sidewalk rule. If you pass 'em with safe clearance, that should be all they need. After all, it's also their duty to be aware of their surroundings. With that much traffic, I generally only warn them if they look like they're about to do something stupid. Besides, I can't yell loud enough to be heard 3 seconds prior to passing them.

Yeah, on RAGBRAI, anyone going over 14-15 mph is roundly jeered for being a 'racer.'

For most it's not a drinking game on RAGBRAI. There is a group wherein it becomes a progressive drunk as the week rolls on, but for most it's a couple of beers at day's end. I've ridden with 90 yr olds and 4 year olds; I've ridden with those riding a $69 Huffy and those with $10K bikes; I've ridden with entire teams that are paraplegic pedaling with their arms. I've told people for years that you can find anything you want on RAGBRAI from naked beer slides to Bible studies....the beer slides are easier to find! When you get a group of 20,000 people in the overnight town, 2% that are after the drunk is a large number. At times RAGBRAI does suffer from image, but more-so from riders not paying any attention to normal legal rules of the road. I get upset when riders won't even get out of the way for an ambulance coming from behind....and those riders are in the oncoming traffic lane! One of my friends described RAGBRAI as "It's Mardi Gras married to a county fair whose parents were a rock concert and a church potluck all on a bicycle ride."

The beer was easy to avoid. I didn't have any problem or even notice anyone who couldn't maintain their behavior. The pass through towns were amazing. I was surprised that we had to walk through towns due to the LARGE number of riders trying to get through. Every town had a festival just for us. Every type of food they had was for sale, lots of pork chops/brats/burgers/pulled. The churches had great lunch/dinners and were always the best deal. Bands played, cheerleaders cheered people had their sprinklers set up to ride through, it was amazing. The number of riders on the road was overwhelming. I was always just a little leary of what other people were going to do. On the other hand, yesterday I jumped onto a paceline with the Arizona team and we road 18-20mph between two of the pass through towns. That was really fun. I was very surprised that riders didn't organize into groups based on abilities more. There was more of it on the last two days, but I thought it would happen right away. As my riding buddy said, "RAGBRAI is not for the faint of heart". Boy was he right. It is the longest, toughest ride I've ever done. The 900 miles of training I did was good enough that I was not sore at all during the week so I was really relieved about that. I had a lot of fun, I could be talked into doing it again.

Perhaps I wasn't in the right (wrong?) place at the right time, but I saw remarkably little of this sort of thing. Pretty much everyone I saw, rode with, and hung with after the rides, was a straight-laced rider. Some drank a few beers, but I did not see anyone over-indulge. So I'm guessing that the people who do this are in a small minority.

:eek: My slowest all-day average was 16.8 mph on the last day, fastest was 19.6 mph opn the century.

Plenty of "jeers" here :lol:




Final day:

Plenty of rolling hills near the beginning, then long and flat.

For me, the going was tough - my upper back was hurting, and saddle sores were developing - and I doubt I'd have managed another day. The last 10-or-so miles seemed to drag on forever, partly because it was hilly again, and partly because we knew we were in the final stages of a really, really long event! Also, it was hot. Seemed to me that this was the first day with low humidity. That was good - though it meant I had to slather on more and more sunblock at almost every rest stop. (I felt like a glazed doughnut!)

I took plenty of pictures on the last day and will publish them here after I get home, on Tuesday.

Congrats on completing an Epic event!

I will report on our RAGBRAI 2011 adventure as soon as I get done processing all the photos etc...

It was our first ever RAGBRAI. The entire team just started cycling 14 months ago or less.

Here we are at the finish line dipping the front wheels in the mighty and muddy Mississippi.

http://www.pcsincnet.com/RAGBRAI_2011_Finish1.jpg

I'm the first person on the left.