RAGBRAI XXXVII
Well, just finished my summer bike ride. This year instead of a MS150 ride (which they scheduled way too early to be doable scheduling wise) I ran over to Iowa and did their big bike ride RAGBRAI (37). In a nutshell it's a 6 day rolling party involving in the ballpark of 15,000-20,000 cyclists and lots of other support, vendors & other folks.
I had wanted to do it this year. I had heard about it from customers, friends, and a few other places and wanted to give it a shot, but couldn't find anyone else to go with and didn't want to go do it by myself. Then just a week before the ride a friend mentioned that he was going with a small team and I invited myself told me I could join them for a couple days. It was exactly what I was looking for - a 2 day chunk of RAGBRAI with people that knew the ropes.
Before I got signed up I knew it was a big event, but I'd biked in big events before (300 people,1000 people, etc) but when I read they were sold out of the 8500 week long passes and would only issue 1500 day passes I was blown away. What I learned later is that of those 10,000 people who registered . . . well, only about 1/2 the riders registered with the official event -- the rest have bootleg teams that ride the route, camp outside the official campgrounds and provide their own ride support. So there was in the ball park of 15,000 to 20,000 cyclists out for a nice ride! It was awesome to be among such a great group of all different skill levels.
We drove out Thursday afternoon so we could camp overnight Thursday and be ready for an early morning ride Friday. We also dropped off my pickup in the next city so that when we got there we'd have the truck and one of our team members could sag for us.
Thursday night was a hoot. We partied with Team Party Patrol, the Bar Flies, and 8 other teams at this big acreage. The party was roaring until about 4:30am -- I would have preferred it ended around 1:30 or at least turned down the music blaring music. Sometime around 3am people were lighting fireworks and sending them right over the tents -- not cool. And around 3:30am a harley with the loudest exhaust in the world ripped by waking anyone who had managed to get to sleep. For some reason when the other teams left at 6:30am all their support vehicles were honking goodbye really loudly to our partying friends :)
Friday we rode a really hard route which was 80 miles, darn hilly, and the entire afternoon was into a strong headwind. I was pushing to finish -- and this was my first day. The rest of my team came in 3 hours after I did (even though I took my time at stops and was down for over an hour with repairs (one flat tire, 2 busted spokes -- I replaced the tube myself roadside and noticed the spokes at a repair town and was able to easily (although not cheaply) get them replaced))).
The route is pretty cool. All of the intersections had excellent traffic control (we only had to stop about twice per day). There were vendors all over the place (like the state fair) selling everything from 4H lemonade to water & gatorade to porkchops & breakfast buffets. Friday I had a porkchop from Mr. Porkchop, a rib on a stick, to ears of sweat corn, a polish sausage, a fruit cup, many quarts of water, and a bunch of great lemonade -- and that was just lunch!
Did I mention it was one giant party? Everywhere from the churches to the camp grounds people were out to have a good time. I heard one team brag that they drank more beers than rode miles :) Some teams even had sponsorships by beer companies! They had live music every night too (which I didn't get to see, but there's always next year).
The towns you stopped in were great. They had all prepped for the cyclists and then got taken over by them. There were very few cars on the roads (maybe 2 an hour), but tons of bikes. You could see a snake of bikes as long as you could see the road.
Saturday we stayed again with team Pucker -- but just team Pucker - not Party Patrol or any of the other party animals and had a great evening at our host house. We had our tents all setup in their yard but the host family saw big storms heading for the town, so they offered to let us all stay in their house overnight. It was above and beyond what is expected of a host family and was totally awesome. Most people tore down their tents for the night and moved the air mattresses inside. I left my tent up for all the bikes so they'd stay dry too. This night was a little quiet (as much of Team Pucker had gone home and we didn't have the crazies with us) but much appreciated after the last place. They had two bathrooms for us to use, with showers and everything. Sleeping in the A/C was extra special too :)
Saturday morning we rolled out for the final 40 miles into Burlington where Iowa touched the Mississippi river. It was just Dan & I riding from the four we had Thursday so we picked up the pace quite a bit. We rode with much of the rest of Team Pucker and made great time as we had the wind at our back and the hills seemed much easier. We did have one MASSIVE hill. Massive enough that I coasted up to 47mph on the bike!! Then at the bottom we hung a hard left into nearly stopped traffic (in vendor village). That was a thrill. Sadly later we had to peddle back out of the valley but it was well worth it for that ride.
Eventually we ended up in Burlington down at the riverfront where people could dip their tires in the Mississippi river. Those that started in Council Bluffs could have dipped their tires in the Missouri river and said that they road every single inch from one side of Iowa to the other.
Since we didn't stay in the official camp ground we missed some of the live music & festivites which I'd like to catch next year, but all in all it was a great ride. I took around 250 pictures and paired it down to about 90 decent ones along with 50 pictures from John's camera which are all posted on my gallery here: http://www.andrewduey.com/gallery/v/MS150/2009RAGBRAI/ You should really see all the pictures, there's some different pictures in there (look for the unicycle, banana, etc)
I'm already planning next year's ride. It is July 25th - July 31st 2010. I want to get a bigger team together and go out for all 6 days. You can ride as little as 40 miles (1/2 day) or all 6 days depending on how you feel (and change your mind up to twice per day). We had a good time, but i think with a bigger group of friends (aka a bigger team) we could make it even better!
Finally, a big thanks to John who let me tag along, Dan, who organized everything and allowed me to join up, the RAGBRAI staff for putting on a great ride, the host family in Mt. Pleasant who was so excellent to us, the RAGBRAI staff who put together a great ride, and the towns along the route that welcomed us.
I had wanted to do it this year. I had heard about it from customers, friends, and a few other places and wanted to give it a shot, but couldn't find anyone else to go with and didn't want to go do it by myself. Then just a week before the ride a friend mentioned that he was going with a small team and I invited myself told me I could join them for a couple days. It was exactly what I was looking for - a 2 day chunk of RAGBRAI with people that knew the ropes.
Before I got signed up I knew it was a big event, but I'd biked in big events before (300 people,1000 people, etc) but when I read they were sold out of the 8500 week long passes and would only issue 1500 day passes I was blown away. What I learned later is that of those 10,000 people who registered . . . well, only about 1/2 the riders registered with the official event -- the rest have bootleg teams that ride the route, camp outside the official campgrounds and provide their own ride support. So there was in the ball park of 15,000 to 20,000 cyclists out for a nice ride! It was awesome to be among such a great group of all different skill levels.
We drove out Thursday afternoon so we could camp overnight Thursday and be ready for an early morning ride Friday. We also dropped off my pickup in the next city so that when we got there we'd have the truck and one of our team members could sag for us.
Thursday night was a hoot. We partied with Team Party Patrol, the Bar Flies, and 8 other teams at this big acreage. The party was roaring until about 4:30am -- I would have preferred it ended around 1:30 or at least turned down the music blaring music. Sometime around 3am people were lighting fireworks and sending them right over the tents -- not cool. And around 3:30am a harley with the loudest exhaust in the world ripped by waking anyone who had managed to get to sleep. For some reason when the other teams left at 6:30am all their support vehicles were honking goodbye really loudly to our partying friends :)
Friday we rode a really hard route which was 80 miles, darn hilly, and the entire afternoon was into a strong headwind. I was pushing to finish -- and this was my first day. The rest of my team came in 3 hours after I did (even though I took my time at stops and was down for over an hour with repairs (one flat tire, 2 busted spokes -- I replaced the tube myself roadside and noticed the spokes at a repair town and was able to easily (although not cheaply) get them replaced))).
The route is pretty cool. All of the intersections had excellent traffic control (we only had to stop about twice per day). There were vendors all over the place (like the state fair) selling everything from 4H lemonade to water & gatorade to porkchops & breakfast buffets. Friday I had a porkchop from Mr. Porkchop, a rib on a stick, to ears of sweat corn, a polish sausage, a fruit cup, many quarts of water, and a bunch of great lemonade -- and that was just lunch!
Did I mention it was one giant party? Everywhere from the churches to the camp grounds people were out to have a good time. I heard one team brag that they drank more beers than rode miles :) Some teams even had sponsorships by beer companies! They had live music every night too (which I didn't get to see, but there's always next year).
The towns you stopped in were great. They had all prepped for the cyclists and then got taken over by them. There were very few cars on the roads (maybe 2 an hour), but tons of bikes. You could see a snake of bikes as long as you could see the road.
Saturday we stayed again with team Pucker -- but just team Pucker - not Party Patrol or any of the other party animals and had a great evening at our host house. We had our tents all setup in their yard but the host family saw big storms heading for the town, so they offered to let us all stay in their house overnight. It was above and beyond what is expected of a host family and was totally awesome. Most people tore down their tents for the night and moved the air mattresses inside. I left my tent up for all the bikes so they'd stay dry too. This night was a little quiet (as much of Team Pucker had gone home and we didn't have the crazies with us) but much appreciated after the last place. They had two bathrooms for us to use, with showers and everything. Sleeping in the A/C was extra special too :)
Saturday morning we rolled out for the final 40 miles into Burlington where Iowa touched the Mississippi river. It was just Dan & I riding from the four we had Thursday so we picked up the pace quite a bit. We rode with much of the rest of Team Pucker and made great time as we had the wind at our back and the hills seemed much easier. We did have one MASSIVE hill. Massive enough that I coasted up to 47mph on the bike!! Then at the bottom we hung a hard left into nearly stopped traffic (in vendor village). That was a thrill. Sadly later we had to peddle back out of the valley but it was well worth it for that ride.
Eventually we ended up in Burlington down at the riverfront where people could dip their tires in the Mississippi river. Those that started in Council Bluffs could have dipped their tires in the Missouri river and said that they road every single inch from one side of Iowa to the other.
Since we didn't stay in the official camp ground we missed some of the live music & festivites which I'd like to catch next year, but all in all it was a great ride. I took around 250 pictures and paired it down to about 90 decent ones along with 50 pictures from John's camera which are all posted on my gallery here: http://www.andrewduey.com/gallery/v/MS150/2009RAGBRAI/ You should really see all the pictures, there's some different pictures in there (look for the unicycle, banana, etc)
I'm already planning next year's ride. It is July 25th - July 31st 2010. I want to get a bigger team together and go out for all 6 days. You can ride as little as 40 miles (1/2 day) or all 6 days depending on how you feel (and change your mind up to twice per day). We had a good time, but i think with a bigger group of friends (aka a bigger team) we could make it even better!
Finally, a big thanks to John who let me tag along, Dan, who organized everything and allowed me to join up, the RAGBRAI staff for putting on a great ride, the host family in Mt. Pleasant who was so excellent to us, the RAGBRAI staff who put together a great ride, and the towns along the route that welcomed us.