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KANSAS BOB: THE END OF THE ROAD: RAGBRAI COMES TO A CLOSE
Bob Sutton
August 6, 2009
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The People
The warmth of the people of Iowa is beyond belief. In every town, the local people cheered us on, answered our questions for what must have been the hundredth time, and always smiled at us as though we were the one person they had been waiting for. They fed us, picked us up when we were down, helped us with bike problems and looked out for our welfare. When it rained, (which it did for several days) they would open their garage doors for us to crowd in. Then they would go to the kitchen and bring back cookies, tea, lemonade or whatever else they could find to help us feel comfortable. You can’t ride Ragbrai without falling in love with the folks that live in Iowa.
The riders, too, soon became good friends after meeting in camp, or along the road or strolling through one of the charming towns that lined our path. I remember Mary Catherine from San Diego. She brought her fourteen year-old daughter, Sierra, to Ragbrai. We met on an Omaha street the night before the festivities began. Mary Catherine explained her cool da Vinci Designs tandem that allows independent coasting and cadence for the captain and stoker through the incorporation of a unique intermediate shaft in the drive-train. We seemed to find each other throughout the week and Sierra would tell us all the neat things that she had seen and done. She said the coolest thing of all was when a local farmer asked her if she would like to drive his tractor. “Are you kidding?” she answered, and up she climbed. She can’t wait to tell her Southern California classmates what a cool vacation she had in Iowa! (Now there’s a switch.)
There was also the young mother taking her ten and twelve year old sons across Iowa on a custom built Triple. Their story was one of both sadness and happiness. They lost her husband and their father to cancer last December, so they joined Live Strong and rode to build awareness of this awful disease. She told me that her husband loved to ride his bike and she wanted to share this experience with her sons so they could know why their father loved bicycling so much.
The second day of the ride I spotted Leslie, a very cute woman riding a vintage Colnago and sped up to talk to her about her bike (Sure, I did). Her boyfriend had found it for her, but until Ragbrai, I don’t think she knew how cool it was. I loved the artistry of the lug-work, the Columbus SL tubeset and beautiful paint job. It was only after we stopped in one of the towns along the route, and I began to point out how bikes are built today, that she began to appreciate what her friend had found for her. She and her best friend from college, Sangeeta, had decided to take time from their busy schedules to meet in Iowa and experience Ragbrai together. Had it not been for the two of them, I would have missed seeing the largest hog in Iowa followed closely by the largest bull in Iowa. Best of all, they talked me into going to see the house where Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa. The house is currently being restored and is full of memorabilia from Johnny’s life. Throughout the week, our paths often crossed and it was always nice to see the smiles of my new friends.
I also remember the grandfather that brought his eleven year-old grandson to Iowa to ride Ragbrai with him. The young boy was proud that he made it the entire distance on his own bike. Of course, he beat grandpa up most of the hills, but waited patiently for him to catch up. The grandfather told me that this skinny kid ate more than he did.
The stories could go on and on: the unicyclists riding the route, the roller bladers skating as fast as the bicyclists and the woman that ran the course next to us each day. Also, there were people riding hand-crank recumbents, a young blind person riding on a tandem with a close friend and people of all sizes and ages riding the route.
The crazy costumes dreamed up by many of the riders were also a constant source of amusement during the week. Banana man rode the whole week in what must have been the hottest outfit on the road. There were my friends from Santa Barbara: Lisa, Liz, Scott and Ross riding in school girl uniforms (Ross and Scott didn’t look quite as good as Liz and Lisa). One fellow was all dressed up in pink, including his wig and beard. Many wore headdresses with horns, and there were the Boneheads and Loonheads. A hula dancer gave me a 30 second demonstration in one city park, and many others equally creative.
The Ride
This year’s route was considered one of the toughest Ragbrais ever, with a total elevation gain of over 22,000 feet. It wasn’t one of the longest thankfully, with an official length of 442 miles. Our total mileage for the week approached 500 miles, due in part to the 100 mile loop on Thursday. And that doesn’t include the added miles biking to campsites, city centers and side-trips.
The scenery along the route had us stopping and taking pictures of the beautiful, undulating rows of corn on hillsides and fields along the route. Again this year, it looked as though the state was a large park tended by a landscape crew, when in fact, it was accomplished by the proud people that live in Iowa. It wasn’t just along this year’s route either, because the highways that our bus used, returning us to Omaha at the end of the tour, were just as well kept.
Food
Deciding where to stop and eat along the route is the most talked about subject at Ragbrai. It takes planning in order to sample as much as possible! More than anything else, we came to eat! In most cases, we ate it all. Rolling in to Greenfield Monday night, we all got a kick out of hearing that one of the Pizza Huts ran out of dough, and a nearby Subway ran out of bread. If you didn’t get your pie by 10:30 in the morning, you were out of luck (or spent the rest of the day searching for it). It didn’t seem to make any difference how many pies were baked (some of the ladies at the church booths told me that they baked 500-600 pies for the one day that we passed their booth), they still ran out. My goal was to try to eat all of the different pies available. During the week I ate apple, peach, raisin, rhubarb and cherry, but missed out on gooseberry, strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, pecan and boysenberry. Well, there’s always next year.
Pork Chop man was there serving his legendary 2” thick pork chop wrapped in a paper towel (best washed down with a Gatorade), along with Chris’s Cakes (really good pancakes) and Tender Tom’s Turkey. Pastafari was serving wonderful pasta, with or without grilled salmon. An outfit churning homemade ice cream with an antique, single-cylinder farm engine that could be heard chuffing and puffing far down the road.
Charter Services
Our charter service for this year’s Ragbrai was Pork Belly Ventures run by the brother and sister team of Tammy (Phillips) Pavich and Pete Phillips. Local Iowans, living in Council Bluffs, they were masters at meeting our needs from river to river. They and their crew totally blew me away with friendliness, organization, communications and cheerfulness. There were many surprises throughout the week that none of us expected, but I’ll let you in on a couple. Twice during our journey, they brought in a wonderful Irish band called The Elders that played and interacted with us throughout the two evenings. Also they arranged for a local chef to prepare a wonderful barbeque for us on another night. Every evening, two huge tents were setup for us to relax and get to know one another and we all visited late into the night. They offer quite a menu of services including busing people to and from their cars or airport. They have bicycle mechanics on hand to help keep your bicycle rolling each day, supplying pumps and compressors to air your tires when necessary, and a concierge desk at each location to help answer all of your questions.
One of their coolest amenities was tent rental and setup. Each morning they would remove your duffle bag and load it on their semi for the trip to the next overnight town. Additionally they would take your rental tent down, load it up, set it up again at the next stop and put your luggage inside. As the week progressed, my friends took advantage of this offer and relaxed over a few beers each evening. I sweated in the sun carrying my bags and setting up my tent. Next year I’m going to rent a tent from Pork Belly. It was the height of luxury.
Wednesday was laundry day at Pork Belly and this year they washed 465 individual loads of dirty cloths for us. To accomplish this unbelievable task, they drove to neighboring towns that weren’t on the route, and took over various Laundromats. All of the proceeds from the washing fees were donated to fight Juvenile Diabetes.
Check out their website at www.pkbelly.com, and enjoy Tammy’s superb writing about Iowa.
Specialized Roubaix
The 2009 Specialized Roubaix Pro SL that I rode for the week was wonderful. As I’ve said before, I own a 2006 Roubaix Pro that I enjoy riding on long trips. So I was anxious to see how the new Roubaix handled. I appreciated Specialized’s melding of responsiveness with a chassis that was forgiving during the long days in the saddle. No matter how long or tough the day was, I didn’t have the wrist, shoulder, back, and neck discomfort sometimes present after long rides on super stiff racing bikes. But when called on to accelerate, the Roubaix answered immediately. I also appreciated the noticeable increase in lateral stiffness and steering precision over my 06 model.
The End
When we approached the Mighty Mississippi River on the last day of Ragbrai, I didn’t want it to end. All I wanted was to keep the group together and keep going. The Great State of Iowa and Ragbrai – job very, very well done.
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