Every year, scores of vacationers see the country through the windshield of a Honda, a Suzuki or a Harley-Davidson. Others enjoy the scenery at 10 mph from a bicycle seat.
About 10,000 bike riders from across the nation travel to Iowa to take part in the annual RAGBRAI bicycle ride, the oldest and largest group bike ride in the world.
What’s RAGBRAI? The name stands for the DesMoines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Two columnists at the newspaper started the ride 40 years ago.
It’s a ride, not a race.RAGBRAI is a week to be savored and enjoyed by bicycle where America’s heart beats.
The annual ride meanders for about 500 miles,from west to east across The Hawkeye State. This year’s RAGBRAI began at Sioux Center, Iowa, near the Missouri River, and ended in Clinton, on the Mississippi, from July 22-28.
Mix the bend-over-backwards hospitality of Iowa with thousands of fun-loving bikers, and the sum is a weeklong vacation that has no equal.
Riders average 60 to 80 miles each day over state and county highways. That sounds like a lot, but whenall you have to do all day is pedal a bicycle, you can cover some ground.
TOUR DE CORN
I’d heard about RAGBRAI for years. In 2001 I decided that, by golly, this is the year.
I just wanted to see if I could do it - that is, ride my bike for 500 miles across a whole state.
By golly, I could. Not only did the miles roll pleasantly by that first year, I was having the time of my life. I remember thinking, sometime during the ride’s second day, that, brother, I’ll be back next year.
And the year after that and the year after that.
In every little town the ride visits, RAGBRAI is huge. Little burgs like New Virginia, Algona and Mount Ayr join larger towns like Iowa City or Cedar Rapids in hosting a welcome that is over the top.
There’s breakfast or lunch for a reasonable cost at every church, every school, every Elks Lodge or Legion post.
A choir might sing at one end of town. At the other, a rock band wails.
Bushels of sweet corn boil in giant cookers. A dollar gets you a steaming ear, maybe two, slathered in real butter. You could live for the week on pie.
RAGBRAI may be the nation’s only bike trip where riders gain weight.
There’s ice water, soda, Gatorade, cold beer, all at a fair price. RAGBRAI riders are an economic shot to every business, every scouttroop, quilt club, school and 4H chapter along the route.
Along the way across Iowa, farm kids sell cold drinks and energy bars from tables in their driveways. You can get your picture taken with a baby pig for a buck.
Each day you pass Mr. Pork Chop, a jolly guy with a pink school bus hawking grilled pork chops the size of catcher’s mitts.
“Pork choooooops!,” he hollers from the road’s shoulder.
Riders carry only what they need for the day. Rental trucks transport all luggage and tents to the next overnight town while the bikers are on the road.
ROLLING PARTY
Every night of RAGBRAI is like Bikes, Blues & BBQ. In the overnight towns, there’s a food court on downtown streets where smoke from wagon-sized grills flavors pork, beef, chicken and brats.
There’s dancing in the beer garden and a lineup of free concerts over the week.
Every piece of public property is open for bikers to set up their tents for the night. It’s not really camping. Nobody makes fires or cooks, and not everyone camps. Some stay in motor homes that follow the pedaling masses or in motels. Others arrange ahead of time to stay with a host family.
The next day, we get up and do it again - early. Most riders are on the road by 7 a.m. to beat the heat.
I preferred 6. Leaving at dawn, the temperature is cool and the sunrises gorgeous.
There are no long lines for breakfast or bathrooms down the road. Lines get longer the later you leave.
I’d wrap up my ride in midafternoon, set up my tent and head straight for the town pool to swim, read and relax.
Free shuttle buses cart you wherever you want to go around town, but riding your bike is way faster.
IOWA MYTH
First-time RAGBRAI’ers learn in a hurry that Iowa isn’t flat. Maybe along the interstate, but not on the rural route that is the real Iowa.
Some areas, like the hills of western Iowa or the wooded northeast, serve up lungbuster climbs. Some parts of the Ozarks are fl atter. Here, the highways frequently follow ridgetops. In Iowa, the roads just go up and over everything in a straight line.
It’s an incredible sight to look up the highway in front and behind you and see nothing but bicycles from horizon to horizon.
RAGBRAI rider get a paper “license plate” where their name and home town can be displayed on their bicycle seat. That opens the door for easy conversation along the way. Everyone, all 10,000 of us, is in the adventure together. The camaraderie is incredible.
The RAGBRAI route is open to car traffic, but the route is listed in the newspaper each day. Locals generally avoid the highways devoted to RAGBRAI.
Iowa’s back roads are clean and well kept. Nearly every mile of travel is on concreteor smooth asphalt.
RIDE WITH LANCE
I got to ride with Lance Armstrong on one RAGBRAI.
He’d retired from Le Tour de France and hopped aboard RAGBRAI to give a talk or two, promote his causes and generally hob-nob with the riders and townspeople. He seemed to be having a blast, like everyone else.
Lance rode the route every day. He’d cover the 75 or so miles in about four hours. That included stops for pie.
One Thursday morning I was pedaling along and a pack of riders whizzed by me so fast it nearly blew me off the seat. It was Lance and his entourage.
So I tell people, yeah, I rode with Lance Armstrong - for about a second.
After four RAGBRAIs, I tried some other bike tours including a weeklong ride through Wisconsin last year.
I’m ready for another RAGBRAI. Next time I’ll give Lance a run for his money, maybe for two seconds.
Life, Pages 6 on 09/26/2012