So I got home late last night from riding across Iowa. I had never been to the state before, but knew that humidity and the smell of pig shit would be strong. I was right on both accounts. Happily, those were the only two downsides to the ride.
My entire team rode everyday and completed the entire week of cycling without wrecking. We enjoyed camping at fairgrounds and high school lawns (we used the Ragbrai shuttle to carry our gear). Riding with 10-20,000 people is really intense. The diversity of bikes (beater cruisers to $15,000 race bikes), rider experience (some folks struggled even getting started to peddle), and riding styles (pacelines to tootling along) made for a bit of a chaotic ride each day. Each morning was spent trying to stay out of the way of the kooks who don't know how to ride a bike or communicate their intention of passing or merging. The kooks would slowly drift behind or ahead of us and we were left with more open roads. Once that happened it made for a great 4-5 hours on the bike.
The great thing about Ragbrai is that most stops are between 5 to 20 miles apart, so breaks are part of the 40-70 mile daily rides. These breaks involved a lot of food (pork chops, breakfast burritos, salmon pesto pasta, corndogs, pie, ice cream, peanut butter, jelly and pickle sandwiches (strangely quite tasty), water and beer on occasion) and walking bikes through small towns.
We had one day of cross/headwind. I am a big dude, so I had a paceline behind me for the majority of the 70ish miles of the ride. I got involved in several very strong pacelines throughout the week and was promptly dropped by the majority of them (I can't maintain 27 mph even while drafting). I did stick with a few and had a blast tearing down a closed road.
One of my favorite moments was a very nice couple from Denver on a Comotion tandem leading me down a small, steep valley road at 47 mph. I try not to go that fast, but the whole road was closed for us and the pavement was fresh, smooth and dry. It was really fun.
On the last day we had over 3000 feet of climbing over 46 miles. One of the climbs was a pretty sustained, steep pitch and bonked me pretty hard. The descents made it worth it though. Sadly, I came around a corner at somewhere around 35 mph and there was a rider on the ground, very bloody and not moving. Luckily, there were folks already stabilizing him, so I didn't have to stop. There were other wrecks (including one on the first day only three miles out of town) that I witnessed. I saw at least three ambulances each day going to pick up riders who wrecked.
I'm kinda bummed out that my cycling computer malfunctioned on two of the days, so I couldn't upload those rides to Strava. I have the memories though and that is way more important.
I am going to give my taint a few days off before I get back on the bike. There was no amount of Chamois Butt'r and baby powder to keep me from getting fire crotch. That was the only real injury/pain that I truly suffered over the course of the week.
Overall, I would recommend riding Ragbrai if you love the culture of bikes. The majority of the people I talked with on the ride, in town, and while camping were real bike nerds and just loved being out there peddling with other like minded individuals. Each night was a party (if you can stay up past 8PM) and each day was a beautify time riding bikes. It's a beautiful way to spend a week.
