RAGBRAI 2006 Part 2

Welp, it was back up this morning at 4:30am and I drove to Coralville and parked at the Coralville mall to meet Pat and Tamara, and Mike, Tamara's husband and our wonderful SAG driver Barb, Pat's sister.

We were off at just before 6am and on our way. After winding our way past the University of Iowa (go Hawks!!!) we were back out in corn and bean country. It was a hot, humid day, but as long as we kept riding it wasn't that bad. Today I decided to spend time riding with Pat, Mike and Tamara but also spend some time racing as well as chatting with other riders. Here's some one line highlights:

• Rode with a guy on a recumbant with a fairing and wrapped in an aerodynamic fairing - whoah!
• Saw a guy wearing a dog suit. Other's were wearing goofy stuff on their helmets.
• There were tons of cool bikes - mine is vintage 1988. Lots of tandems.
• Unicycle? yup, some crazy guy was riding a unicycle with about a 36 inch mountain bike with mini handlebars and a brake.
• Some people even carried their camp gear on their bikes. (I used to do this until I discovered the joy of racing!)
• One guy was pulling a trailer with a battery (like one you jump your car with) and a boombox. We jammed for a while to YMCA! Nice guy from Muskatine.
• I prefer to hammer hills while most riders shift down and take their time. I love attacking on hills.
• People are very friendly.
• Free enterprise - lots of people selling water, Propel, Gatorade, fruit, cookies, kolaches (I had a peach one)
• Lots of free stuff - water, cookies, etc.
• Cyclist terminology - "on your left!" and "rider on!" and "where ya from?" and "stopping!"
• My average heart rate Friday - 136bpm, Saturday - 137bpm
• My max heart rate Friday - 196bpm which is a new high for me, Saturday 188 (my legs hurt from Friday's hard riding!)
• Average speed (Sat) - almost 15mph. (Friday - i think it was about 13) Not bad since I spent some time with about 10 cyclists cruising along in a paceline around 25 mph. At one point we wer going 35 mph on a slight downhill.
• Strawberry Smoothie in New Liberty was dee-licious!
• 40 oz of gatorade, 70 oz water, two powerbars, and snacks
• Met people from San Diego, all over Iowa, North Carolina, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Texas, and Ohio.
• Mike said the rootbeer float was incredible! (i don't like rootbeer)
• I learned about "dipping the wheel in the Mississippi" - it was cool!
• The afore mentioned paceline almost piled up when everyone started breaking for slow riders. It was scary! I loved it!
• It was really cool riding into Muskatine with all the people on the sides of the road cheering us on. It was like riding in the TDF on the Champs-Élysées.

I did have one negative experience. I missed the departure of Pat, Mike, and Tamara from New Liberty so I needed to make up some time. So, the first person that went by real fast I chased them (him down) and started drafting. (this is normal for road guys like us)

Well, we passed his friend (I didn't realize they were together) and I stayed with them for a while. Then, all of a sudden the guy hits the brakes and almost caused me to crash and then says, "quick sucking my wheel (euphemism for drafting). Pardon me, but that was cruel! If he didn't want me drafting he could have said something. NO! He tried to wreck me! I backed off and then blasted by them and apologied and the guy didn't even recognize my apology. What a jerk! Why would you intentionaly try to wreck another rider?

Rant warning (I'm tired!) - Only in America would a cyclist act this disrepectful. European sports (cricket, soccer, and cycling) are played with a great amount of sportsmanship and respect. Our culture in America seems to breed a dog-eat-dog mentality. It's bad.

I've been spoiled for the past year working in a servant leader environment. This poor guy is super self-serving!!! While his action freaked me out for a while, I prayed that God would show him the error of his self serving ways. I truly feel sorry for people that live selfish lives only thinking about themselves. It must be a life-sucking way of life.

It was a good day today and I loved almost every minute. It's always a good day when I get to ride my bike. Thanks again to Pat, Tamara, and Mike for letting me ride along. Thanks for Barb for handling the SAG responsibilities.