We just got back from our 2nd RAGBRAI, and what a different experience than last time. Last year, we did the tent thing and camped out. This year, we had a huge Class A motor home with air conditioning, beds, and plenty of food storage. This luxury left us feeling far more refreshed.
The experience was also different on the road this year. I think Lance ruined RAGBRAI. The attitude seems different when he is there. The biggest change this year was the riders seemed to have changed from ‘people on bikes’ to ‘cyclists’. I didn’t even see the the hordes of loony people with costumes and such. The crowd this year was full of road cyclists, team wear, and high end bikes. Don’t forget to mention the arrival of rude attitudes. ‘On your left’ was no longer a friendly warning. I never heard it before with such a condesending tone, nor repeated until someone was out of the way. Several times I heard ‘out of the way’, ‘move over’, and the worst was a rider that yelled at an older man ‘you ride over there’ and pointed at the right side of the road. Everyone knows this is a ride, not a race. But still, show some respect.
Reagan and I both did all 7 days, including the Karras loop. 500 miles in 7 days. Blake took one day off. Steve rode the 4 days he planned on, and he is much stronger this year with his new hip. Another highlight for me, was that I got to demo the pre-production Specialized Transition time trial bike. Apparently, there are a few teams that had this bike on the Tour de France, and the 4-5 in the demo van that followed RAGBRAI this year. The bike was built of solid carbon, had a SRAM Force drivetrain, Zipp 404 wheels and Vuka bars, and had a estimated retail price of $8500. The bike was very thin. The rear stays hugged the spokes and had to bulge out for the rear cassette. This was a very fast ride. My time trial pace was about 26-27mph. Even at speed, the bike was quiet. I blew blast Blake once and he said he didn’t hear me go by. There are a few pictures in the Gallery under the Sports album. Mason got to attend a kids only meeting with Lance. Mason asked him if he was the one that hit the dog on the tour this year.

The ride itself was wonderful. Overall, it was flat and fast as predicted. Eagle Grove was a wonderful town. The Amish country was amazing. I see a goal to measure our gardens against. By RV camping, we were either in the mix of it or on the outskirts of town. Even then, it was walking distance to fast food and stores. We even found a huge model train museum, and the National Farm Toy museum.  We all had a good time in there.  RAGBRAI seemed to save all the hills for the last day. Just as you got tired, it was time to go climb.
We are getting started on the house in Jefferson. I’ll be moving most of our stuff out this weekend. We’ll get some updates out about the progress over there soon.

-Rich

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