RAGBRAI 2008
As an RAF Exchange Officer based with the United States Air Force at Barksdale Air Force
Base in Louisiana I had the pleasure of joining and riding
with the United States Air Force Cycling Team (AFCT)
on this year’s RAGBRAI. From Sunday 20 July through
to Saturday 26 July 15000, yes fifteen thousand, cyclists
(plus one unicyclist and one roller-blader) rode parts of or
all of the 36th annual ‘RAGBRAI’ – the Register’s Annual
Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa – week long riders are
limited to 8500 although many more join as day entrants.
I joined the 110 riders of the United States Air Force
Team for a planned 6 day, 485 mile jaunt across the state
of Iowa. RAGBRAI is the longest, largest and oldest
touring bicycle ride in the world, it is also a major event
on the USAF’s recruitment calendar and everyone on the
team rides in ‘uniform’; for me that meant riding in
RAFCC colours for the duration. The aim for the USAF
was to raise awareness through visibility of the uniform
and being “good citizens/Samaritans”.
RAF and USAF - Shoulder to Shoulder
This year’s ride was the 14th time that the USAF has taken
part and was especially poignant for 2 reasons: firstly we witnessed firsthand the aftermath of
Iowa’s recent storms and flooding; secondly we were joined on the ride by Lorin Sonnenberg,
the widow of Lt Col ‘Sonny’ Sonnenberg an F16 Pilot who was meant to ride last year’s
RAGBRAI but died on operations in Iraq.
The RAGBRAI traditionally starts with dipping your rear tyre in the River Missouri on the west
of the state and finishes with dipping the front tyre in the River Mississippi. Unfortunately, this
year’s start town was 13 miles from the Missouri so on Day zero the Barksdale team took a quick
motor paced (we sat in the slipstream of the van!) thrash to the
river and back - add another 26 miles to the total.
So how was the ride? In a word, often used by the Americans,
AWESOME. The scale of the event cannot really be expressed in
words: imagine riding a straight road and from horizon to horizon
both lanes are filled tyre
to tyre, shoulder to
shoulder, with bikes; or
starting out before
sunrise and seeing
literally hundreds of
blinking red tail lights
stretched over miles;
Riders to the horizon
imagine riding for 100
miles, nearly 7 hours on the road and for that whole
time continuously overtaking other cyclists (the
Gridlock
good thing being that I got to ride on the correct,
left, side of the road for most of the week!); imagine any village (pop 300) you know being
swamped by so many riders it is total gridlock as lycra clad cyclists walk through; imagine what
15000 riders can do for the local economy (each overnight town expected to sell in the order of
1000 cases of beer, 24000 bottles of beer a night!). All of that and you’ll still only get a part of
it.
The camaraderie, the continuous shouts of “RAF - what’s the
Royal Air Force doing here” or “go Air Force” as you steam
past in tight pace line - it has to be tight with all those riders
and the ‘Klingons’ and ‘Muppets’ who bring their own
special kind of excitement: the adrenaline rush when rolling
downhill at over 30 mph and realizing that the annoying
buzzing noise is a Klingon (you pass they cling on) running
his front tyre on your heel because he’s ‘riding in a pace line
like they do on the Tour De France (insert Dr Evil style
quotes for effect)’. Or the Muppets – they will do virtually
anything (turn into you, turn 90 degrees in front of you,
shoulder you into oncoming traffic etc) in complete oblivion
in an attempt to wreck you. Suffice to say you have to stay
sharp and being up to date with First Aid helps; in the 6 days
I saw at least 2 accidents a day and gave first aid twice
(gravel rash, shock and a broken wrist), I also witnessed a
Paceline
fairly bad head injury (paramedics already there) and one of
the USAF team was first on scene to a heart attack. We also changed a number of tyres and
tubes for stranded cyclists.
The riding was fun although with a prevailing Easterly wind along with the rolling hills it was
mostly hard; riding solo into a 15mph head wind for nearly 80 miles rates as one of my never
repeat in life moments. The roads were variable and I can still feel the repetitive thud of the
cracks that run across 90% of Iowa’s concrete roads at about 10 metre spacing (7 hours of thud
thud thud…gets kind of tedious!).
The overnight stops were in local towns where the majority of riders pitch tents wherever there is
a patch of grass big enough. In some towns RAGBRAI increased the population by over 700%
for the night, yet every single one was friendly and hospitable. People allowed us to camp in
their gardens when the pre-planned site was water logged (left over from the floods), others
invited us in for dinner and/or let us take a hot shower for a small contribution to their children’s
college fund. The Barksdale riders had a fantastic support crew who ensured that the site was
clear when we left, hauled our gear from town to town and put the tents up by the time we rolled
into camp. They also filled cool boxes with drinks, cakes etc to feed our massive calorie deficit
– without the USAF support team the event would be a nightmare.
The storm damage was visible in a number of places and on the Sunday night we got a
demonstration of how quick and devastating the storms can be. At 2:20 in the morning the
whole ‘circus’ was woken by the local police and ordered to evacuate tents into storm shelters
due to a storm that was approaching town. The storm came, along with 2 inch hail and 80 mph+
winds (I’m really glad I collapsed and stored my tent). After an hour it had gone and by 3:30
everyone was back in bed!
Along the route there are food and drink stops – some of them have been
with RAGBRAI so long they are legendary: some of the ones that stand out
are the Pork Chop Man (Mr Pork Chop) who serves barbecued pork chop
from his old pink school bus and the Pancake Man – who makes the
RAGBRAI first timers catch their flipped pancakes. Every one of them has
a huge queue and non-stop business.
Each overnight town holds a festival with a live concert, food, drink etc for
those that can stay awake beyond 8 pm! There are many types riding the
RAGBRAI: serious racers, touring cyclists, those wearing fancy dress (one
guy in just speedos – which was wrong on every level!), those who start the
day with Red Bull and Tequila at 9am and drink on through and just about
everything in between (oh and Lance Armstrong
rode one of the days but I missed him – he was way
behind us!).
A healthy stack of Pancakes!
The final town, Le Claire, held a ‘military
appreciation’ ceremony where all of the military
riders rode into town (2X2) under police escort to
frankly quite amazing support from the locals and
other riders. After that, and a quick beer, we hit the
road for our 16 hour drive back to Louisiana.
The final numbers: 540 miles in 8 days (515 in 7)
including 2 centuries (one voluntary – we were so
close anyway), 23000 feet of hills climbed,
over 20000 calories burned, max speed 41.6
mph, best average 22.2 mph for 50 miles
(including walking through towns) and one week
of nothing but eating, sleeping and riding –
Awesome!
2X2 into the crowds
Next year the USAF team would welcome more
RAF riders – so who is in, I am?!
The End