July 27th- Grinnell to Coralville
80.8 Miles
- now, due to construction 90.2 and well over 2784 vertical
feet of climbing
Towns Visited-
Grinnell (overnight Town)
Searsboro, Montezuma, Deep River, Millersburg, North English, (this is new due to construction) Parnell, Williamsburg
Coralville (Overnight Town)
Conditions- A rerun of yesterday without as much sun, but with perhaps more headwind.
Today, we awoke early again, knowing that we had yet another near 100 mile run. For the first time, the stars were out. I thought, "no wind, this might work!". In the yard next to where we were camping, there was a weird bird whose legs went around and around very fast when the wind blew. It started running like a race horse. And of course we noted immediately that the wind was from the East. What else is new? Well it wasn't raining. That's forecast for tomorrow. In these early mornings, communication in Hawg camps is very monosyllabic. But we know the lingo.
We started out at around 6 and noticed that most had taken an early start and began battling the headwinds.2 We have not had a day of Ragbrai without headwinds. Debates on the road are frequent about which of the elements that God throws at cyclists are the worst, and we covered that in detail last year, but let's review a minute. Perhaps the worst negative element the we get is the most recent. Let's see, we have heat. Now that was real bad in '99. Then there's cold. But you can wear a jacket. Then the real severe ones like the tornadoes or hail and for those we seek shelter as soon as possible if there's a brain at all. And of course the non dynamic non element, those hills. Some of us live in hilly areas and are used to them. For me, the steepest hill in Houston, Texas is probably that big flyover from the Sam Houston tollway to the I-10, but bicycles are not allowed on that, anyway.
So the dynamic elements are the ones that are different from day to day. (you may notice delirium and part of what I'm saying here, it a result of today's ride.) The problem is when we combine these things.
This year's ride has been headwinds every single part of every single day. There was Saggy Thursday a few years ago where there was a strong wind COMBINED with hills AND heat. There was the day last year with hard rains COMBINED with cold AND hills. But this year was pretty constant. We had hills. It's Iowa. But we have had this nagging, nasty headwind for six stinking days now and we are cursing it's very existence. On Saggy Thursday, George humored me by having us come up with good reasons why there's wind in the first place. It makes sailboats go! It gives us power! (remember those wind farms?) It gives us seasons and works together with the whole system of weather. This year Tara's saying "talk to me, Dave" We just have to be distracted from this headwind. It's like a hill all the way across Iowa.
Ohh good! here's a nice big downhill. Let's go for it! But we look down at the handlebar computer and see that we're only going 15 and that's with pedaling. I used the big chainring about 3 times yesterday. If we don't pedal on the down hill portions, we will stop.
By now, we are used to headwinds. It's just what we expect. Some day we will ride without them. But probably not this week.
Well, I feel better already. Today, like every other day was a combination of headwinds and hills. But what is unique about these days- different in all Ragbrais that I've ever ridden (since '94) is the distance of this. The last three days have been 80-100 and 100 miles. Geeeez, let's just cross the country. Why stop.
Gotta better idea. Next time this happens, let's run the Ragbrai backwards!!!!!!!
Ok, now the day. I started by blasting ahead of the rest of your DRP crew and sat on the ground with camera in hand and took pics of a whole bunch of the rest of you as you rode by just so you could have your picture on here. I'll post them and rotate them, so check back often. What a variety of bikes, expressions, and determination. The crowd is thick here. Will it be as thick at the end. Folks were still pulling in at Coralville at 8:00 PM.
Breakfast2 was in the town of Searsboro. My legs were hurting the first time of the whole ride because I rode hard and stopped often taking the pics. There were three men sitting in lawn chairs in the middle of the train tracks who told me they were determined to stop the train. We enjoyed doing something that we've never done. We indulged in the fine art of graffiti on the side of a building.
Aaron was back on the road today. It seems that the Trek folks2 let you ride their products on a demo basis for one day. Since Aaron's frame was broken, this courtesy allowed him to ride today. His Mom is bringing him a bike for Saturday. It looks like the Raleigh folks are replacing his frame free of charge, too!
Since 1994 when we began covering this event, we're explored the various signs that people post along the route and studies spelling, language and grammatical habits. Here's one that Norm captured erected by the county. Is it a musical statement?1
Today's route had a new surprise. A detour, due to construction (this one was for real) was in the route, adding an additional nine miles to the ride. AAARGGHHH! It was going to be forever before we got in. Plans, rumors, and whispers about bypassing the detour and taking the original route abounded. But this was not to be. We checked with some locals giving free bottled water at a church and they told us that we could probably do it, but the road was being resurfaced and the bridge was completely gone. Frankly, I would have done the bridge thing. How deep are those creeks, anyway? We go through more abuse with a quarter mile of headwinds. But the road resurfacing thing is what changed our minds. Then came the intersection! It was so well guarded and fenced by the police that I thought it would have been cute if they had just added some guard towers, a moat, and machine guns. We took the detour. Southbound had a partial headwind. We were able to cruise a bit better.
We have spotted all methods of making home made ice cream. The most fascinating is the hundred year old machines that sputter away driving belts that churns the fantastic tasting delight. But here's a new twist.2
The whole week has been about pacelines. This is when a cyclist drafts behind another. Good drafting involves putting your wheel about 2 inches behind the one in front of you and letting that person "break wind" for you. I really enjoyed helping Tara get through her week in this fashion. We joined other pacelines and they became very long and scientific. Some pacelines were pre planned and organized. These are fantastic to watch and resemble a ballet at times. The leader will plod ahead at maximum speed for a given time. Maybe it's a hill, maybe it's 100 revolutions with the crank. Those in the slipstream behind and in one or two lines will stay straight behind and their effort is well over 20 per cent less. If everyone is careful, nobody is killed. It's like driving your car on the freeway two feet behind the one in front of you at 80 MPH. Hmmm, sounds like home.
Our pacelines with more than two bikes were far less organized and a bit more dangerous. We would just join one in progress and chances are these were for the most part single cyclists, as opposed to a group. It's just not safe when any one of these folks does not keep a very constant speed, and unfortunately, this was the rule. But Tara drafted me much of the time and we could predict most of what would happen.
The new pass through town this day, because of this detour was North English. (so where's English?) They did a great job, especially in light of one week's notification. I don't know the model of their old fire engine, but it had an aaooooogah horn! It must has been fire engine competition, because earlier the town of Montezuma wanted revenge!2
The 20 plus sprint to the end was relentless. Frankly, there was just corn and hills and a few people. I just spent my time devoted to getting in. Thoughts crossed my mind such as "with all of this wind hitting me from up there, won't we run out of air up there?" Guess not. It just took forever to get to our camp.2
Where did this week go? We're in Coralville, a real nice sized town that shares it borders with Iowa City, the home of the University of Iowa. It's a nice place. Looks like the Air Force has had a bit of budget cutting,2 though! We had a great dinner at Friday's and it's to bed.
Well, I'm really sad. This happens every year. You get all excited about Ragbrai and then tomorrow's the very last day. Seven days of riding seems like it's going to be a long time. It's not. It goes in a twinkling. Our lives are like that too, aren't they?
Dear Cindy,
Ok, so I lied about the airbrushing and the camera tricks. OK, you're right, I didn't mean to make you mad. Those were real people. Forget Muscatine. Call Guido's bail bond service for me in Coralville and they'll tell you what to do.
Love,
Dave
credits- 1. Norm Running 2. Aaron Eilers and the rest were "live" by Bruce Eilers and Dave Plummer
Email me at plummer_dave@prodigy.net
Town Links-
Iowa City - Coralville Area Online Resource -- Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce
Welcome to the Iowa City Community School District
And, yet again, the Coralville Ragbrai Page
