VIEWPOINT: Eclectic crew of riders make RAGBRAI a world of its own

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By Tory Brecht | Saturday, July 26, 2008 8:19 PM CDT | () comments

LECLAIRE, Iowa — Climbing a short rise near Pleasant Valley Junior High on Wisconsin Street under a hot sun early Saturday afternoon, I could feel my physical limits nearing their end.

Three-and-a-half hours and 52.5 miles earlier, two riding partners and myself coasted out of Tipton, Iowa, to ride the last leg of RAGBRAI. A relatively novice rider, my previous distance record was around 30 miles and the most people I’d ever ridden with was three.

As I crested the hill, however, I caught a beautiful blue glimpse of the shimmering Mississippi River. As happy LeClaire residents shouted encouragement, I and a long string of other sweaty, elated bicyclists rode down to the levee to dip our tires in the river.

Directly in front of me, 14 riders in blue and white team jerseys, cheering in Italian, jubilantly rode toward the water. They were Team Venetto, a crew from northern Italy, riding RAGBRAI through the Iowa Sister Cities program.

Luisa Triglia, who hails from the mountainous Vicenza area, was very excited to be finished with her first bicycle tour of Iowa.

“I think it’s great. You people are so friendly,” she said, adding that the Mississippi and the boat Twilight bobbing on it reminded her of Mark Twain. She walked down next to the boat, filling her empty water bottle with river water, and poured it over her bike.

The gesture was one of dozens, maybe hundreds, of small magic moments one sees riding the 10,000-strong tour.

While many riders were part of large teams, complete with colorful buses and lots of

support personnel, my one-day endeavor was much more small scale. My former Quad-City Times colleague, Todd Ruger, who writes for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune now, got up at the crack of dawn with my wife and two kids for the short trek to Tipton. We dubbed ourselves the Riding Writers.

This was my first experience riding in a huge group, and it was exhilarating, frightening and strangely compelling. The snaking line of bicyclists is like a living organism, and you feel propelled along by a mass psychology of motion. It makes the riding fly by much faster, and the exertion less strenuous.

Many of the teams seemed determined to outdo each other in colorful plumage, props, accessories and partying prowess.

In Bennet, we met a group named “Team Flamingo.” Sporting hot pink bike jerseys with feather boas streaming out of their helmets, the team was headed up by an enigmatic figure I never actually saw, called Big Bird. According to team members, Big Bird is a large guy with a beard dyed pink.

I spoke with two brothers from Columbia, S.C., who are part of “Team Flamingo.” 21-year old Ross Jenner said his motivation to ride RAGBRAI was pretty simple.

“It’s a combination of beer gardens and some of the ladies,” he said. “And there have been some nice ladies.”

In Maysville, we ran into our first group of hard-core partiers. The Horse Tooth Hulas hail from Fort Collins, Colo., and were first in to any tavern they came across on the route. Team members are bedecked in grass skirts, Mardi Gras beads and stick-on, dashboard hula girls swaying from their helmets.

The team’s “activity director,” Lizzy Ginger, sports a Hawaiian print bikini and said reflecting back the kindness of Iowans is part of the group’s mission. Well, that and the beer.

“Iowans are fabulous and it’s a big party, the biggest bicycle spectacle in the world,” she said.

Member of the Hulas ride hard and drink hard, saying the key to riding after a couple beers is to “just follow the yellow line.”

By the time the tour rolled into Eldridge, the town was inundated with thousands of bikes and hungry and thirsty riders. The spectacle drew hundreds out on their lawns, where they ceaselessly cheered the endless line of cyclists.

Right outside of LeClaire, where the route crossed Interstate 80 twice, the exhaustion of the seven-day ride seemed to catch up with many riders. A series of steep hills — the largest of the day — were the final hurdle to clear.

I felt a little short-changed, not having ridden across the entire state. But it was mixed with satisfaction for completing my longest single-day ride ever.

Next year, I may try to tackle the entire beast. But I refuse to wear a hula skirt.

Tory Brecht can be contacted at (563) 383-2329 or tbrecht@qctimes.com.