RAGBRAI 2009

Cool - where do you live in Jacksonville?  My best friend lives there.  Near the Mandarin area. 

I'm interested.  Family in Davenport are always trying to lure me out for the Bix 7 foot race, so it would be really lovely if RAGBRAI and BIX were scheduled around the same week.  It's been suggested before here

Wonder how it'll fit into my Timberman 70.3 training plans (still need to register...) ?

I, too am interested.  I was raised in Carter Lake, Iowa; Omaha area for those that don't know where CL is

Just let me know when and where to send the paperwork and check.

Sorry that I have been so late to geet back to everyone on this, but I have not been on BT much since I have been busy with my foray into race development this off-season. 

Registration is open now.  We need to have all of our forms and money mailed in by Febraury 15th, giving us roughly two months to get organized.  To register, what you need to do is go to www.ragbrai.com and click the link to register now.  That will take you to a set of links, one of which is print a paper form.  Print that form and the waiver that is with it, fill it out, then send it to me, with a check for your $125  - made payable to John Wright  - to;

John Wright

12403 Ridgemont Drive

Urbandale, IA 50323

I will assemble them all (or I will have my daughter assemble them all - but I have to think of a reason to motivate her to do so) and write a check for all of them and send them in.  The lottery will then be published on May 1st.  You have the opportunity to buy souvinier packs and what not with your application - and that is fine - just make sure to include payment for such things.  With the bike jerseys - if you order it at the same time that you register, I believe they ship it with your packet and you don't pay a shipping fee - just sayin'.  MAKE SURE YOU SIGN THE WAIVER.  They get very honery if you don;t sign the waiver.  The packets will come to me and I will distribute them to team members.

Also - please make sure that somewhere on what you send me, you put your BT name, so I know who I have and who I am still missing.  Some of you clever people don't have screen names that are transparent to your real names and I WILL get confused, beings that I am not too quick on the uptake. 

Speaking of BT screennames and what not, Marmadaddy has gracioulsy let us use the BT graphics for our team shirts.  What we need to do is decide what we want.  We can go to a custom or semi-custom Bike Jersey, we can use a technical shirt, or we can go with your basic t-shirt.  We need to decide on that so that we can price them.   We won;t have to worry about paying for those until sometime in June, but it is something that we want to get started on fairly soon since many of us have several irons in the fire.  Someone suggested that we put our BT screen names on the back of each shirt, so if that is something that we are interested in, let's discusss it and we can get it folded into the price k? K.

Now, for those of you that do not have experience with Ragbrai, I will do a little rundown.  Every year they have a "guess the course" contest.  The course for the year is a HUGE secret, as it makes a lot of money for the towns that it goes through, especially the overnight towns.  Personally, I think that RAGBRAI has been catering to the inexperienced cyclist of late, keeping most of the course relatively flat.  I don't really expect that to change much this year.  That being said, RAGBRAI alternates each year on a course South of I80 or North of I80.  This year will be south and the south is hillier than the north here.  Anyway, they have this contest to guess the course and the winner gets a gift certificate for $100 bucks worth of RAGBRAI stuff (I told the guy I know at RAGBRAI that it shouldd be a GC for beer, but he didn't listen).  Last year like 10 people guessed 6 of the 8 overnight towns correctly, which is pretty good, but you might as well give it a shot.  Remember that the rides are between 60 and 80 miles each day, they start in the west (dip your tire in the Missouri) and end in the East (dip your tire in the Mississippi) and they usually use county roads that space the "stop" town somewhere between 10 to 15 miles apart.  It's fun.  I think I got three, maybe it was two, last year. 

As far as the ride goes, there are three basic ways to ride it.  First is the serious rider.  They get up early, they ride straight through and crank out the 70+ miles in 4 or 5 hours and then they set up camp and got out to eat or something in the host town.  Usually host towns have a band and all kinds of refreshments and what not going on.  The second way to ride it is the easy way.   You ride the 10 to 20 miles between each stop town, get there, look around, have a beverage, and then ride to the next town.  If you beverage of choice is alcohol, generally your desire to get to the next town decreases as the route goes on.  'Tis fun.  Many of the people shop at the local stores, have a bite to eat and all of that.  It makes it easy on those that don't have a posterier that is used to being in a saddle for 5 hours, 7 days straight.  The third way is the crazy way.  This way, you stop at every town to grab a beverage, drink it down quickly and move on.  You then head to the next town and repeat.  Some carry a cooler with them in a trailer so that they don't have to wait until the next town to have that frosty beverage.  They get into town in about 6 to 8 hours and then they head off to the nearest beverage distribution location in the host town, where they re-hydratee themselves by quickly drinking several beverages.  They use their bikes for transportattion, which is sometimes comical and sometimes out and out scary.  Then they find a get together thrown by one of the established teams.  There are several legendary riding teams on RAGBRAI that throw outrageous "get togethers".  Team Blonde throws one that is always when they are on the east side of the state that is full of debauchery and mayhem.  These people stay out late, making sure that they are so hydrated that, sometimes, their bodies start to reject the fluids that they have ingested, plus the pork chop that they had from the pork chop guys stand and the 2 LB Burrito they had from the other stand.  They then get up in the morning and do it again.  If you choose to ride this way, you should make sure you are in shape for it.  Riding the next day when you overhydrated yourself to the point of expulsion can be much like entering the inner levels of Hell.  Just sayin'.

I don't think that it will be necessary for us to decide on a way for all of us to ride.  I am sure that we will have several of each group and we can ride in that manner - and then team up afterward to pitch camp and at least moderately rehydrate ourselves.  Nothing says that you have to ride with your team the whole way either.  If you want to go out and do some interval training on one of the days - hit it - and catch up with the rest of the drunken fools riders later. 

OK - questions, comments, ideas, suggestions - let them fly.

Yesterday was a big day in RAGBRAI-dom as the overnight towns were announced.  It is a fairly short ride this year, coming in just under 450 miles.  It is the 6th shortest ride in history but also the tenth highest in overall climb at 22,806 feet (4.31 miles).  The distance to climb ration is almost 1%.  A ride has never had a distance to climb ratio that is that high.  That being said, don't be skerred.  The hills aren't large hills, they are consistent rollers.  There is really nothing very flat in southern Iowa, but there are no real peaks, either.  It is not hard to carry the downhills into good run ups to the uphills. 

A little about the ride.  The start is in Council Bluffs, which is the accross the border town from Omaha.  CB is the largest city on the list.  Day 1 goes to Red Oak.  52.6 miles with 3,684 ' of climb.  Day 2 goes to Greenfield.  72.6 miles with 5,096' of climb.  Day 3 is to Indianola.  77.1 miles and 4,470' of climb.  Day 4 is to Chariton.  44.4 miles and 2,182' of climb.  Day 5 is to Ottumwa.  76.9 miles and 3,388' of climb.  Day 6 is to Mt. Pleasant.  75.5 miles and 2,841' of climb.  Day 7 is to Burlington.  43.2 miles and 1145' of climb. 

You'll notive that the ride from Indianola to Chariton is pretty short.  This is done on purpose.  The stated reason is to give participants a break day.  The real reason is because Indianola is only 20 miles from Des Moines and people that are not on the ride will come out for the party.  Indianola will be a zoo.  It was aalso stated on the forum that the route happens to go by 4 different wineries this year.  Iowa wineries make some very good wines and it may be worth your effort, if you are partial to the grape, to stop by on your trip and grab some.  They will send it to you after your tasting, so you don;t have to worry about lugging it.

I live in the Des Moines area, so there will be an opportunity to go to my house and shower when we hit Indianola.  I also have a good friend in Chariton that lives right off of the route that is willing to let us camp in his yard/use his showers while we are there.  Ottumwa has a huge indoor/outdoor water park, which might be a really good thing in July. 

A word of warning.  Anytime I have ever heard a race organizer say that a ride is adventurous and scenic - that has been code for  - you had better be ready to pedal. 

OK - so - I need all entries and checks by February 10th.  We must have team registrations postmarked by February 15th to be able to be in the lottery.  This is absolutely crucial.  On-line registration ends on April 1st, but that does not guarantee you a spot (you have to go into the lottery as a solo instead of a team).  Please, if we are going to do this, let's have everyone send these in right away.

Also - we need to have a team name - and we need to have it by the time we turn in registrations.  I would assume that we wamnt to have BT in the name somewhere.  Someone creative come up with ideas and we will have a little votey thing.  Capisce?

I did the ride in 2003 and it was phenomenal!  This year's route looks very similar to that one.  Don't be fooled by the stereo-type; Iowa has some hills.  (2003's route had about 16,000 ft of climbing and about 17,000 feet of descent.)

The best thing about this ride is the way the communities along the route all turn out to support the riders.  They love to laugh at 10,000+ people pedalling through their state.  It makes for a good joke.

Enjoy the ride, everyone!

BTW, I haven't been able to think of a name, but if you wanted something on the shirt, the wife and I thought of something. 

On the front

RAGBRAI? 

on the back

Nope.  Training ride.

Just a thought.   

That's a good idea.  I like it.

I have family along the front end of this ride and friends that I know will be interested in supporting the group along the way.  I have a cousin in Red Oak with a farm that might be up to hosting us at his place.  I will try to make some inquiries and set it up even if I am unable to participate.  I really hope to do this ride and will know for certain this afternoon about the feasibility of this adventure.

Thanks for reposting this information!!!

I grew up in Iowa and have always been amazed at this event.

RAGBRAI is on my "life's to do list," but just not in the cards for this year.

Have a great time guys!!

My check is in the mail!  The registration form states the entry fee is $140 so that plus the souvenir pack fee is included.

Thanks, John!

Bump - Cause Kiley can't seem to remember how to use the BT forums.

obviously we would need to find our own transportation to get there right?

that's my biggest problem... since I'm single.... no one to ride with