RAGBRAI Day 4

Wednesday July 25^th

RAGBRAI Day 4

77.1 miles

1,997 feet climbed

1 flat tire

1 busted brake cable

0 ambulance rides!!!

Quote of the day: “Does every Iowa town have a water tower named after it?” said by a passing cyclist from California.

We left this morning at 5:00am again trying to beat the heat that we knew was coming. The morning was amazing, it felt a little cooler with a light breeze. The hand cyclists, for the first time this week, worked together as a group to move along. At one point, we had 7 hand cyclists all drafting off each other. We held that draft line from Webster City to Story City, the meet up town. Think of it like a flying V of geeze; each one helping to bring the wind to move the whole group. Everyone that got to see the draft line was impressed by all the hand cyclist, lead by the tandem of Deena and her pilot. Very cool way to start the day.

Hand cycle draft line. 

The second half of the way, the weather took a turn for the nasty. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any hotter, the mercury rose a bit more. Many of the riders decided not to finish the entire ride because the temperature was so extreme and the winds were picking up to about 30 mph. The ones that did finish are an inspiration to every rider that sees them cycle into the overnight town. 

I am happy to report that everyone arrived in the overnight town safely with no medical emergencies. That was a relief to the entire team after losing two team members in town days. We stayed at the Marshalltown Senior Center and they didn’t hold anything back. When we arrived they were working in their kitchen preparing a meal for us. We didn’t pay them a dime – they covered it all for us! A penne chicken alfredo pasta with veggies, a cup of fruit, orange juice, milk…talk about a spread! A welcome site after such a hard day.

The building we were in was an old, brick building, so when the severe storms rolled in we really didn’t have any idea. Needless to say, we were thankful not to be in the campground as many were moved into evacuation centers due to high winds.

Lastly, we want to give a special thanks to a local Marshalltown upholstery shop for giving one our cyclists some memory foam that he needed for his hand cyclists to alleviate some back pain. He was able to get a large amount of memory foam at no cost. What a HUGE HELP!!!