Wednesday, July 25th Ragbrai Update

Pictures from Wednesday’s Ragbrai ride. (Steve Hexom)

 

Done with day 4 and another beautiful day on RAGBRAI. I had great hosts again in Ames across the Street from my hosts 10 years ago. It was a quieter night with no band (Hairball) playing loud and late just down the street from our house. 

Today was 60 miles of almost all flat terrain as I pedaled through Nevada and Colo before having lunch in our meeting town of State Center. 

Riding through after lunch, Margaret Wozniak of Burlington saw me and told me she was waiting for family coming soon and the Bickel and Wozniak clan showed up and let me be a part of their family picture. Left to right are Melinda Bickel, Tyler Bickel, Sidney Hallgraves, me, unknown, Eric Wozniak, Kimberly Bickel, Margaret Wozniak, and Martin Wozniak. 

Later down the road, directing traffic was Jason Marlow of Burlington a Public Information Officer with the Iowa State Patrol who is doing his job on the ride for the 12th year. The hills and headwinds arrived just before Melbourne with a great sign and packed with riders. Then it was up and down to Baxter and into Newton, hosting for the first time in 12 years. 

All in all it was another great moderate temperature day with no rain. In Nevada, a local resident asked me if other states had similar rides. I said there were many other rides but none close to RAGBRAI because of two things, distance from town to town with an average of 10 miles and most important, Iowa has the largest number of paved farm to market roads in the nation. Thus RAGBRAI stands alone as the oldest, largest 7 day touring ride in the world! Still feeling great on my 39th ride.

Listen to Steve’s Wednesday morning report below!