Our first day of RAGBRAI turned out much better than I expected.
Rick and Susan hauled me across Iowa from Sioux City to Storm Lake. We had 3,687 feet of climb and ended up riding 70 miles total. I drafted off of Susan or Rick most of the way, except when other riders cut into our pace line. And that one time when I dropped, Rick paced me back up to Susan and by that time a new paceline of about 5 bikes had formed behind her. Crazy.
It wasn't as bad as I expected because Susan is a nice cushion between Rick riding all-out and me whining that he's going too fast. She is very nearly as fast as he is, but much more considerate and actually slows down when you ask her to, which I really appreciate!
After about 46 miles I was having a hard time staying up with them. Granted, the longest ride I had done before this was 41 much flatter miles, so it was really not unexpected. I told them to go ahead, I'd meet them at camp. At that time we had been averaging around 17.4 mph, which includes the time we spent walking our bikes through two towns because the pedestrian traffic was too heavy to ride through.
Surprisingly I found them just a couple of miles ahead, flagging me down at the free banana booth. They said they wanted us to ride together, which was really nice, considering I was already spent. The last 20 miles were a little slower, but we still made it in to camp pretty early. I forgot to check my computer, but I'm guessing our total average was 16.8 or so (turns out it was 17.1, not too shabby).
Now I am showered, fed and hanging out at the air conditioned library which the local townsfolk are keeping open until 7 p.m. specifically for RAGBRAI riders. Thank you! Much flatter day tomorrow. It has an optional century loop, which I think Susan and Rick plan to ride.
This may be my only chance to get ahead of them on the route, while they are doing their extra miles. I better take it!
If I can get another library computer, I'll post later in the week and let you know how I'm surviving.
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Hi Mary--forget about miles per hour average and enjoy the ride! But I know it's fun to keep track--especially when you make such wonderful progress. Had to laugh out loud when you write that Susan had 5 riders drafting behind her. I could picture you trying to pedal and cut your way in behind her saying "She's MY daughter--back off!"
ReplyDeleteToday (Tuesday) the three of us were in a paceline again and a group of 5 riders came up alongside. "Thanks for the pull," (apparently they were drafting behind me) and they asked if we'd like to join the end of the line and they'd pull for a while. He said, "There are four others behind me." We started dropping back and I think there were at least 8 riders by the time we got to the end of the line. A little crazy and a lot of fun!
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