Organizers reflect on RAGBRAI

Fairfield RAGBRAI 2019's executive committee has received nothing but compliments about the town's accommodations and entertainment Thursday during the great bicycle ride's overnight stop.

'I think it went great. The riders were happy, and we talked to the Des Moines RAGBRAI group, who told us that Fairfield never disappoints,” said Tammy Dunbar, one of the executive chairs. 'We couldn't have asked for better weather. The volunteers really stepped up and did their part.”

Dunbar estimated that 200-250 people volunteered for the event. If the city, county and school workers are included, too, since they helped with the preparations, the number of people who contributed time to RAGBRAI is well over 500.

Executive chair Michael Halley said he was impressed by the volunteers' dedication.

'I want to call out [Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce director] Darien Sloat in particular. He was out until past 1 a.m. Friday taking down the main stage, and he was back [later that morning] helping stack the barricades,” Halley said. 'So many people stayed up late or got up early to clean up. That shows the dedication they have to making this event a success.”

Halley said he boarded one of the shuttles just to meet the people riding them. He spoke to a couple from Seattle, Washington. He asked what made them come all the way to Iowa for a bike ride. The wife said they heard about something called goat yoga at one of the stops, and they thought that was very 'exotic,” because they don't see many goats in downtown Seattle.

'I don't think Iowa would market itself as ‘exotic,' but I think the riders appreciate that we call ourselves weird [as in Fairfield's slogan 'Geared for Weird”],” Halley said. 'It shows the community is playful.”

Executive chair Tammy Jones was working at the beverage garden for nearly the entire day, arriving at 5:30 a.m. and not leaving until 1:30 a.m. Friday morning.

'I thought there were lots of people on the square, and it was different this time with an open beverage garden. That made a big difference,” she said.

Bev Nelson helped oversee Libertyville's festivities, which included the 34th Army Band's group 'Scrap Metal,” food and yard games. It was the first time RAGBRAI had ever passed through Libertyville.

'There was almost no trash to pick up in the park after the riders left. I heard that one guy rode around town and picked up three items. The town was very clean,” Nelson said.

Many of the riders were late arriving because they stopped at Jeremy Howard's house party along the route. Nelson said that groups of riders were still coming through Libertyville after 5:30 p.m., but the town couldn't serve them drinks because they were ordered to stop at that time.

Countryside

A trio of riders from Bellevue said the path leading from Centerville to Fairfield featured picturesque rolling hills. Mark Eganhouse, Steve Engelman, and Tom Keil are members of the River Ridge Brewing team, and they've ridden RAGBRAI about 10 times. They said Wednesday's ride from Indianola to Centerville – officially 84.3 miles – was one of the longest they can remember, made all the more difficult by over 3,000 feet of climb.

The River Ridge Brewing team said the weather was gorgeous all week except the very first day from Council Bluffs to Atlantic when it rained. They said they love the fellowship of riding with thousands of others, and the ability to explore dozens of Iowa's small towns along the way. They particularly like visiting towns in southern Iowa, like Fairfield, that have town squares.

The three said their favorite foods on RAGBRAI thus far were smoothies and Farm Kids' breakfast burritos, and their favorite beverage has been the beer at several craft breweries.

The Ledger asked if they were feeling sore after five days of riding, or if they were feeling strong and ready to breeze into Burlington and Keokuk.

'We're all in our 60s. We don't breeze anywhere,” Keil said.

Turns

In some RAGBRAI teams, the members take turns riding from one day to the next. Mike Sommers is part of Team Keener, and he said he planned to ride three of the seven days. The Ledger asked him what the hardest part has been so far.

'The hardest thing has been explaining to people what a keener is,” he joked. 'It's a person who is over-enthusiastic. It's a Canadian thing.”

Sommers is not Canadian, but his teammate Kelly White is. She said it was her second time on RAGBRAI. She said the first day was the hardest because it rained the whole time, but she still had fun. She and her nine-member team all camped in tents in Chautauqua Park.

'The sleeping was OK. We miss real bathrooms, but other than that, it was all right. We can't complain too much,” she said.

Team member Corey Clark was in her fifth year of riding RAGBRAI, and said she takes cycling seriously, doing it year-round. She mentioned that Wednesday's route of nearly 85 miles was the most several of her teammates had ever ridden in a day.

As she headed out for Glasgow Road, Clark said she was anxious to eat a breakfast sandwich, commonly served along the side of the road and in the early pass-through towns. She said her favorite treats this year have been a mozzarella and basil egg sandwich, and the beer from Backpocket Brewery.

Steve Selnick said all the members of Team Keener work for the same company but live in different cities throughout the country. He planned to ride two days of the route, and said it was his first time on a bike since last RAGBRAI. That doesn't mean he's out of shape. In fact, Selnick teaches spinning classes on the side, and remarked that most of the members of Team Keener are endurance athletes.

Selnick, who lives in San Francisco, said the neatest part of RAGBRAI is experiencing Iowans' hospitality.

'I think it's cool that people turn their farms into roadside parties and craft brew stops,” he said.

Homecoming

Several riders The Ledger spoke to are native Iowans who have moved away but make a special trip back to the state for RAGBRAI. Matthew Renze remembers RAGBRAI coming through his hometown of Carroll in 1984 when he was a little boy. He rode his bike as a kid but stopped in adulthood until health considerations put him back on the pedals nine years ago.

At that time, Renze was living in Ankeny, within a stone's throw of the high trestle trail. He rode his bike more and more until he could do 100 miles in a day. He did RAGBRAI for the first time seven years ago.

Renze intended to bike all of RAGBRAI last year, but it conflicted with another life goal. He promised himself years ago that he would visit all 50 states by the time he turned 40. He had checked off 49 from his list, but was still missing Alaska, and he was going to turn 40 the middle of RAGBRAI week. Instead of breaking the promise he had made to himself, Renze and now fiancée Serene Wild took a cruise to Alaska after Renze had biked a couple of days on RAGBRAI.

Renze told The Ledger he planned to bike every day of RAGBRAI this year. He and Wild have rented an RV because he said there was 'no way” he could sleep outdoors in such heat and humidity. Renze said the highlight of the trip was eating lots of Amish pies and ice cream sold along the road. He commented that the U.S. Air Force had a team that helped people repair their broken bikes. It fit with the community-minded spirit of the ride.

'The riders help each other out. When there's a vehicle coming, they yell out ‘car up,' and that message is passed back to the other riders,” he said.

Cirque Wonderland entertainers

A couple members of the entertainment troupe Cirque Wonderland had a nearly bird's eye view of the crowd in Central Park. Amanda Cory, Brian Ivanovich and Allison Voshell all dressed according to the day's steampunk theme, with Cory and Ivanovich adding an eye-catching accessory on their legs: 4-foot stilts. The two steadied themselves with long walking sticks as they made their way downtown, stopping every few foot to pose for pictures.

Voshell said the group has outfits for every occasion, not just steampunk but also Mardi Gras, carnival, winter wonderland and aerial-themed acts. Cory, who said it took her three to four months to master walking on stilts, said she and Ivanovich walk on them for 30 minutes at a time - much longer and their legs would hurt. After nightfall, the Cirque Wonderland performers came out wearing green LED lights on their steampunk costumes, incorporating the second Fairfield theme of a 'glow party.”