Published: July 30, 2007 09:28 am      

A hilly finish to RAGBRAI, plus a new speed record

BELLEVUE — As I rode the final leg of last year’s RAGBRAI, I felt I never got to sit back and truly enjoy it.

The route from Coralville to Muscatine was short, flat and fast. In no time, I was done and loading up my bike.

That was far from the case this year.

While Saturday’s 57 mile route from Dyersville to Bellevue was the shortest of the 2007 Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, it was also the toughest.

Numerous hills, particularly in the later stages, were big challenges to all riders.

As mentioned, while chugging up these mountains at a modest 6 mph or so, I had plenty of time to “enjoy” RAGBRAI.

I spent so much time on these hills it gave me plenty of time to think ... I pondered the meaning of life, thought of a perfect game plan for Nebraska’s football team to beat USC this September and even taught myself the German and Spanish languages (OK ... I didn’t have QUITE that much time).

I’ll take you back to Friday during our overnight in Dyersville.

I arrived in town around 1 p.m. and took up on offer to shower at the home of Jen, a friend of ours.

She also asked me to be official greeter for 20-some bikers who would be arriving at her place to shower and camp.

I went to her place, showered, napped, watched several TV shows and yet nobody came.

Just as I began to wonder if anyone was coming, a camper pulled up. The girl driving was the support team for three of the riders, so I knew we were in business.

Soon enough, others rolled in, too.

The early portion of Saturday’s route was smooth. A 6.5 mile ride to Worthington was followed by a 9.4 mile ride to Cascade, where I nearly saw a tandem bike get hit by a car.

Both idiots, if you ask me. The car was going too fast considering there were bikers on the other side of the road, but the biker was in the left lane trying to pass a bunch of people.

Fortunately, he got back into the right lane and everything worked out.

We then went 10.9 miles to Garryowen, although I have no idea where this ended up being since it’s not a real town, and another couple miles to Bernard.

It was right before Bernard that we encountered a rather large hill, a sign of things to come.

The 13.3 mile ride to La Motte was sprinkled with plenty of good hills which were long and slow riding, especially on a recumbent.

After pedaling for what seemed like forever, we arrived in La Motte where I got something to drink to prepare for the final 14.4 miles to Bellevue.

The first hill out of La Motte was a monster, mainly since I couldn’t build up any speed on a downhill.

There were more hills before our final descent to Bellevue, where I hit an all-time speed record on my bike.

Before Saturday, my previous best had been 33.5 mph coming down a hill near Denver on Thursday.

I hit 34.5 mph earlier in Saturday’s ride, but got all the way to 40 mph on this last downhill. As the speed got into the high 30s, the bike was a little tough to handle but I wanted so badly to reach 40.

Mission accomplished!

After that downhill it was about three or four miles of flat pedaling into Bellevue where we were greeted by cheering fans on both sides of the street.

I dipped my tire in the Mississippi River, where my wife Marsha took my picture.

And, just like that, RAGBRAI 2007 was done.

It was a great time and I hope to do it again. Thanks for all the compliments on my articles. I’m glad you enjoyed them.