Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9411050020
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's the Midwestern hospitality you never hear about, but it's very familiar to the members of the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club who have experienced it - and who keep going back for more.
Thousands of cyclists are drawn to Iowa again and again to get yet another taste of its terrain (``If Iowa is flat, then Virginia has only gently rolling hills,'' said Barbara Duerk of Roanoke), its townspeople and its regional food (we eat cakes; they eat pies) during RAGBRAI, the annual July ride between the two rivers bordering the state.
RAGBRAI, an acronym for the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, started in 1972 when a Des Moines Register columnist challenged a reporter to bicycle across Iowa to learn more about it. The challenge was accepted, and readers were invited to go along. Unexpectedly, 300 riders showed up and 115 finished the distance that first year.
The group swelled to 1,800 the following year and now registration by lottery is stopped at 7,500, although more than 10,000 cyclists (some say close to 20,000) joined this year's ride. Unregistered cyclists are called ``bandits.''
RAGBRAI is billed as the oldest, longest and largest ride of its kind in the world. The route changes year to year but always spans the state, traveling from west to east. The distance varies from 450 to 550 miles, excluding travel within towns.
Traditionally, at the start of the ride, cyclists dip their rear tires into the Missouri River, and, at the finish, dip their front tires into the Mississippi. But it's what happens in between that is the real story.
An area speckled with farms and small towns, Iowa opens its arms and its doors to these riders from all over the world. This year, cyclists from Roanoke spun their wheels with riders from all 50 states and 16 countries. From small children to senior citizens (one was 87), they rode bicycles that varied from state-of-the-art two-wheelers and a 1938 Schwinn to tandems (one seated four), unicycles and even a specially outfitted arm-powered tricycle for a paraplegic woman.
They were doctors, mechanics, bankers, retirees, teen-agers. But, ``When you get that Lycra on, it equalizes everybody,'' said Ruth Lipnik, a Roanoke librarian who has been in two RAGBRAIs.
For seven days, riders traverse the state at their own daily pace, with designated host towns as their goal each night. Along the way, towns go all-out with food, music and special events. For some places along the route, this is the biggest event of the year. Some towns depend heavily on the infusion of riders' dollars to boost local economies.
From private homes and school gymnasiums to tent cities on the state Capitol's lawn, from ``lawn showers'' (hosing oneself down on the lawn of a school or library) to disinfecting in the chlorine of public swimming pools, all of the basic necessities are provided for the participants amid a festival of fun and food, food, food.
``The locals greet you with open arms,'' said Judy Ayers of Roanoke, a three-time participant. ``I enjoy biking with a passion, but I go back there for the people more than anything.''
Riders eat 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day (they need to for stamina) of corn, fried green tomatoes, Iowa pork chops and pies, homemade by church and community groups. The small town of Dewitt held a communitywide pie exhibition, displaying more than 500 pies.
One town created a tunnel of hay bales as an entrance for the cyclists. A state senator played honky-tonk piano in the middle of Main Street. Toilets set on wheeled platforms were raced by town residents and cyclists side by side.
Carroll picked up a ''Christmas in July" theme, bedecking the town with red ribbons. In Perry, 900 elementary-school students decorated cardboard boxes for use as trash bins. They lived in ``Perry-dise'' for a day or two.
Townspeople set aside their daily chores, lining the streets or setting out lawn chairs in their yards to welcome the riders. They played music and danced together. They traded stories and addresses and promises to visit.
Two farmers stretched a 100-foot-long plastic tarp down a bank near a soybean field, creating a water slide for the travelers. Two tractors stood at either end of a town, anchoring a long rope for cyclists to hang their bikes. A man sprayed riders with his garden hose as they sped by.
This year, the weather was on the cyclists' side. ``The hardest day of RAGBRAI was easier than the easiest day of Bike Virginia,'' said Lipnik. She recounted a story of having to make struggling up a hill look easy in front of some other riders because ``We're from Virginia,'' she told them. ``We know about riding hills.''
George Ayers, of Roanoke, a three-time participant, will go back again, as will Larry Rehfield, a Roanoke retiree who has included two RAGBRAIs in his two years of cycling.
On last year's RAGBRAI, Blue Ridge Bicycle Club members rode to the house and baseball diamond where ``Field of Dreams'' was filmed. It really is as it appears on the celluloid.
Maybe there is a little bit of heaven in Iowa.
by CNB