Monday, July 23rd will be a very busy day for those of in Rutland. My joinery challenge project has been hampered by the event. The event is RAGBRAI XXXV. It is a 7 day bike ride across Iowa. It has been 22 years since the last time the always changing route brought them trough our small community. Expected numbers this year are 10,000 to 15,000, several thousand support people and media. Rutland’s population is around 130 residents. We cover about 13 city blocks, with 3 streets running north and south, and 7 running east and west.
Preparing for it has been many meetings. Since the route changes every year, you don’t get to say ”well last year we did this”. We are the last town before the overnight stay at Humboldt, IA. It is hard to know how to prpare for such an event. How much ice, water, food, beer. It’s hard to sell anything else as they don’t want a lot of weight added to thier bicycles.
RAGBRAI's webcam ( not sure how often this camera moves but it does refresh every 60 seconds)
Notables: Lance Armstrong will be riding the entire route this year. Many Presidential canidates will be making appearances at the overnight towns.
Provided we survive the influx of people I will be back online Tuesday, after the cleanup.
-- Joel Tille
8 comments so far
MsDebbieP
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12282 posts in 698 days
posted 499 days ago
woo hoo how exciting!!
such excitement for everyone of all ages.
-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
Napaman
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2099 posts in 615 days
posted 499 days ago
good luck!!! exciting!!! I am an avid cycling fan…have not missed one minute of this years Tour de France…and we have amazing roads to cycle here in Napa…enjoy the ride…what a great challenge!!! Keep us posted on the rides progress!!!! ANd jump on a bike to join them!!!
-- Matt, Napa, CA...119 days to sanity...
Joel Tille
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200 posts in 782 days
posted 499 days ago
I will be helping with trash detail and my wife will be selling shirts, nick nacks, water for our Town and Country Club. Don’t think we’ll get much cycling done.
The School in Humboldt is a weather link for one of TV stations in Des Moines, they have a webcam that looks at main street. Click here
-- Joel Tille
WayneC
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5684 posts in 635 days
posted 499 days ago
Sounds like fun. I’ve been following the tour every day as well.
-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov
Dan Lyke
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411 posts in 663 days
posted 498 days ago
Woohoo! Tell us how it goes.
I’m the volunteer coordinator for a 2500 person bike ride out here near San Francisco, coming up on August 4th, but I’m lucky: It’s a one day ride.
But, and I’m not just saying this because it’s my job to recruit workers, it’s a heck of a lot of fun to put on the ride. Last year I dragged my sweety out of bed at 4AM, she was grumbling about what I’d signed her up for, but we had such a blast she was still having fun at ten at night as we were warning the last of the 200 mile riders about sharp turns on a tricky descent as they pedaled towards the finish.
-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke
mot
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4859 posts in 574 days
posted 498 days ago
Nice. We have a MS Bikeathon up here that attracts big numbers. Always nice to see and participate in, if time allows.
-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)
Bill
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2524 posts in 699 days
posted 492 days ago
Very cool Joel. It sounds like great fun. It would be nice to live in a small town like that, and see how the town works together on a major event. Let us know how it goes.
-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com
Joel Tille
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200 posts in 782 days
posted 492 days ago
The day came and went, no major difficulties. We sold only about 1/3 of what we thought we would. It was a very warm day and alot of the riders were looking for a shade tree to lay under. They had about a 15 to 20 mph head wind, our town was about 70 miles into a 77mile day for them. Many rode straight through to get to the last town and be done.
Lance Armstrong rode through with about 50 to 60 people with him, they didn’t slow down much at all.
It was interesting to see all the people and the bikes, one guy i talked to said his bike was a couple thousand dollars, he pointed out one that was an $8,200 base price before adding extras.
Over all it was an exciting day.
-- Joel Tille