Oh Yeah.... I Have This Blog Thing

Wow... another blog hiatus. That must mean, I've had way to much other stuff going on. Let's see... I managed to survive RAGBRAI. It was a good one. I had lots of fun, as always.

The most fun occurred on the day out of Indianola. I rolled over to where the ShortBus was ensconced around 0730. Hung out and helped them break camp and get on the road about 0830. That consisted of a roll over to some local breakfast emporium that had a most lovely breakfast and several large screen tellys so we could watch Le Tour as we digested and sipped coffee. Then around 1045, it was a leisurely 20 mile roll to Milo, Iowa.

In Milo, there was a kick ass band playing, Crooked Mile. We got there with a little bit left in their first set and then hung out through their second. Lots of fun. This was the best band on RAGBRAI. We apparently didn't get there early enough to watch my dear friend Ms. Bets from the Whiners have them take the "Whiner Goddess Bitch" oath. I did see that on video over on Facebook.

Not much else of note to report. The best news is that my legs seem to have shown up. I haven't been going this well in ages. I'm hoping to be able to ride this peak through Cycle Oregon in mid September.

In the yoga world, Tapas had Sara Strother back for another workshop. That was good. I wasn't anywhere close to as wrung out as the last one (probably because this one was only an hour and a half long). Learned an interesting way to enter into Standing Hand to Big Toe (Utthita Hasta Padangustasana). Today's led Primary series class had me in full rain mode. Wow... was I sweating... check that... raining.

My friend and next door neighbor in the blog-o-sphere in McSmithlyville posted a link on Facebook to the most frighten yoga video ever. Not sure I should post it, but hey... it's the InterTubes

Sunday

Well... Another week has gone by. Did a quick trip down to the St. Louis area for the 4th. A good trip. The drive was nice and boring, just like I like it. I actually made it over to the gym that was close to the hotel to ride a spin class so I could keep the legs working. It was pretty good, but I really don't care for the bikes they had. That said, it was a massive drip fest.

I'm now starting to get into RAGBY mode. I have to seal the floor of the tent and the ground sheet, but the magic stuff showed up a couple of days ago. Then it's find a few things here and there and start stuffing it into bags.

I plan to put the Ti beer wrench pictured above to good use with the folks from The Bus during the week. It will be nice to see everyone again. I find it interesting that since I started doing RAGBRAI, I've made a number of good friends that I see once a year. That's the best part of the ride.

Also... The 2009 edition of the Tour de France. I'm somewhat bummed that Jason McCartney didn't make the Saxo Bank Tour team. I would have loved to see Jason and Jens sitting on the front of the field and shredding it to pieces. There are a number of interesting twists to this year's race. The Team Time Trial (TTT) is back, but with time losses unlimited. Also, there are no time bonuses at the end of stages. I'm really hoping that someone other than Lance Boy wins. It will be very interesting to see how Astana manages to get four potential TdF winners making a team effort.

RAGBRAI Route Detail Announced

The Des Moines Register has published the full RAGBRAI route. See it here. Here's the breakdown of the days.

• Council Bluffs, Mineola, Henderson, Emerson, Red Oak - 52.6 miles; 3,684 feet

• Red Oak, Stanton, Villisca, Nodaway, Corning, Prescott, Williamson, Fontanelle, Greenfield - 72.6 miles; 5,096 feet

• Greenfield, Orient, Macksburg, East Peru, Truro, St. Charles, St. Marys, Martensdale, Prole, Indianola - 77.1 miles; 4,470 feet

• Indianola, Ackworth, Sandyville, Milo, Lacona, Oakley, Chariton - 44.4 miles; 2,182 feet

• Chariton, Millerton, Bethlehem, Confidence, Iconium, Honey Creek Resort State Park, Moravia, Rathbun Lake, Unionville, Blakesburg, Ottumwa - 76.9 miles; 3,388 feet (Plus the century miles and climbing)

• Ottumwa, Hedrick, Martinsburg, Pekin, Packwood, Pleasant Plain ,Brighton ,Germanville, Lockridge, Mt. Pleasant - 75.5 miles; 2,841 feet

• Mt. Pleasant, New London, Lowell, Geode State Park, Burlington - 43.2 miles; 1,145 feet

The total without loop, 442 miles and 22800 feet of climbing. Easy cheesy... Just depends on the weather.

RAGBRAI 2009

The Des Moines Register has announce the overnight towns for the 2009 edition of the ride.They are:

• Council Bluffs (4)
  
• Red Oak (3)
  
• Greenfield (2)
  
• Chariton (1)
  
• Indianola (0)
  
• Ottumwa (2)
  
• Mt. Pleasant (4)
  
• Burlington (4)
  

It's going to be a short one, 442 miles and 22.8k feet of climbing. We've been in most of these towns before, the number of times noted in the parentheses. All except for Indianola where the traveling freak show / circus that is RAGBRAI will stop for the first time. That is going to give us two logical day one's midweek with everyone and their brother joining us on the ride in and/or out Indianola from Des Moines.

I have not so fond memories of Mt. Pleasant from the 1984 edition. Ever since then, I've been calling it Mud Unpleasant. We overnight in Red Oak, which was my Dad's home town. I'll have to see if I can remember where the farm is and maybe do a ride by. I haven't been to Red Oak since the last time RAGBRAI was there in 1997. Just 170 days and a wake up to go.

Note: One other highlight for this year is the lack of Lance Armstrong. Lance Boy will be "le Touring" in France, so his little entourage / sideshow won't be with us this year. Woo Hoo! RAGBRAI - It's not about the Lance.

Jack Piper And The Chamois Of Fire

Ah... At long last the sequel is being released. Last year, the group of Merry Pranksters that I hang with on RAGBRAI was entertained during the long winter's night by a story written by one of our own, Flava Dave. The first story can be found here - magicbeanbus.blogspot.com

The sequel, Jack Piper and the Chamois Of Fire, is being published at Stuzio. It's being done as Flava Dave has time to get the chapters out in between getting miles in and his day job. Enjoy!

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As I put this post up, I've got a movie on the telly that I haven't seen in ages, The Commitments. It has the absolutely best music. It's highly recommended.

Woah... It's Been Awhile

Holy Socks! It's been almost a month since the last post. I've been shirking my blog responsibilities, such as they are. Here are the last few items of interest.

1. I managed to ride RAGBRAI and not fall down or flat. A good time was had by all. I was hanging with ShortBus and riding with them some. I'll try to get a RAGBY post together before all of it gets out of my head.
2. I also managed to win the Tour de France. Well... at least I won the Kim West Radio Cycling Show Tour de France contest. I'll be claiming my t shirt when I head to Ames later this month.
3. I've been stacking in the miles and I'm starting to feel a little bit of fitness returning. RAGBRAI was an almost 500 mile week, followed by a 300 mile week, and this week is looking like it will be around 350. W00t!

Today's little ride was just a bit over 90 miles in just a bit over 5 hours. That averages out to about 18mph for the ride. And it was in the rain too. Tough guy points might be in the offing. That depends if I do the 50 or so planned for tomorrow.

Gotta go... I feel the need for a beer and some tunes. Hard Quarter is playing at the Bier Stube tonight. I'm not to wild about the beer there, but they do have Warstiener ,which will do in a pinch. Or I might just slip next door to Bent River and get either an Uncommon Stout (a coffee stout) or the Pale Ale. Maybe I can listen to the band from there.... the best of both worlds.

3 or 17 Days To Go - You Decide

July is here. That means two things, the Tour de France and RAGBRAI. Two of my most favorite cycling events. I'm not sure which is the most important. I'm leaning toward RAGBY. The odds on favorite to win Le Tour is Cadel Evans. I'm pulling for Carlos Sastre of CSC. We'll see how things turn out in Paris on the 27th.

This is yet another "Health Tour". It seems about every ten years there is some sort of doping scandal and the following year is a "Health Tour". With the ASO giving Astana (including the defending champion) the boot, no prologue, no team time trial, and shorter stages, Le Tour is going to be very, very different. I'm hoping for the better. I'm not sure that it will ever be clean, but at least Pro Cycling is really testing. With the specter of gene doping now in the laboratory, I think that it may need to adopt more of a car racing format, Stock or Super Modified.

RAGBRAI also has a possible challenge to get over this year too. Given all of the rain that we've been having here in Eastern Iowa and the attendant flooding, the ground is completely saturated. July is the third most rainy month (June, August, July), there is some real potential for problems. Hopefully, it won't happen. Although... we'll need at least one rainy day to add a little suffering.

DBax has just finished up Jack And The Magic Bean Bus. It's been filling that empty time from August to June. It's a lovely tale set in and about the RAGBY. It's required reading on The ShortBus.

RAGBY To Visit Argo Corners - Don't Blink

Well... The DSM Register has released the detailed RABGY route. It can be found here. They are making good use of Google Maps. Nice to see that folks are taking to this. It's a great bit of technology. Not quite as good a use as the Beer Mapping Project, but hey... you have to start somewhere.

There is one interesting things about the last day aside from the fact that I'll be within five miles of the house. That is that it passes through the faux town of Argo Corners. It is not much more than an intersection with a couple of houses. When I told my wife about it, she replied, "Don't Blink". There is an old tavern than has been converted into a lunch stop/low budget Quicky Mart. I haven't been out that way in awhile, so I'm hoping that it is still there. I'll have to ride out that way and see.

Most of the last day is pretty boring from my perspective. I ride on those roads a fair amount, so it doesn't have the "new" factor. At least it will be easy to get home.

Another RAGBY Memory

Well... I won't be stopping at the Cove when RAGBY stops in Tipton this year. The Cove, after 42 years of operation, closed on the 4th of February.

I made my wait staff debute here the last time RAGBY was in Tipton, 1982. We had stopped for breakfast there. Even though it was well away from the RAGBY route, it was completely overrun. I was out of coffee and got up to get myself a refill. I wound up making and pouring coffee for about 45 minutes. I was styling in my green skin suit and road shoes.

They auctioned off the contents of the Cove on the 15th. The most coveted item was the dinosaur pictured above. It sat outside the restaurant and was visible from I-80. It went for $4600. I always enjoyed seeing it when I drove by. I hope it does well in it's new home.

Important RAGBY Safety Tip

Given the 2008 edition of RAGBY's close proximity to Davenport, if you are a turkey, don't play in traffic. As the QC Times caption writer clearly points out "Wild turkeys have adapted to people -- but not to the extent that they can survive in heavy traffic." God help us if the turkeys mutate so that they can.

Ouch

My legs are finally starting to feel normal again. Evil Heather was putting the hurts to a small group of fellow tortured souls in the Gravity class on the gym Thursday night. Things must be getting better since it took four days for them to be back to normal last week. The weather is starting to break into the 20's here, so I'm hoping to get back into the bike commuting routine on Monday.

The Des Moines Register has a way cool map of the past RAGBRAI towns up. It can be found here. Hopefully they will keep this page alive.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Man... another day of driving the car to work. It's looking like it will be a zero miles into work week, which is not good. It was a balmy 250k this morning when I got up. That sounds much warmer than -9F. I would have scored major league tough guy points for today. But then, the guys in the white coats most likely would have showed up to throw a net over me.

In other cycling news, the RAGBY route is out. The towns from left to right are: Missouri Valley, Harlan, Jefferson, Ames, Tama-Toledo, North Liberty, Tipton, and LeClaire. Having the ending in LeClair will be nice since it simplifies the logistics greatly.