Chasing Lance Armstrong Across Iowa

The 34th edition of Iowa’s weeklong state bike tour known as RAGBRAI served as my introduction to the road bike. The relatively straight-line route spanned from Sergeant Bluff, on the western edge of the state, to the Mississippi River town of Muscatine. We learned that the course would be hilly, and, because it was Iowa, we figured there would be a perpetual headwind. Pushing these thoughts from our minds, my dad and I dipped our back tires in the Missouri River and began pedaling.

My dad, an experienced RAGBRAI-er, signed us up with the “Siouxland Cyclists,” a Sioux City-based cycling group with camping arrangements in each overnight town on the weeklong, 444-mile route. This year’s edition was special: rumor had it that Lance Armstrong had taken a break after winning his seventh Tour de France to join RAGBRAI for a couple of days. Either France has nothing on Iowa, or Lance was ready for some less interesting scenery. Either way, we had Lance.

The Chase is On

I trained lightly that summer, although I wouldn’t discover just how inadequate my preparation had been until the second day — a 77-mile stretch that started in Ida Grove. If I needed inspiration, I found it in a 70-year-old farmer in his overalls who passed me while churning up a hill on his rickety mountain bike. After a day of 30 mile per hour headwinds and a series of climbs that broke both records and spirits, my dad and I struggled through the last 21-mile stretch from Manning to Audubon. When we arrived, I collapsed in front of our tent and thought about the progress we had made in the first two days while staring up at a 30-foot tall, 45-ton concrete bull. “Gotta love Iowa,” I heard my dad say.

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