Bike ride changes through the years

RAGBRAI’s changed a bit in 31 years, according to a veteran rider. Jon Cook says he’s been on 28 of the cross-Iowa bike trips. He says used to be that nobody rode with helmets, they just wore cutoff jeans and tennis shoes but today he says probably 99-percent ride with helmets today, most have biking shoes and a lot wear jerseys because they cooler than the old t-shirts. He started around fifteen or 20 years and just jumped on the bike and “went flying down the highway” but with today’s talk of taking care of your knees, he remembers to take hills in a lower pedaling gear, for example. Cook also says it takes him a lot longer to complete each day’s leg of the ride, but it’s not age slowing down the experienced riders. Early days he’d get in by ten A.M., but now it’s more fun to stop and chat, making the trip a meeting time instead of a quest for how fast they can arrive. A gentlemen in his biking club had heat-exhaustion problems the first day, dehydrated and hot. After a day of doctor-ordered rest, though, the teammate is back on the road. The riders leave Oskaloosa today (Thursday) for Bloomfield. They go from Oskaloosa to Bloomfield, a 67-mile day compared with Wednesday’s 76-mile leg, and he figures the hills will be gentler till Saturday when they ride along the river. For daily route maps, surf to http://www.ragbrai.org/daily-maps.html