Another Day at Ragbrai
by Colin Wallis (LIVESTRONG Staff)
Greetings from Ames, Iowa, where Team LIVESTRONG has set up camp on Day 3 of RAGBRAI 2008! Yesterday proved to be a day to remember for the team and the rest of the riders. At about 2:30am, we were awakened in our tented village by the sound of a megaphone coming from a passing car broadcasting the following message: Violent weather is imminent! Please evacuate your tents and seek shelter immediately. Well, needless to say, hearing that message in a haze of exercise-induced sleep is more than a little disconcerting. The crew quickly did a tent check and made sure everyone relocated to the high school gym nearby. It was quite a scene probably 1000 cyclists all holed-up in a gym awaiting what looked to be an oncoming tornado and another super-cell thunderstorm. Once again, the weather gods were on our side as we escaped with a few broken tents and not much else.
A few hours later, the longest day of the week ensued. Riders had a choice of 80 or 100 mile routes to the next town of Jefferson. And as if the distance were not enough, there was over a mile of hill-climbing on a hot July day. Midway through the ride, we saw collateral damage of the tornado that missed us trees broken in half, structures completely uprooted, entire corn crops wiped out. Iowa can’t seem to catch a break this year with the weather it is a truly sad sight to see. Weather notwithstanding, our team completed the day in a blaze of glory! The massage therapists were busy and stayed until late in the night working on extremely tired legs.
Today we awoke to a beautiful morning. The LIVESTRONG bus joined our Team and we enjoyed a flat and fast ride into Ames where we were welcomed like heroes coming home. Our camp is just outside Iowa State University in a beautiful tree-lined park. Tonight is the big event of the week with the musical stylings of Styx ?¢?Ǩ?Äú should be another memorable one.
That’s all for now .more to follow.
