RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa), which has been described as a ‘Mardi Gras on wheels’, will really come of age in 2006 when Lance Armstrong will spend 3 days riding with the weekend warriors, bike to work specialists and cycling enthusiasts from around the state of Iowa and far beyond. We’ve mentioned RAGBRAI before in earlier editions of ‘Well’ in the Fall 2003 article, ‘Obesity: the Tipping Point’ and in the ‘Fitnet’ compilation in Summer 2004.

RAGBRAI began almost as a joke by two reporters from the Des Moines Register, but with the enthusiasm of people like Tim Lane and many others it has grown into an extraordinary week long cycling celebration with 10,000 riders drawn by lottery. As Iowa has shown us before in ‘Field of Dreams’, “If you build it he will come.”

Tim Lane writes:

Now that he doesn't have to ride in France every summer, Lance Armstrong will be opting for a leisurely ride in Iowa. So rather than Fromentine, Chambord, Grenoble, Pau, and Paris, Lance will be touring Newton, Sully, Ladora, Montezuma and Marengo. Last year he conquered the Alps, this year it will be the humidity and let’s hope not Montezuma’s revenge.

Instead of focusing on teams like T-Mobile, Phonak and CSC, this year Lance will need to deal with Team Skunk, Team Pharfrumpuken, and Team Bare Naked. In 2005 he shared the road with over a hundred riders and thousands of spectators. This year there will be thousands of riders and hundreds of folks along the road. Last year he was on an engineered diet, this year it will be pork chops, ice cream, pie and possibly the occasional beverage. We are willing to bet that on the day he rides there will also be about 9,000 yellow jerseys on the course. It should be fun.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation in Austin, Tex., has announced that Lance Armstrong will be spending several days in Iowa during RAGBRAI. The seven-time Tour winner and "world's greatest athlete" will be joining the world's largest and reportedly most fun-filled tour. In addition to riding, Lance will be visiting cancer survivors and lobbying politicians to make the fight against cancer a national priority and increase federal funding for cancer research.

For those of you unfamiliar with RAGBRAI think of the last day into Paris, with the race decided and the riders clowning around and drinking champagne. RAGBRAI consists of seven days of that.

Lipstick Man helps riders stay beautiful

For Lance, Iowa is the perfect storm that combines lots of candidates for political office, tons of cyclists, and the accompanying media attention. You can't swing a dead cat (or for that matter a live one) in Iowa without hitting someone running for president. It will be both fun and an opportunity for Lance to win a stage in his new race to beat cancer. On July 28th, the 34-year-old Armstrong will address a congressional hearing conducted by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin in Iowa City.

Note to animal lovers: NO CATS WERE SWUNG IN THE RESEARCH FOR THIS REPORT.

The only challenge will be keeping the crowds of spectators and wannabe riders down to manageable numbers, but those are the best sort of problems to deal with for a ride that is all about fun, fitness and taking part.

Note:

There is also a Bike Ride Across Nebraska (BRAN), which has a good acronym but attracts far fewer riders. Speaking of bran, I recently saw a cartoon of a man who had been given a speeding ticket, claiming that he was driving under the influence of bran.

For a very funny, tongue in cheek, irreverent description of RAGBRAI go to this link.