Prospect of 105-mile Day 4 RAGBRAI ride has some cyclists stressed

In a word, Melissa Carlson is “terrified.”

It’s Carlson’s first time on the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, and Wednesday is also the first time in 37 years that the ride has included a day of more than 100 miles for all riders.

For decades, the Century Day has been optional. Ride officials have added a loop off the main route that increases the mileage for diehard cyclists who wanted the extra challenge. They also got to collect the commemorative patch that ride co-founder John Karras would hand out for completing it.

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Karras, who with fellow founder Donald Kaul hatched the idea for RAGBRAI by riding 125 miles in a single day from Des Moines to Iowa City in 1971, died last year at age 91. RAGBRAI, under new Director Matt Phippen, decided to restore the Century Day to the main ride in his honor.

So this year, the only option for riders like Carlson who aren’t sure they can ride the full 105 miles from Emmetsburg to Mason City is to get a lift on one of the ride's SAG (support-and-gear) wagons. Or, if the service is available to them, they can jump on their team bus the meeting town, Britt, 57 miles from Emmetsburg.

Carlson said her goal is to finish. She’s never biked 100 miles in a day, but she plans to leave around 4 a.m. with her team from Fort Collins, Colorado, to get in as much mileage as she can before the day heats up.

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Riders will have until 7 p.m. to complete the route — an hour later than usual. If they  ride after that, the Iowa State Patrol won't be managing the route and the SAG wagons will be parked for the night.

“We’re definitely going to stop a lot,” Carlson said. “We might be at 13 hours.”

Her teammate Rachel Kiemele said she’s looking forward to it, but there was a part of her that said, “Oh, no,” when she found out after already registering that the Century Day wasn’t optional. So far, Kiemele’s longest day ever on a bike was during RAGBRAI on Monday from Ida Grove to Pocahontas, a 71.2-mile trek.

“We’re just going to take it slow and steady and we’ll do our best,” she said. “That’s all we can do.”

Weather expected to be nearly perfect for 105-mile ride

Fortunately for the riders, conditions are expected to be near ideal, with temperatures peaking in the low 80s and winds generally out of the southwest, helping push the eastbound crowd along.

RAGBRAI Senior Marketing Director Anne Lawrie said there will be five SAG wagons on the route, one more than usual. If needed, RAGBRAI can call in “Super SAGs” — are semi-trailers to haul bikes — and dispatch school buses to pick up riders, Lawrie said.

Riders can signal for a SAG wagon by turning their bike upside down on the left side of the road or by going to the designated SAG wagon pickup point in Britt.

Tonia Richter of Illinois is riding a tandem bike and said her partner probably won’t let her SAG, “but it’s a dream I have.” Monday was her personal best, and she hasn’t ridden 100 miles yet.

“We’ve talked about it,” she said. “At 50 miles, we’ll see how I feel.”

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Tara Pettit of Urbandale doesn’t anticipate needing a SAG wagon. She’s done a few 100-mile rides and is glad Wednesday's should be relatively flat – despite the distance, it has the third-least elevation gain of the week, at 1,669 feet.

She’s happy the SAG option is there, but expects to finish "as long as we don’t have any accidents or flat tires,” she said.

Father-daughter duo Andrew and Sophie Boxall of Brisbane, Australia, said they would have liked for Century Day to be optional. The pair hasn’t done a 100-mile ride before — about 161 kilometers in their home country's metric system — and they know a few families on their tour with Bicyclists of Iowa City who will have to arrange care for their children, who are riding but won’t be able to complete 105 miles.

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Still, Andrew Boxall was confident.

“I think logistically it might be more of a challenge for some people, but we theoretically should be OK,” he said.

For many team members, buses will wait at meeting town

Rumor had it that some teams would transport riders from Emmetsburg to a pass-through town like Algona, cutting about 25 miles off the ride, but none of several teams the Des Moines Register contacted would confirm such plans. Some bus drivers said that wouldn’t be possible, anyway.

Randy Tinker, who drives for team This is the Wrong Bus, said it’s “scary” to drive off or along the route since “there are riders everywhere.

“For the 100-mile day, our plan is just to meet at the meeting town,” he said. “Other than that, it’s hard to get to the route and not drive along it.”

Still, Team Mate owner Rich Kreitzinger said he might try to find a town off-route if riders need to stop even earlier than Britt.

“Some of the people are thinking they might not even ride the first 50 miles. They might stop early,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out if we’re going to stop somewhere earlier to pick them up there.”

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Sop-N-Wet cyclist Amanda Bell, fiancé of the team owner, said the bus will pick up anyone who can’t or doesn’t want to finish the ride when they reach Britt.

“If people don’t have a way to get there and they’re exhausted and they’re tired, we’ll take them to Mason City,” she said.

For those still on their feet after the long day, a treat awaits there. Mason City wowed riders during its last stint as an overnight town in 2014, presenting a show starring Poison lead singer Bret Michaels. It's out to top itself this time with a double bill of former Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder and '90 pop-rock chart-toppers Sugar Ray.

Sarah LeBlanc covers the western suburbs for the Register. Reach her at 515-284-8161 or sleblanc@registermedia.com. Follower her on Twitter at @sarahkayleblanc

Philip Joens covers public safety, city government and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-443-3347 at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens. 

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: RAGBRAI riders face challenge as Century Day returns after 37 years