Two more days of RAGBRAI

The week-long party in motion in Iowa will wrap up in a few days. There aren't many blogs covering RAGBRAI -- I guess the participants are too busy actually riding and partying instead of spending time on the 'Net. Mike Eberts from Los Angeles reports that finding an Internet connection in the middle of northern Iowa can be a challenge.

Matt's RAGBRAI blog has pretty good photos from the ride. He apparently posts from an Internet tent provided for RAGBRAI riders. He writes about the Tubador, "the worst storm they'd ever seen on RAGBRAI," his encounter with Abraham Lincoln, camping, and ride preparations.

Ed Abbey in Iowa gives one of the better descriptions of the whole RAGBRAI experience.

"Riding, pancakes, more riding, punctuated by frequent stops for food and water, more riding, bicycling nudist sighting, more riding and finally pulling into the overnight town, spandex busting spaghetti dinners, carbohydrate induced comas, more walking around town, more fun and libations, sleep of the dead, and repeat."

Media coverage isn't exactly at the level of OLN and Phil Ligget, but Iowa papers are all over RAGBRAI. Of course, we also have the curmudgeonly musings from Iowa columnists who grumble that bikers belong on trails instead of "highways built for cars and trucks." Most papers, though, are small town papers that cover local sports, grain futures, and local human interest so 10,000 cyclists from around the world coming through town is a pretty big deal.

Tags: cycling ragbrai