RAGBRAI Day 4

Cedar Falls today. Haven't seen Lance yet, I think he's avoiding the showdown. Won our only sprint today. Hey, I didn't start it. Some more good pace lining. We try to pick good lines to work with, or we go without.

I've started to count crashes. Between Bob and I, we've seen three minor crashes. Going slow through town or in a corner and bump ~ boom. At 1 mph. Seen three ambulances. But in all not bad for 15,000 semi-experienced? riders over 300 miles.

Bad karma today. Bob and I were working with two others and we passed another fast group. Their leader was squeezing over to get the draft and leaving me out in the wind. So I just squeezed in the spot that wasn't there. They didn't like that. No biggie, but we exchanged a few words. Bad behavior on both our parts.

Then my payback was a few guys we just got in with put the HAMMER down on a hill (or what passes for that around here). We didn't follow, they definitely dropped us. No doubt. The back guy waves bye at us from the hill top. But did I say payback? As with most of these RAGBRAI hot dogs, they like to play superstar racer. But if they were, we wouldn't have paced them back in within a mile and then left them behind. And we're certainly nothing but a couple of over-the-hill never-was wannabes.

Bottom line is: People are the best in IA. Nice to hit towns and be the biggest thing in 10 years. Great folks, big happening. Fun riding if you're cautious and constantly vigilant. And aren't we always?

I'll write this all up mo' betta once I get back.