(Elk Horn) RAGBRAI riders are battling the heat today on Day 2. Iowa State Patrol Trooper and Public Information Officer Ryan DeVault says Sunday was definitely a struggle when it came to heat-related calls to the emergency medical team, which is the CARE Ambulance team that travels with the river-to-river event.
Those who call it quits during the route are instructed to park their bicycles upside down alongside the left shoulder of the roadway for the RAGBRAI Sag System to pick them up. DeVault says these are 15-passenger vans that haul fifteen bikes on the back and haul the people to the overnight town.
DeVault says there were many of these cases yesterday, so an emergency backup plan was implemented called a “Super Sag.” He says local school districts partnering with RAGBRAI send their drivers out to these communities where they pick up these heat-exhausted participants. They load their bicycles into a 63-foot semi-trailer, and the school buses transfer the riders to the overnight town to get them off the road.
Today they’ll bike from Harlan onto Elk Horn, then Exira, and ending in Guthrie Center. The day racks up just over 56 miles, almost 56-hundred feet of climb, and two opportunities to ride on gravel. This year’s route spans 391.5 miles from Onawa to Dubuque over seven days, featuring Iowa’s small towns, 16,027 feet of climbing, and optional loops for extra challenges.
