Ragbrai day 3 July 24 2012
Lakeview to Webster City 81.2 Miles Today started early. No alarm clock needed as Logan shoved me out the door at about 5 am. Yesterday’s headwind had made a lot of riders rethink their morning. We packed in a rush and jumped on the bike and hit the road before the sun came up. It was surreal being on the road as early as we were with that amount of people. People were quiet or talking about their goals of making it to the meeting town at a reasonable time. The lights on the backs of bikes seemed to make the number of people a lot more noticeable. The red trail of flickering lights stretched out as far as you could see in front of you. Even at 5am. People are crazy… Today was steady. I seemed to fall into a daze as the sun got higher and the miles kept disappearing. Logan fashioned a cover to keep me out of the sun, which I was appreciative of. It also hindered me from sticking my head out and causing more drag so we seemed to make better time if I was napping under the makeshift awning. The Hills started to get gnarly after our meeting town, the first 50 miles of the day’s 80 seemed to fall off with little complaint. The heat was almost unbearable for some of the northerners but having done some miles in the Texas heat, both Logan and I managed to pull through. The last section of the day brought on some of the shittier wind conditions with the stretch into Dayton made possible by drafting as much as possible. Big thanks to anyone who pulled us along on the way! We made our amazing right turn out of the wind and rode into the river valley ending with some gnarly climbs out of Lehigh and into Webster city. More amazing 80’s 90’s rock cover bands to entertain a town full of slightly exhausted fun seeking cyclists. Things got loose but we were in the tent and fast asleep with the masses by about 11 oclock. Thankfully Logan put the tent directly under a lovely fluorescent streetlamp that seemed like a bug zapper for drunken humans but without the usual end result. A rough night’s sleep set the tone for the next day.
