In Which I Do Not Feel Lucky

From Des Moines Register, their map of 2021 RAGBRAI.

“You've Got To Ask Yourself One Question: 'Do I Feel Lucky? ' Well, Do Ya, Punk?”

Hello, internet, it’s been a while. It’s me, CR Biker, a committed bicycle rider who has not been in the saddle for weeks.

Side eye glance at grey, windy arctic day out window.

The weather app on my smartphone says it’s 1 degree below zero—for you non-USA Celsius users, that would be minus 18—at 1:25 p.m. If the sun can break through, we may reach 0 today, still rounds to -18 in the UK and the rest of the metric globe.

Our high temperature is not expected to break zero Fahrenheit until Tuesday. We’ll see some lows in the teens below zero, and I don’t mean wind chill, I just mean chill chill.

RAGBRAI 2019--riding into Chariton, greeted by the "coolnicorn." We needed it that hot July day. We don't need it today!

When I was a wee biker of 60 or so, I sometime would ride at temperatures close to 0 (again, Iowa zero, which is way, way below what some of you think of as zero) if there was no wind and the pavement was good. I would dress in layers and have at it.

I think my event horizon is shifting. As my body ages, I am much more sensitive to cold, which seems strange to me as I seem to be accumulating more natural insulation. Whatever. I might still ride a bicycle today on a day in the teens—above zero—with my winter layers on. It will be a while before it gets that warm here.

And I would ride only if pavement allows, and one complication of this extraordinary February in Iowa is that pavement does not allow. We’ve had frequent snow—are way above average in seasonal totals. We have a snowpack that’s starting to be measurable in feet. Recent snows have been at very low temperatures, which means the stuff blows around fiercely but at least does not pile up.

But those dustings fall on streets that are in terrible shape for riding. Main roads and well cleared sidewalks are OK, but the quiet residential streets I ride on are not passable for me, even on my mountain bike. The slick white ice shows no signs of abating and won’t until sunshine and temps near the melting point of water creep into the picture.

So, there you have it. An enforced biking pause, caused by the snow cops. I will ride in cold, although maybe not as extreme a cold as we are having now—but not on an all-snow route.

Sunrise on the road, the day in 2019 we rode to Fairfield.

Let’s look ahead. RAGBRAI has announced for 2021, and is mostly using the 2020 ride route that was not used last year.

And I do not think I will be there. I want to be, but I don’t yet feel that it is time.

Last year, I recall posting about remote, alone riding, and someone in the Social Distance Bike Club said that we would all be riding together in summer. I was posting in spring 2020, and he meant summer 2020, and even at the time, I thought “I don’t think so.”

Ten thousand bikers from all over the world gathering in Iowa—it’s a wonderful thing. When a pandemic is not raging.

Yes, I know, there are vaccines now. My wife has been vaccinated. I have not. I don’t know when I will be. And I don’t feel like paying a registration fee for a bike trip that I do love, but do not want to get sick for.

RAGBRAI, I wish you well. I also wish I could be there. But 2021 seems too soon, to me. Small towns in Iowa will be the last places inoculated, and some “Iowa nice” people are too not-nice to take a shot for the team.

I do want to be around other bikers again. Just not until it’s safe. Maybe it will be safe by July 2021—I hope so. Still, in the dark cold of February, I don’t find myself able to convince myself that’s yet a safe bet. This biking punk just does not feel lucky.