In Which Little Sis Hopes to Ride It All

My sister riding her trike north of Urbana on July 13, 2023. We rode 100 miles together that day, in training for RAGBRAI 2023.

As I noted on another of my blogs, my life recently underwent radical change. On Dec. 18 last year, I rode 11 miles on my bike, but had an appointment with a heart doctor the next day that put a temporary end to my two-wheeled life.

Only a temporary end, knock on wood. I’m growing stronger day-by-day following a Jan. 10 heart bypass operation, and am fully convinced I’ll be rolling across the planet again soon, although I don’t know exactly when. Will I ride some part of RAGBRAI this summer? Plans are for a very pretty, attractive, not too hilly northern route, and north Iowa is (I can give them credit as a man who has lived primarily in the middle of the state) the prettiest part of Iowa.

It should be a great year for RAGBRAI. If you ever considered it, this may be the year to join it.

From RAGBRAI.com, their announcement of the 2025 overnight towns. Details will be coming later, but if you ever thought of riding RAGBRAI, this looks to be a good year to experience that.

I am not sure, however, that it will be my year. I can’t begin training yet, since my broken breastbone where they split me apart to fix my heart will take some time to mend enough so I have full use of my arms again and can bike. And when I do start riding, I think it will be like beginning all over again. Plus, I’m on all kinds of blood thinners and need to take special care to avoid any traumatic injuries when I can bleed out so easily.

That sounds like whining. Honestly, I am grateful. They caught the heart problem before anything terrible happened, and the fix in my pump should last for decades—it’s what I needed to get me back on track, so I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about the route I’m on.

I am sure it will lead me back to biking soon enough.

Team Joe during some 2024 rides. In Solon, above, and Des Moines, below.

Meanwhile, the first few times I rode RAGBRAI, I had a particular ambition. I rode every mile (excluding, back in those days, the century loop, which I did start riding later). Before my third RAGBRAI ride, when two of my sisters and a brother-in-law formed “Team Joe” to institutionalize the family RAGBRAI ride, my RAGBRAI style changed, as we took turns driving a support vehicle.

But I didn’t mind riding 75 percent or so of a RAGBRAI. I had already proven I could do every mile.

I am now 66. My body was attacked—my heart surgeon noted that most medical doctors treat you, but surgeons assault you. Still, I have six sisters, two of them younger than me—and the next in line to me, who is two years younger than me, has the ambition this year—she thinks this is her chance, her most likely shot.

Riding with my sister on newly paved stretch of trail north of Brandon in all, 2024.

She rides a recumbent trike and wants her three wheels to cover every mile of RAGBRAI 2025. Well, good for her, and I hope I in no way jinx it by writing about it—I hope she achieves her goal.

There is something special about a RAGBRAI where you click in at mile one and keep rolling all the way to the Mississippi River.

Will I share in any of those rides with her? That’s not as clear. I may ride my own fake RAGBRAI again this year—ride a bunch of miles in RAGBRAI ’s honor but ride near my home. It’s up in the air what my status will be in terms of how trained I am, and how comfortable I am being farther from home base.

But this should be her year. May she acheive her ambition. And here’s hoping I can rejoin the rolling herd soon—and I fully expect to. I’ll let you know when you might see me again on two wheels!

Meanwhile, be careful of those crazy trikers out there. One of them is training to check off a big point on her bucket list.

Leaving Sioux City in scrum of walkers on first day of RAGBRAI, 2023. My sister rolling slowly with the walkers, on her trike.