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Bike trek concludes in Muscatine

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By Cynthia Beaudette | Monday, July 31, 2006 | No comments posted

MUSCATINE, Iowa — A cascade of color and a cacophony of happy voices whipped through the intersection of West 3rd Street and Iowa Avenue in Muscatine on Saturday morning.

At least 10,000 cyclists from all over the nation completed the 34th annual Des Moines Register’s Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, or RAGBRAI, after traveling nearly 50 miles from Coralville.

It was the fifth time that the popular state bike ride has finished its route in Muscatine.

Muscatine police Lt. Phil Sargent said the stream of helmeted cyclists peaked about 9:30 a.m. and continued steadily through 1:30 p.m., with a trickle of early and late risers sealing up both ends of the day.

Law enforcement officials negotiated the constant mingling of people, bicycles and cars until about 3 p.m.

A stretch of 11 bicycle repair shop trucks, including Harper’s Cycling and Fitness of Muscatine, lined the riverfront side of Mississippi Avenue, ready to provide maintenance and repairs.

Dave Huff of Bikes To You out of Grinnell, set up shop at 3 a.m.

“We spend all week on the ride,” he said about 7 a.m. “Vendors pay a fee to come along as a traveling store.”

Huff said he’d been averaging about five hours of sleep a night and was ready to see the ride end.

Husband and wife Kari Holth, 38, and Richard Varn, 48, of Des Moines, were among the first RAGBRAI riders to hit the Muscatine riverfront. The couple left Coralville at 5:10 a.m. and arrived at the Mississippi River dipping point next to Pearl City Station about 7 a.m.

“I like to get in early,” Varn said. “And I wanted to get my wife in as the first woman to finish.”

Holth said greeters at the landing point told her she was the first woman they had seen who had finished the entire route. But her biggest thrill was zipping past a young man wearing a Marine jersey.

“He said, ‘Hello, how ya doing’ and I said, ‘Fine’ and zoomed right past him,” Holth said.

Jack Sebben, 63, Sacramento, Calif., left Coralville about 5 a.m. and hit the riverfront about 7:30 a.m. The native Iowan said he left Centerville in 1968 but enjoys returning to Iowa for RAGBRAI.

“Nine times out of 10, the people I meet riding RAGBRAI have some connection to Iowa,” he said. “They grew up here or they’re with someone who did.”

Sebben said RAGBRAI gives him a unique opportunity to see more of his home state.

“Growing up in Iowa, there’s hundreds of little towns you’ve heard about, but have never seen,” he said.

Sebbens said he was impressed by the early morning greeting he received.

“There were a lot of people sitting out on their lawns greeting us when we rolled by around 7:15 a.m.,” he said.

Cynthia Beaudette can be contacted at (563) 263-2331, Ext. 323 or Cynthia.Beaudette@muscatinejournal.com.