RAGBRAI Day -1

After a late night of packing and repacking my gear, I got up around 6:30 AM and by 7:30 or so I met up with Ben at his place to cruise up to Sioux City. We had initially planned on all riding in our trusty team van but space was a bit limited so Ben managed to talk his friend Matt into driving him, Julio and me up separately. We’ll see how things shake out for the ride home.

We arrived here in Sioux City around 10:00 AM. The ride was pretty uneventful. The soundtrack was provided by Julio’s iPhone but due to a lack of proper connecting cables, we were forced to listen to it via the iPhone’s built in high fidelity speakers. I opted for a nap and arrived relatively refreshed.

One of the more intriguing features of the RAGBRAI Expo (aside from the free Smash Mouth show of course) was the “World Tire Changing Championships”. I stumbled across this booth while exploring the Expo and decided to make a run for the rainbow jersey. Seeing as how I change a fair number of tires on a daily basis, I figured I’d have a valid shot. Going in I was told that the top 5 times would be called back for the finals. The top time was 1:20 and the fifth time was 1:40. I’d never timed myself but I was pretty sure I could come in sub 2:00 so I chipped in my $2 and gave it the ol’ college try.

So here’s how it works. You are given a wheel and a tube. The wheel must be laid on the ground and you cannot touch it until the timer says go. When the clock starts, you need to deflate the tube, remove the tire, remove the tube, install the new tube, install the tire, inflate the tube to 100psi and remove the pump head. One minute and twenty-five seconds later I was sitting second for the day and feeling pretty good about my speed tire changing skills.

At about 4:50 PM, I got a call from the “World Tire Changing Championship” folks telling me that I had 10 minutes to get back to the Expo for the “World Championships”. I mounted my bike and headed out as fast as I could only to show up at 5:02 PM, thirty seconds in to the finals. My bid for tire changing immortality was over. So, while I missed my opportunity for greatness, I can take solace that according to the folks at RAGBRAI, I’m one of the top five tire changers in the world. For being a final qualifier, I did get a consolation prize of a new(ish) Bontrager floor pump. I have no use for this seeing as how Greenstreet is a Specialized dealer and I already have a floor pump. So, if anyone is looking for a new floor pump, I'll be willing to trade this one for some good used bike parts.

The rest of the night should consist of trying to avoid the Smash Mouth show, playing euchre and killing five and a half cases of Lucky Bucket.

…oh RAGBRAI…