Looks a lot like Trans Iowa V2. It also felt alot like T.I.V2! 43 degrees and 25 mph winds with gusts up to 40mph!
This was the campground scene. The "team" busses from the sponsoring teams of the R.A.S.H. Ride are lined up with no activity visible. The campground had about half a dozen tents where they had expected several hundred.
Well, cold, wet, and windy about sums up the 4th annual R.A.S.H. Ride. This is an event for seriously recreational cyclists that use their bicycles as a means to get from bar to bar. I usually do the ride support from the start and then move on up the route to a few of the other bar stops. This year, when I got to the start area I was told to hold off setting up, as the promoter was not expecting much of a turn out. That stuck a fork in things for me, as the start is traditionally where I get the best tip money. Not that I expected anyone to show up either!
In the end, about 80 people took the start and made their way down the road. I actually went up the road and set up at the first town out, but did not get any action at all. Not good. I was coming up on four hours of standing around in sub 50 degree weather, getting rained on intermittently, and chafing my cold, blue hands. No tip money made things even worse. I packed it in after sitting in Jesup, which was the second town out, for about half an hour with hardly any cyclists coming through. Last year, I was busy repairing several bikes at the same time, at the same spot. I wasn't about to waste anymore of my time.
Last year 500 people were on this ride and I did really well. This year, much like T.I.V2, the weather kicked me to the curb. No tip money and cold to the bone. I can't remember a June day in my life being this cold in Iowa, or having as much Esat wind as we have had all this year. Simply incredible!
Oh well. At least there's next year!
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