PHOTOS: Rains dampen RAGBRAI morning run

Steady morning rains chilled thousands of RAGBRAI riders as they rolled through southern Buchanan County on Friday morning.

“It sucks, but we are making the best of the situation,” said Lynn Schwartz of Greenfield, Iowa, on his eighth RAGBRAI with the 16-member Team Pez.

“It's cold and the raindrops sting when they hit you at 18 mph,” said Schwartz , who was drying off with his teammates in a shelter house next to the Wapsipinicon River.

“Your cell phone is wet. Your money is wet. And you have to be a lot more focused on the highway when it's raining,” he said.

Schwartz said a bicycle can easily hydroplane and lose traction when it goes through puddles on the road.

At midmorning in Quasqueton,  cyclists stood in every doorway and under every tent and awning, trying to get out of the rain.

The Quasqueton Area Historical Society museum entertained a stready stream of visitors who may have been as interested in relief from the rain as in the history of the Buchanan County town founded in 1842.

At least a dozen food vendors were set up on the main streets of Quasqueton, which is the designated meeting town on Friday's 62-mile route.

A sprawling food stand operated by the town's nonprofit organizations was getting compliments for its bacon-lettuce and tomato wraps and its hundreds of homemade pies.

Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Wolfgram, who was directing traffic at the bridge, said he had 13 deputies, supplemented by seven state troopers, directing traffic at intersections along the route.

KCRG-TV's John Campbell pedaled through Quasqueton at 9:09 a.m., en route to Winthrop and on to Manchester for the last overnight stop on Ragbrai XXXVIII.

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