Father-daughter duo to take on RAGBRAI

CEDAR RAPIDS - In prepping for the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, Kirsty Sanchez would bike to Ely or sometimes Center Point, but never farther than 50 miles.

Sunday, however, she'll bike a more than 60 miles. Monday, she'll go more - 71 miles. And so it will go until July 29, as she and 10,000 other riders make the annual RAGBRAI trek.

But this is something doable for Sanchez - even though she admits she should have trained a little more - because she'll be biking alongside her father, Angel.

Moving from South Carolina to Cedar Rapids in 2013, Kirsty Sanchez said she last saw her father two years ago. She's excited to make this journey with him.

'I was just telling him yesterday, I can't believe you're actually coming,” she said. 'Life happens. … I didn't expect him to be able to actually make it.”

But Angel Sanchez, 55, has been training for months, she said. He's even lost 35 pounds.

The decision to participate in RAGBRAI together came after Kirsty Sanchez said she was telling her dad about it over the phone last August. She had just made the decision to participate herself the month before.

'My dad used to be a big bike rider so I was telling him about RAGBRAI randomly,” she said.

Afterward, Angel Sanchez couldn't get the idea out of his head. So he called her up and posed the question: 'Hey, what if I did it with you?”

This will be a first for both of them.

She said that apart from the small towns and opportunity to immerse herself in Iowa culture, she's excited to be able to share the weeklong bike ride with her dad.

'I feel like it will be a huge memory for us to look back on,” she said. 'He's already talking about coming next year.”

The only concern Kirsty Sanchez has about riding with her dad, she said, is keeping up.

'He's way more trained than I am,” she said.

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