Author: bbcbike

BBC Summer Picnic

BBCers gathered for the second annual BBC summer picnic at the Lions Den at Cascade Park. The weather was hot, but the food was good. As usual some key people were out of town for vacation. But there was a really nice mix of people who did come.

President Keith Vogelsang took this opportunity to recognize many of the volunteer leaders who helped to make RAIN a success this year. Many, many club members and friends and family members pitched in to prepare registration packets, to run registration In Terre Haute, to run rest stops all along Highway 40, and to run the finish line at Earlham College in Richmond.

Keith recognized RAIN committee chair Mark Villanova and Jim Schroeder, RAIN route mapper, who had to miss the picnic. He gave special mention to the following: Jennifer Miers, who ran registration; John Connell, who was in charge of the finish line; Keith and his family, who serviced the rest stops, driving a truck across the state, getting to the finish just ahead of the lead pack; and Klaus Rothe, who took over 900 photos documenting the event from beginning to end. All received a round of applause from club members.

Good Job, BBC!

By Kathy Cummins
I successfully completed my first RAIN ride because of the experience of fellow rider CE Taylor and the strong day experienced by second-timer Ken Dau-Schmidt. CE has already posted a report for our group — to his report, I would add another HUGE thank you to his and Ken’s wives, Letha and Betsy, for their hard work in our support vehicle. Their attention to our needs was amazing and speedy. I just had to express a wish and it was immediately fulfilled. Near the end, as I was saying “ow, ow, ow” every time we had to restart after a stop light, because the legs hurt, Letha and Betsy were also near the end of their ropes after a very long and busy day for them. Thank you so much!
A very fun part of the ride was seeing the BBC volunteers at every rest stop. All of them were working hard while being cheerful and helpful. Thanks to all who helped make RAIN a marvelous club event, especially Mark, Keith, and the committee leaders. You did an exceptional job as we moved to our new all-volunteer format for the ride.
As someone who finished near the end of the official day, I would also like to thank those finish-line volunteers who stayed well after the end of the ride to greet the late finishers. If I had been one of those who arrived after 9:00 pm, I would have been extremely happy to still have been greeted with my medal and an appreciative reception from someone at the finish line of my long day and accomplishment.
As much as I would love to ride RAIN every year now, I think I will take my turn next year as a volunteer. It is worth it, and also something to be proud of as a BBC member.

A RAIN Rider Says “Thanks”

Submitted by John Bassett

Many thanks during last Saturday’s RAIN ride to:
  • Dan Hickey for his bucket of ice
  • Clair Murphy for encouragement at lunch
  • The Gruppettos (see their Blog post) for the GU and fantastic late afternoon tow
I could not have done it without you.

I was standing in line at the Dairy Queen a short distance back down from the street from the RAIN finish line.  I was primed to order a chocolate milk shake, my favorite post-ride treat..  Having yet to change out of my salt-stained Spandex, I was an easily-identified cyclist.  A local Richmond rider struck up a conversation.  It was about 9:30 PM, the official end of the ride, and nearing darkness.  My friend had finished hours before.  As we exchanged our observations about the day’s ride, we began to note the steady stream of eastbound bicycle headlights passing by on US 40 behind us.  Some were single lights – some were in groups of two or three.  Some had PSVs tailing them with their hazard lights flashing.  We knew that each bike had a rider who had started the day in Terra Haute 163 miles away.  Each rider was bound and determined to make that finish line a few blocks away.  And, we thought, there would not be much of a celebration left for them.  

So, it was rather spontaneous on my friend’s part – to each passing light he would yell:

“Great job. You’re almost there.  Not this traffic light, but the next one.  Turn right and you’re there.  You did it!”

Most yelled back, some just groaned, some were too spent to say anything.  But, I think all appreciated that small acknowledgement of their personal effort.

I’d say few of our fellow Dairy Queen patrons had any idea what that yelling was all about.  But, kudos to the RAIN finish line staff for passing out those late medals.

RAIN from the Inside…of a Very Big Truck

By Keith Vogelsang

As the registration numbers continued to climb, I became increasingly anxious about the job of provisioning all the rest stops along the way. I had lots of help shopping for food from Klaus Rothe and my two boys, Mac and Ethan. This was the first year using our new large-capacity, high-volume watering system (the four big tanks seen below). RAIN Committee Chair Mark Villanova and I had completed a full-capacity wet test the month before, using our largest (225 gallon) water tank, and determined that the engineering was fast, safe, and clean.

 I wasn’t quite sure how I would get everything into one truck, and I almost didn’t! But my wife, Kim, and the boys all pitched in to make it happen, and by late Friday evening, the boys and I had arrived at the first rest stop to begin setting up for the next morning. I couldn’t sleep that night; as I was still unsure that I could get it all set up in time. The boys and I started out around 5:00AM to get 225 gallons of ice cold water into position. Mac set up the food table, while Ethan and I filled up across the road at the Marathon station. This is the same site south of Greencastle that we’ve used for some of our club’s century rides. The owner there loves bicyclists, and goes out of his way every year to make sure we have what we need in terms of ice and water.

Ethan filling up one of the transport tanks.

Unfortunately, I miscalculated on the elevation to get the water transferred from the truck. The system was designed to be gravity flow all around, but I could have used another three or four inches of rise from the truck down to the tank stationed on the ground and a better transfer hose to prevent kinks. Fortunately, a PSV driver named Frank, along with Vince Caristo and Doug Steury from the city of Bloomington arrived just in time to form a bucket brigade to get the water transferred and iced down. Thanks guys—you saved the day!

  Here’s a shot of one of the smaller tanks in action at the Plainfield stop. Mark Villanova, Amy Cornell, Kim Vogelsang, Ellie Dahlgren, Grayson McKim, Mac and Ethan (and Pongo) staffed this stop. I’m grateful for their Nascar-level speed at getting the truck unloaded and the tables set up. We’ve received lots of great feedback about this stop, too.

Pongo

The first stop along U.S. 231/40 and this year’s new Greenfield water stop were the only stops where water had to be trucked in. The other stops were simpler, as we could just fill up with our new drinking-water approved hoses. Dan Hickey, Clair Murphy, and Matt Hoffman from Indy met me at the Franklin Middle School lunch stop. And they moved like a military operation to get the lunch snacks and water stop set up. Jill and Christina Beyerl answered our call for volunteers, and helped Jim Schroeder and Sylvia Stroub at the Greenfield stop. As a new stop, we weren’t sure how it would work; the help we received here from the Beyerls was crucial. My thanks to all of you! By that time of the day, Jim and I were both running very late, so the extra hands were very much appreciated.

I finally made it to Richmond just minutes ahead of the lead pack. Jim Schroeder coordinated this year’s route for the RAIN committee, and his extra few miles gave me the edge I needed. Susan Bassett (in the red visor) was one of the many heroes at the finish line, helping to process riders. We’ve received rave reviews about “that nice woman at the finish line” cheering everybody on. Yep, that was Susan! John Connell coordinated this year’s finish line, and set up a new system that worked brilliantly for keeping finishers organized. We’re especially grateful to all the nice folks at Earlham who provided technical support and helped keep the food and drinks flowing.

There are so many great folks who stepped up to help—it was really gratifying to witness first-hand what we were capable of as a club. Obviously, the ride is an enormously complex logistical and technical operation. It’s not easy to get 1600 endurance athletes safely from point A to point B, when those two points are separated by such a vast distance! But I’m proud of the work the new RAIN committee put into the event, and I know we’ll make even more improvements next year as we get valuable feedback from our riders.