RAIN '99: #13

by Dave Tanner

The 13th annual Ride Across INdiana was a break from the traditions of recent years. Sanity prevailed! Absent was the unsafe behavior so prevalent among the lead group and their crew vehicles. Last year, Director Kent McPherson came down hard with his Big Truck on crew vehicles that were blocking traffic in the left lane while handing bottles to their riders. This year not a single moving hand-up was observed and the left lane was always clear. Gone were the "behind-the-seat" bottle cages, so popular with triathletes but so dangerous in a pack--hit a bump and watch the bottle pop out, causing mass confusion in its wake as it rolls down the road among 50 scrambling bikes. Although the lead group still rolled through a few red lights, they did so only when no cars were in sight, and they always stopped at the busy intersections. This new concern for safety may be attributed to the death of Bob Jordan earlier in the summer, or it could be that the previous offenders didn't show up this year.

Even the early pace was more reasonable than previous years, and at times was down right pedestrian. It took 4:34 to cover the first century, compared to 4:09 two years ago. Despite cool temperatures, nobody seemed too anxious to work hard all the way across the state, possibly due to the absence of any help from the wind, which was from the north most of the day.

A new feature at the finish this year was a complete lunch (or dinner) menu. Kent has done a marvelous job with RAIN, making changes each year to improve the event. The Club owes him a huge debt of gratitude for his efforts.

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A Brief History of RAIN

In the absence of Dave Gerbig on RAIN '99, his brother Steve and I are now the only people to do all 13 RAINs. It's appropriate, therefore, for me to put into writing a brief history of the event. The original RAIN was a glorified Saturday "drive and ride" on the July club calendar. Nick Gerlich got the idea from other across-state rides in the Midwest. Fifteen people drove up from Bloomington (and Evansville) to spend Friday night camped on the front lawn of the Tanner homestead north of Danville, Illinois. The ride started at the state line north of Danville and followed Indiana 28 straight across the state to Union City on the Ohio border. It was a true club ride as we stopped together at gas stations for refreshments. The emphasis was not on speed. In fact, Nick, Becky, and I stopped in a restaurant 15 miles from Ohio for a burger! It took nine hours and 33 minutes to cross the state. The one cloud on the day was Al Abbott's broken collar bone, the result of a pace line fall.

Nick opened the event to non-club members in 1988 and the race was on! We had somewhere between 50 and 100 riders with a sag stop half way. The pace lines were much faster (seven hours for 154 miles), but the atmosphere was still friendly. The closest hotel for check-in was the Holiday Inn in Danville. RAIN has outlived this hotel. It was demolished last spring!

Nick moved the start to Terre Haute in 1989 to solve the hotel problem and to use roads that could better accommodate the larger field the event was now attracting. The '89 route was determined to be 162 miles, and despite minor course changes over the years, it's still approximately 162 miles. The route south of Indy has changed almost every year. In '89 we stayed on back roads all the way to Knightstown. The next year it was modified to rejoin US40 at the Marion County line, which corresponded to the 100 mile mark. The last two years Kent has made some excellent changes in order to bypass Greenfield, adding a few miles to the route. The original finish in Richmond was at a gas station on US40 within sight of the state line. The following year it was wisely moved to Ahaus Tool. In subsequent years a less congested route was plotted through Richmond.

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A summary of highlights over the years would have to include 1990, the year of the Big Rain. A persistent shower followed us all the way across the state. I crashed once, had two flat tires, and was forced to wait in the ditch until someone came by with another tube. It rained again in '93, with a strong head wind in the afternoon. It was unbearably hot in '97 and so was the pace, with several people crossing in under seven hours. We have yet to have the killer tail wind Nick dreamed about when he started the event in '87.

I don't have the exact numbers but registration reached into the 600 range in the mid '90s before backing off in recent years. RAIN99 had around 400 participants. Logistics have always been difficult for this event because you need someone to take you home after crossing the state. A few ambitious individuals have tried to ride both directions, but it makes for a long weekend!

Listed below are the 13 editions of RAIN with my best guess of the mileage. We need to be extremely grateful to the many people who have worked so hard to keep this event going for so long. Besides Nick and Kent, the other people I believe have served as directors include Renee Despres and Al Abbott. If anyone has more to add to this history please let me know.

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