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BRAN-25

Bike ride across Nebraska

Riding a bike across a state is a something that the average person would find rather stupid, or at least too difficult to acomplish. To the average biker its something that they probably have always wanted to do, at least for me it was. This June I got the chance in the way of BRAN, the bike ride across Nebraska.

First off let me explain how this works. You get a lift across the state in the form of a bus ride. Your bike rides in a big truck of some sort. You carry basic camping gear and at the end of each day you camp, along with the other umpteen thousand people on the ride. Each morning you deposit your gear in the big truck and it gets a ride to the next stop, while you ride along behind it.

BRAN was 520 something total miles this year. Let me go ahead and tell you how I handled the distance.

The sceneary was breathtaking at times.

Day 1: 70 something miles, had a great ride, just a little butt pain, Rode from Kimball to Bridgeport. Easily the most scenic day, lots of climbing, but the hills were long and not steep. Rode through Scotts Bluff and Chimney Rock.

Day2: 108 miles. had the worst ride of my life. Lots of headwind, nothing to block it. Some climbing. My butt hurt right from the start. Tried to keep up with some fast women who dropped me like a lead ballon. About 60 miles in I bonked and just puttered along at 8 mph, was actually pased by girl bike guy, and hundreds of old woman. Got back to camp and thought I might be dead. Ride ended in the tiny town of Arthur

The view from atop Scotts Bluff

Day3: But hurt real bad so I rode with the Cajuns. It was super cool, no riding, just watching other people struggle in the headwind from the comfort of a van. Ride was 80 something miles and ended in Arnold.

Day4: 70 something miles from Arnold to Loup city. I Felt great, had a big tailwind. Rode pretty hard. Actually had fun. Seemed like were going down hill and passing people all day. Had little pain all day.

Day5: 70 something miles from Loup City to Auroua. At about 50 miles it started pouting down buckets of rain. Jake had a flat, an exploding kind, right before the rain started. Riders were getting of the road looking for places to hide but we soldiered on into the rain and eventual hail while lightning crashed down around us. A Sag wagon drove by yelling at us to seek shelter, of course he didn't notice that we were in a GIANT EMPTY FIELD. I got lucky and had a flat at 50 miles and a sag wagon picked me up.

Chimney Rock

Day6: 70 something miles to Brainard. It was raining, again, this morning, we didn't want to ride in the rain again. My bike had another flat. We intemidated a sag driver into hauling us to the next town. We may have been wusses but we were dry.

Day 7: 40 something miles to Waterloo. At this point it didnt' matter any more, JC picked us up and we got the hell out of Nebraska.

Allright here is the cast of characters from the ride.

Soft and Pudgy riding team.
Me, the only pudgy one.
JC, veteran bicycle tourer, rode me into the ground most every day
Jake, Only rides his recumbent on tours, no training, legs ocasionally lock up, but other then that he's SOLID

Girl bike guy, doubtless the toughest person on the ride

People I met along the ride.

Girl bike guy: This guy was riding an old Wal-Mart girl bike, his form was horrible, his waterbottle cages were held on by ductape. He was awesome, he rode a constant 8 mph unwavering in the harshest wind. When I was bonked out I rode with him.

THE CAJUNS: Friends of JC's from Louisiana. They rode a tandem recumbent. They were realy nice and gave me a ride in their van.

TEAM ANGRY: This was a pretty nice guy, just had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He had a hat and jersey that said TEAM ANGRY. He had little respect for recumbents, and just generally seemed to think he knew everything, but he was friendly, talkative and tried to help.

ROCK & ROLL KID: This guy was wild, he rode a super awesome 80s racing steel road bike. When I first rode up behind him he was shouting out the lyrics to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody so I gladly joined in. We say him several times and he was always friendly and funny.

ROCK & ROLL MAN: This guy was always in camp with a guitar and a notebook writing songs, he was playing THE BEATLES alot so I liked him.

BRAN NAZIL This woman was riding around and seemed to be constantly telling people what not to do. "Don't park there," "Wear your Helmet," "Get off the road," "Hide from the lightning," you get the picture.

General categories of riders.

Roadies: Riding their high dollar race bikes these guys would blow by in an aero tuck, you generally didn't seem them for very long. It's just a flash of a tacky bright colored jersey and they vanish. They had to get to the next town in time to add on some miles to get that century.

TOURISTS: These guys were riding a wide range of bikes, form recumbents to mountain bikes, usually had a big bag, and fenders. They move along at a good pace and usually are friendly and let you into their pace line. They just like to hang out for hours at each town.

Roadie wannabes: This is where I fit. we have nice racing bikes, and we can probably ride pretty good for a 20 miles or so, but lack of HARD CORE training make us crumble, yet we still try to hold on in pace lines and ride beyond our abilities, when will we learn?

BIKE RIDERS: These guys are solid, just ride along, at their own pace, they finish their rides.

KIDS: sometimes around 10-12 they ride around on miniture road bikes trying their best to stay with their older counterparts. They usually sway back and forth with every pedal stroke. It sucks when they pass you.

THE TERRAIN

Nebraska is flat, except for the parts that are not flat, like this one

Nebraska is mostly falt, except it is covered in hills? That doesn't make any sense, oh well. There isn't much in Nebraska, small towns here and there, and countless acres of grass in between. In many ways it was the most American place I have ever been.

When I saw American I don't mean millions of Flag stickers and "SUPPORT the TROOPS" magnets. I mean authentic American, like out of a Norman Rockwell painting. When you see someone in Western Nebraska with a cowboy hat and workclothes, it's most likely they are an actual ranchworker and not playing cowboy like the rednecks do around here. I didn't see welfare mothers leading around their swarm of children. I didn't see fat drunks wandering around with Looney Tune T-Shirts. The towns out west were usually only a few hundred people. There just didn't weren't enough people to carry the weight of a bunch of welfare bums, at least thats my opinion.

The people out west were very nice and went out of their way to accomodate us in their towns.

Jake attempts to make friends with some natives

THE FOOD:

I probably consumed 5000 or more calories a day. Each morning started out with breakfast. Various community oganzations cooked some realy nice meals. We seemd to always have pancakes. PANCAKES, I got so sick of eating pancakes. I remeber one morning I just set and looked at them, thinking I couldn't ram one more bloody pancake down my gullet.

For lunch we usually found a local restuarant, sometimes a civic group. I don't recomend RUNZA.

FOr supper the community groups would usually have several choices in the host town we rode to. Almost every night someone would have spaghetti, but there were lots of choices.

While riding its a good idea to take advantage of the sag stops and pick out some fruit or salty snacks.

CONCLUSION:

Riding across a state on a bike is kind of nuts but alot of fun, especially when you can get away with skipping a day or two. There is no better way to get an understanding of an area then riding a bike through it. (except maybe walking if you have a whole lot of time)

BRAN is a hard ride, and I wouldn't' recomend it for the beginer (like me) but if you have some miles and a tour under your belt it would be a good ride. Maybe the wind will blowing the right way and it won't storm.