RAGBRAI 2012: Conservationists go bananas — $1.5K worth — on RAGBRAI

Tue, Jul 24, 2012 | by Josh Hafner

Lake City, Ia. – A volunteer group celebrates this week a decade of dishing out free bananas and postcards home to RAGBRAI riders, all in the name of conservation.

Their roadside tent moves day by day on the trail — west of Lake City today and east of McCallsburg tomorrow — but scores of cyclists count it among their daily must-stops for potassium and hospitality.

“Thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow,” said one Lycra-clad man as he grabbed a banana and hit the road.

The Iowa Conservation Team is a partnership of several Hawkeye groups including the Soil & Water Conservation Society and the Iowa Department of Agriculture. It’s traveled with RAGBRAI since 2002 and hands out about 13 cases, or $1,500 worth, of bananas each year.

So why should cyclists care about conservation?

“It’s important to any American, frankly,” said Alan Lauver, a volunteer who works for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

RAGBRAI riders pass through some of the state’s key agricultural communities, and the Iowa Conservation team posts signs along the way pointing out good practices, highlighting a waterway here or terrace there.

The team also leaves a table scattered with pens and postcards so riders can shoot a quick note home. Volunteers even cover postage.

Rebecca Belzer, a Wapello banker, wrote a note to her husband, son and daughter. They’re actually in Iowa acting as her support team this week, but Belzer wanted a ‘thank you’ to be waiting at home when they all arrived.

“My son wants to do this,” she said of her eight-year-old. “But he’s going to need some more years and practice.”

As cyclists scarfed down bananas and picked up their bikes, Alicia Rau, a trumpeter and cyclist from New York, played them off onto the next hill:

Bum budda buh-da– “Charge!”

– Josh Hafner / The Des Moines Register

2012 ragbrai, RAGBRAI, RAGBRAI 2012, RAGBRAI XL, ride across iowa

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