RAGBRAI 2012: ’1 mile to Springville. You’ve got this’

Fri, Jul 27, 2012 | by Josh Hafner

Sometimes when you spend five minutes biking up a hill in RAGBRAI’s strong headwinds, you just want a row of tween-age girls to give you high fives and encouragement.

A smattering of such girls (plus one boy) obliged Friday at an on-route hilltop outside of Springville.

“One mile to Springville. You’ve got this,” Jade Hard, 11, told passing riders. She and the other youngsters stood single-file on the roadside with hands out, waiting for a cyclist’s slap.

“First we were giving out water,” Hard said, “But then we ran out, so now we’re giving high fives.”

After a daunting slog of an incline, the encouragement was just as refreshing as a cool drink. The kids had been there for four hours by noon.

One rider in an Air Force jersey rolled by with his hand out before quickly rescinding: “Psyche!”

An older cyclist politely declined, saying she’d fall off her bike. But nearly all the rest biked by with hand-out, a smile, and a “Thanks.”

Kylie Myrak, 13, said she remembers when riders cycled down that same stretch of highway during 2008′s RAGBRAI XXXVI. She can’t recall the specifics, but recreated what she could:

“It was a bunch of people giving high fives and stuff.”

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