California man went from first to last in inaugural RAGBRAI

This post is by Des Moines Register reporter Mike Kilen, mkilen@dmreg.com.

Bill Wertzberger

Meet Bill Wertzberger of Cloverdale, Calif., where he is an assistant wine maker for Teldeschi.

His claim. I was the first person to start and last to finish the first RAGBRAI in 1973.

So you’re old and slow? I’m 55 but I was only 18 then, and it was the last thing I did before I left Iowa. I was probably the only person in my high school in Dubuque who rode a bicycle to school; it wasn’t popular yet. When Donald Kaul (RAGBRAI co-founder and columnist) started writing about how he wanted to do this, I had to go. The only way to get to the start in Sioux City was to ride my bike from Dubuque. So I left five days before.

Sounds painful. I didn’t even have a sleeping bag. I just had a blanket and piled some stuff on my bike. I wore tennis shoes and cutoff shorts and no helmet. I don’t even think I had a water bottle. I had a leather seat so the last couple days I rode standing up.

Hence, finishing last? The reason I was last to finish was three of us took turns riding with Clarence Pickard (the legendary elderly gentlemen on the first ride) to make sure he was on course. I was riding with him the last day and by that time five or six other old guys heard about him and also rode in the back of the pack. I felt like a safety patrol officer. It was dark when we got to the end.

Then what happened? I never came back to Iowa to live. But I came back for RAGBRAI in 2000 and 2001. It changed. It’s more of a beer bust. But the scenery is the same; it’s soybeans and corn. And it’s good for me to get back to Iowa once in a while. I didn’t appreciate it as much growing up there.

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