RAGBRAI 2012: British invasion

Vinton – This might be Drew Buck’s first time on RAGBRAI but it’s definitely not his first on a bike.

The 63-year-old Englishman, who lives between Bath and Bristol, rolled into town on a rusty 1920s-era French bike with only two gears. For the high one, he pedals forward; for the low, in reverse.

He joined this year’s ride at the suggestion of a friend, who has ridden several bike rides in France, and Buck dressed the part. He wore a black beret, a red polka-dotted scarf and a white shirt with classic French stripes. (Add a baguette under his arm, and he could pedal right onto a poster for French tourism.)

A braid of dried onions hung over his handlebars in tribute to the French onion farmers, known as “Onion Johnnys,” who used to ride a ferry across the English Channel and pedal to small towns in England to sell their onions.

Buck added to his bike a braid of garlic, too, for protection.

“Have you seen any vampires around today?” he said. “Then it must be working.”

A battered leather briefcase was strapped to the bike behind its seat. Its contents: “Resistance plans for the D-Day landing,” he said. “They’re secret.”

So keep that quiet, OK? (Vive le resistance!)

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