RAGBRAI LII July 19 - 26, 2025

Third brother rides RAGBRAI to support the other two

  • 21 July, 2010
  • RAGBRAI

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

Fred Miller

Meet Fred Miller, 61, of Dallas, Texas.

He’s riding for good reason. My youngest brother died from alcoholism last fall. He was 47. He got me into cycling in the early ’90s when he did Ride The Rockies. I rode until I fell badly in 2001 and never started riding again until two or three years ago, when my other brother from Des Moines started. I’m riding to encourage and support him.

Why? He was also challenged by alcohol. He was really struggling but he turned his life around. It’s been quite encouraging that he could come this far in 13 years, both licking the disease and getting back in shape, going back to college and becoming a drug and alcohol counselor in Iowa.

Biking toward health: He’s also a diabetic and it has made a huge difference in his life. He rode a couple days last year and this year he’s riding two days, from Algona to Charles City. It’s been frustrating to see one brother lick alcohol and another not be able to. It’s a very difficult disease. So we do everything we can to help him keep going.

And you? I grew up in Des Moines and a lot of people have said, “You’re from Iowa and you bicycle and you’ve never done RAGBRAI? What’s up with that?” I’ve done rides with 5,000 people but never 20,000, so I’m anxious to see what that’s like.

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