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From river to river: CC rider to make 43rd RAGBRAI trip

  • Charles City resident Steve Swartzrock holds up a t-shirt from his first RAGBRAI ride — 1974, SAGBRAI (Second Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). Press photo by Kate Hayden

  • Steve Swartzrock dips his bike's back tire into the Missouri River at the beginning of a past RAGBRAI ride. Contributed photos

  • Swartzrock's patch from his first RAGBRAI ride in 1974.

  • Swartzrock has met RAGBRAI founder John Karras and his wife while receiving patches for the century loop, an optional extended route at least 100 miles long one day during RAGBRAI.

  • Swartzrock (left), with his son Ben and friend Gary Johnson.

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

In 1974, Charles City resident Steve Swartzrock spent a week riding a steel road bike from Council Bluffs to Dubuque. It was only the second year of RAGBRAI — an event that started as column fodder for two Des Moines Register reporters, and continues as a staple of life during Iowa summers.

This year, Swartzrock will make his 43rd annual ride across Iowa — just one year short of RAGBRAI’s 44 trips. Swartzrock signed up when his neighbors told him about the event that second year, and he hasn’t missed a ride since then.

It wasn’t necessarily a smooth first trip.

“I died,” Swartzrock recalls of the trip. “I would say, ‘I’ll never do this again in my life,’ but then you get home and think, ‘that was sort of fun.’ We didn’t have helmets on, just t-shirts and regular shorts.”

These days, Swartzrock has traded in the steel bike frames for carbon fiber — “That cut 25 percent of my time off” on the ride — adjusted his training schedule, and now wears a helmet.

He rides yearly with “Team Rockford,” about 50 to 60 RAGBRAI riders from across the U.S., and tent camps every time.

Swartzrock has collected each year’s RAGBRAI T-shirt and patch, plus a Century Day patch for every optional 100-mile loop he’s completed — and he receives the century patch from RAGBRAI founder John Karras, who still returns to greet riders each year.

Over the years, Swartzrock has gotten family members in on the ride as well. His sons Ben and Daniel rode tandem bikes with Swartzrock when they were young — graduating to solo bikes when they grew older — and Swartzrock’s family welcomed Team Rockford to their home during previous RAGBRAI overnight stops in Charles City.

“I’ll name where I’m from, and people always say ‘I remember Charles City,'” he said. “They get a lot of compliments about staying in Charles City. … Very positive.”

Iowa’s ride works so well because of small-town hospitality and the secondary roads that RAGBRAI routes through, Swartzrock said.

“We don’t ride across Iowa, we eat across Iowa. We’re eating pies, ice cream, just constantly eating,” he said.

There’s been the tough times on the ride — “Soggy Monday” one year, when RAGBRAI riders rode through constant rain and temperatures in the high 40s; or the year one town ran out of food to feed hundreds of RAGBRAI participants.

But for Swartzrock, the good times and the goals keep bringing him back to the event.

“I always tell people I can do one more,” he said.

Driver Kevin Longcor is the “wagon-master” of the support vehicle for Team Rockford, and every year is like a reunion for the riders who rarely see each other outside of RAGBRAI week. RAGBRAI is also famous for drawing in a wide variety of people — riders will meet others from all nationalities and walks of life.

“I love watching people. It’s just a phenomenal thing just to sit in the shade of a tree and watch people go by,” Swartzrock said.

It also keeps him motivated to keep riding. He starts training in January indoors, on an old steel bike frame that he had ridden across the state on 15 trips, and moves outdoors once the weather warms up. On an average year, Swartzrock tries to ride between 300 to 500 miles before RAGBRAI.

“It forces you to stay in shape. You’ve got a goal, ‘I’ve got to get X amount of miles in before the third week of July,'” Swartzrock said.

Swartzrock has traveled beyond the borders of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

He’s joined bike rides in Australia, Europe and other U.S. states, recently completing “Ride the Rockies” in Colorado, 447 miles along high altitude. “Way out of my comfort zone,” he said.

In Australia a few years ago, Swartzrock biked with around 2,000 other riders — many of whom knew exactly where Iowa was.

“All over the world today, RAGBRAI has turned into a huge bucket list— if you’re a biker you’re going to do RAGBRAI sometime in your lifetime,” Swartzrock said.

“I haven’t been in every town in Iowa, but I’m getting real close.”

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