As one ISU graduate student rides into the final town on day three of RAGBRAI, biking just over 100 miles, other ISU students and alumni enjoy the beer garden back at the third stop of the route.

“We ride to the party town, and then we stop,” said Sarah Taylor, senior in psychology and business.

Taylor and her team, the Killer Bees, rode 39.2 miles Tuesday before stopping for the day in Kellerton.

By afternoon, the streets of the small town were lined with buses, conversion vans and RAGBRAI riders. Vendors had built stands on the street, selling vodka and lemonade, cold beer, bratwurst, sweet corn and water.

Team Blonde

Team Blonde, a group of approximately 22 people most of whom are either ISU students or alumni, also stopped for the day in Kellerton. The team said they began riding around 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“If they are still serving breakfast at McDonald’s, we are doing OK,” said Travis Kock, a 1999 ISU graduate in construction engineering.

Members of Team Blonde and the Killer Bees stayed in Kellerton until 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, when local police asked everyone to leave.

Chad Becker, junior in exercise sport science and dietetics and a Team Blonde member, said this is the first year police have started clearing out the party towns early.

“Last year was so much more chilled than this year,” Becker said.

Team Blonde loaded their painted red bus complete with four coaches, a built-in bar, two taps for Leinenkugel beer, a 1600-watt stereo system and a patio on top, and drove to Osceola, where they were staying for the night.

At a house near a lake in Osceola, team members continued to drink beer and tell RAGBRAI stories.

Greg Brinser, a 2002 ISU graduate in marketing, who wore a red kilt, a cowboy hat and had the word “boobs” written across his chest, said this year at a town off the route the team stopped and rented a donkey for $10 from a local farmer.

“A few of us attempted to ride the jackass into town,” Brinser said, “which wasn’t too successful.”

Upon entering the town, riders covered the donkey in RAGBRAI team stickers, he said, before it was returned to the farmer.

This is the sixth year Team Blonde has participated in RAGBRAI events. The team’s members come from all over the country to ride together for the week-long event.

“It’s an incredible experience, an incredible week,” said Ross Buchele, a 1998 ISU graduate in mechanical engineering.

“You meet people from every state.”

The Killer Bees

The Killer Bees, whose members range from all ages and include several ISU students, also have a history at RAGBRAI.

Kim Graper, graduate student in landscape architecture, said her father was one of the four founders of the team 19 years ago.

The team has made it a tradition to “sting” other RAGBRAI riders and officials by surrounding the individual and sticking a team sticker on them.

“There were never any stickers [at RAGBRAI] until the Killer Bees came along,” Graper said.

Taylor said she has enjoyed the RAGBRAI events and traveling with the Killer Bees this year.

“You ride, eat and then ride and eat, and then ride and drink,” she said.

ISU Triathlon Club

Although Team Blonde and the Killer Bees do not always ride the entire RAGBRAI route each day, other ISU students get up early in the morning hours and ride until the route is completed.

Adam Dreyer, sophomore in environmental science and ISU Triathlon Club member, was on the road by 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.

He said he was hoping to complete the 76.5 mile route and the optional 23 mile loop before his girlfriend was due to pick him up in Osceola that afternoon. They were going to a 311 concert later that night.

Dreyer said if he completed the route and optional loop, he would be a member of the “century club,” a term used for riders who have biked 100 miles or more in one day.

“It kind of sucks, too, because I was kind of working against the clock,” Dreyer said in Kellerton at 9:30 a.m., after just completing the additional loop.

Andrew Fischer, graduate student in mechanical engineering and a member of the ISU Triathlon Club, also completed the optional loop Tuesday and biked 100 miles. He said the ride was hard, but fun.

Fischer said the computer on his bike showed he had biked for six and one-half hours Tuesday, averaging about 18 miles per hour.

He finished the route around 2:30 p.m., about the same time Team Blonde and the Killer Bees were clearing out of Kellerton almost 40 miles behind.