Saturday, July 15, 2017

It was a bright and early morning in Grisowld, Iowa before we embarked on our 95 mile trek to Iowa’s capital city of Des Moines. The standard routine of organizing and packing all of my belongings, as well as scarfing down a bagel with peanut butter. Today felt different for me however, I woke up less sore than in days past and had a hinckling to ride. By this point guys can go a little braindead from the monotony of cycling everyday. Nonetheless, I straddled my bicycle just as I had before and pulled my paceline for the first twenty miles.

Iowa is sterotyped as a flat state, but I can asure you there are more rolling hills than meet the eye. It’s a cruel joke they play on you, reach the summit of a series of rolling hills only to face a horizon that sretches for miles of the same. These miles would be hard earned, and frustration seeped in early but the teams drive of why we do this kept us going. On the contrary, this only fueled my urge to conquer the day and finish with a proud smile and a sigh of relief.

Counting miles is something we usually do when there are less than twenty left or so, but on this day I counted each and every one – crew stop to crew stop. The fire lit underneath me caused me to pull my paceline the entire day without ever needing to draft behind my teammates, surely a great day on the bikes for them. as we gathered after the ride everyone although tired were praising each other on how well we all did dispite the daily challenges.

The victory dinner that night was at our sponsor and former Pi Alpha David Adicke’s home, where he and his family prepared burrito bowls for the entire team. Finalizing the night we all took our turns with a few rounds of team trivia and all around built a growing sense of cameraderie.

 

Jacob Jendo

University of Nebraska

Cyclist