SIOUX CITY, IOWA (AFNS) —
The Air Force Cycling staff is driving once more in the 2022 Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa or RAGBRAI. The journey is a week-long leisure touring bicycle trip that takes cyclists from the Missouri river in the west to the Mississippi in the east.
The Air Force Cycling staff made their method to Sioux City the place the Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing performed host to the staff for the primary evening of the occasion.
According to Trey Munn, government director of the biking staff, this yr they’ve 105 riders together with 15 assist members. The group of cyclists are becoming a member of over 15,000 different riders from across the globe through the weeklong occasion.
This yr, RAGBRAI has riders on a northern route that covers practically 462 miles starting in Sergeant Bluff in the west and ending at Lansing in the east. Riders make nightly stops in Ida Grove, Pocahontas, Emmetsburg, Mason City, Charles City, and West Union, swelling their populations by a number of thousand for an enormous in a single day rolling block occasion every night.
Munn has been part of the Air Force Cycling staff for seven years and expressed how he returns annually due to the optimistic expertise.
“It’s a fantastic way to talk about the Air Force,” Munn stated. “To talk about where you come from, and to just find common connections with the people of Iowa.”
Members of the Air Force staff come from all around the world and are a part of the active-duty Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and Space Force. The staff additionally contains members of the family in addition to retirees. Air Force cyclers have a wealthy historical past of appearing because the “Guardian Angels of the road,” the place they’re recognized to offer help to different riders with gear points and help with accidents.
Air Force Cycling Team Chief Marketing Officer Drew Patterson defined that the staff is driving in their twenty seventh RAGBRAI occasion this yr.
“We promote fitness, cycling, and being out in the community,” Patterson stated.
As a part of their custom on the primary day, because the solar rose, the staff shaped up and paraded out of city. According to Patterson, members of the staff sometimes trip about 10 hours every day earlier than tenting at every night cease in the host cities.
For Air Force Cycling Team member, Maj. Sara McDowell, RAGBRAI serves as a type of homecoming. The Cedar Rapids native is a psychological well being supplier for Headquarters Air Force and is a regional staff lead for the AFCT. McDowell defined how AFCT members greet and hand out swag to neighborhood members alongside the route.
McDowell stated a giant a part of the expertise for staff members is that they work together and join, forming bonds by means of comradery in direction of their widespread function.
“Airmen want to connect together,” McDowell stated.
McDowell stated sporting the Air Force wings on their biking uniform is an effective way for taking part Airmen to come back collectively whereas serving the neighborhood. Even although McDowell is a local Iowan, she stated she had not participated in RAGBRAI till becoming a member of the active-duty Air Force. Now, she is again for her fourth yr. The first day of RAGBRAI this yr is themed after the Air Force’s seventy fifth anniversary, and lots of cyclists might be seen sporting patriotic colours and Air Force clothes.
Patterson defined that on the ultimate day of driving, the Air Force staff plans to satisfy two miles out from Lansing, which is the final city on the trip. As a part of their custom the staff plans to parade into city on their bicycles, marking an unofficial finish for RAGBRAI.
First-time AFCT rider and RAGBRAI newcomer Col. Jeffrey Pixley, commander of the 737th Training Group at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, stated he was trying ahead to the neighborhood interplay this week.
“Having a very public face of the Air Force out there,” Pixley stated, “not just out there in the form of commercials, but regular people from across the different AFSCs, officers and enlisted representing the Air Force.”
“They’re helping the community by putting service-before-self, literally on display as they ride through RAGBRAI and help people out,” he defined. AFCT organizers say they’re open to all ranks in the Air Force and Space Force, in addition to retirees, Air Force civilian service employees, and members of the family of Air Force service members. More data could be discovered on the Air Force Cycling Team web site.
The AFCT plans to be part of the inaugural Air Force Heritage Monument to Monument trip, beginning on the Wright Brothers Memorial in North Carolina on September 15 and ending on the Airman’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. September 18, the seventy fifth anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Air Force.
