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Community Corner

Cupertino Rotary Dudes Take on a 7-day Bike Ride

Steve Andrews and Larry Dean rode across Iowa, enduring extreme temperatures and conditions while embarking on an unforgettable adventure.

For someone who hasn’t ridden a bicycle in over 50 years, a 472-mile bike ride across the hilly terrain of Iowa might seem near-impossible. However, for former Cupertino Rotary club president Steve Andrews, 70, this seemingly daunting task was just a matter of perseverance.

“Steve trained very diligently for the three months leading up to the race,” said Larry Dean, 62, current Rotary club president who rode with Andrews in the Regent’s Annual Great Bike Race Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) this July.

Dean, an avid bike rider, who has bicycled across the country, helped Andrews train for the ride in the months leading up to the event, but neither anticipated the brutal weather Iowa had to offer.

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“The most challenging part of the race was the heat and humidity,” said Andrews, a stamp collector who decided to embark on the trip after reading about a fellow collector’s experience with the ride in a stamp magazine.

“The Midwest is going through a heat stroke, and that was really hard—the ride was also more hilly than I anticipated, but by around the halfway point of each day, I was exhausted from the heat and humidity.”

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Luckily, Dean and Andrews, who were also accompanied by Cupertino Rotarians Scott Stauffer, Pearl Chang and Marshall Goldman, were aided on their weeklong journey by fellow Iowa Rotarians, many of whom offered their homes to the duo during the evenings.

“The Rotarians from Iowa were very gracious,” said Andrews. “They offered us food, showers and beds—but the most important thing they offered us was air conditioning!”

To document the trip, Andrews decided to start a blog dedicated to detailing the ride. However, the blog soon morphed into a way to benefit the community through the bike ride—Andrews and Dean used the site as a fundraiser to save the Steel Head fish in the Stevens Creek Reservoir—by the end of the race, they raised approximately $3,000.

Despite the physical challenges endured during the weeklong ride, both Andrews and Dean agree that the experience was well worth it, and that they would both consider doing the ride again next year.

“What’s really amazing about the ride is that people open up their homes…when we were driving through the neighborhoods, people were always sitting on their porch and saying hi,” said Dean. “We also met a lot of Rotarians that do different types of projects, and we got to share experiences and make new friends in that way.”

Indeed, Andrews, who celebrated his 70th birthday while on the ride, asserts that the connections made with other Rotarians and riders were enough to validate the extreme temperatures and terrain encountered on the ride. 

“The people back there were really friendly and really made you proud to be an American,” said Andrews. “And the people were on the ride were just fun—they were there to have a good time, and they did. Apart from the formidable heat and humidity, it really was an amazing experience.

For more on Dean and Andrews' experiences, visit www.stevasride.blogspot.com.

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