DES MOINES, Iowa — Conquering this year's RAGBRAI route is no easy feat, but a special group of central Iowa kids are taking on the challenge after months of preparation.
For 27 years, the nonprofit cycling club Dream Team Des Moines has taken in hundreds of disadvantaged teens across central Iowa, teaching life lessons by way of a bicycle.
"With a bicycle, you can’t go from point A to point B without putting the work in yourself," said Jeff Van Genderen, who serves as Dream Team's executive director. "It's the same way in life."
Members are posed with a unique but rewarding challenge: riding 1,000 miles over a five-month span. If they can go the distance, then they move on to their greatest challenge yet: riding RAGBRAI.
RAGBRAI LI is set to be one of the most challenging on record, with roughly 434 miles to ride and 18,375 feet climb. Yet, the dream team will roll on.
"On our training rides, it was constant hills, and then we were doing it on rainy days, hot days, cold days… whatever we had to do," said Dream Team rider Jacob Thacker.
A focal point of the program is preparing the teens for whatever elements may be thrown at them, a valuable life lesson.
"Dream Team, like, they taught me that I can do hard things," Thacker added. "Before this, I haven’t done much, but Dream Team really taught me problem solving."
As these teens pace through daily life, many of them admit to being shy or closed off before joining.
“Before I joined, I guess you can say anti-social. I didn’t really talk to nobody," Kamari Cole, an incoming freshman at Lincoln High School, told Local 5. "It’s taught me to get out my shell and talk to people more and be who I am, don’t be afraid to show it.”
40 kids and 32 volunteer mentors make up this year's team, dressed in star-studded red, white and blue kits.
As an added bonus, Dream Team riders who participate get to keep their bikes, which are purchased with funds donated by Bike World, YMCA and the RAGBRAI organization.
Yet, Vangenderen says when they take that final tire dip in the Mississippi River, the teens realize that the long journey represents a much bigger ride: the one we call life.
“They understand that through consistency and hard work and having that family around them that, you know what, I can accomplish something great," he told Local 5. "That is the most rewarding thing, seeing the growth and the development and the confidence in our youth.”