Older riders set BRAN pace

PAWNEE CITY, Neb. - Camp began to stir before 6 a.m., as sore legs and weary knees emerged from dry tents onto damp grass.

Dan Nydegger was up by half past 6, clad in a yellow jersey and squinting behind his glasses as he bent to fold his one-man tent into uniform tan squares.

Thursday was day five of the 29th annual Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska, a weeklong jaunt from Trenton to Chalco Hills, and Nydegger was eager to pedal through the gray morning mist on the day's 52.6 mile trek from Wymore to Humboldt.

At age 68, the Seattle-area resident is part of a graying corps of older BRAN riders devoted to the yearly event. Ride organizers estimate 55 percent of the 600 riders are at least 50 years old; 16 percent are age 60 or older.

The phenomenon isn't unique to the 455-mile Nebraska tour, riders said, because people of retirement age don't have to worry about arranging vacation time from work.

"The younger people don't have the time," Nydegger said. "The touring rides are more laid-back, easier for the older crowd."

Nydegger friend Doug Martin, a 62-year-old Lincoln resident, put it this way:

"There's some of the younger ones here, but they don't make fun of us," he said.

Riders young and old seemed relaxed enough as their wheels hummed through southeastern Nebraska's green and yellow fields. They rode past handmade signs promising soft drinks and cookies down the road. They devoured fruit pies and ham sandwiches in church basements and VFW halls.

Nydegger and his brown titanium bicycle cruised up the morning's first hill as people half his age gasped their way to the top. He rode nearly 300 miles from Lincoln to the ride's first stop in Trenton last week, by the way, then departed on BRAN's first leg the next morning.

Nydegger has ridden nearly 200,000 miles in his lifetime, many on some of the country's most scenic routes.

"I've been riding for a long time," he said with a slight grin.

He has endured the same things his fellow riders have: the scrapes and sore posteriors, the cold showers and musty tents. But despite his age, he's not done riding yet. The man in the yellow jersey has more places to go.

"It gets pretty miserable out there," he said. "But it makes for good stories."

• Contact the writer: 444-1068, johnny.perez@owh.com