We are living in unprecedented times. None of us could have predicted how quickly the world could change and how quickly a contagious virus could spread and how our normal daily routine is far from "normal" these days.  

The BIKEIOWA calendar is full of **Cancellations** and "Postponements**". New events are not being added. The Tour De France, the Olympics are postponed and all sporting events are cancelled/postponed through at least mid/late Summer. USA Cycling is suspended all events through May 31. The only other times the Tour De France was cancelled was during WWI and WWII.

RAGBRAI will make their announcement next Monday, April 20th. Iowa's Ride stated on April 8th "the event is still over 3 months away, so it is still early to make a decision at this point". We trust that both decisions will be tough to make but thoroughly thought out. We also notified all event coordinators that had events posted on BIKEIOWA asking them to update their events.

We are taking the Des Moines Ride of Silence virtual this year. On May 20th tune in for a Facebook LIVE event so we can still honor those who have been injured or killed this past year. Please take a look at the Ride of Silence list and see if we are missing anyone from the current year or year's past. Any type of vehicle/bicycle incident counts. We know there are hundreds of unreported incidents a year and we'd like to include as many as we can.

We posted a couple of polls on April 7th and here are the results. We think this is a good pulse-check for how folks are feeling.

Most of the local businesses, bars, breweries and restaurants that we all love to support are closed. Some are open for carry-out, but business is not what is should be. If you can, please support local businesses during this time. Almost all of our sponsors fall under this category.

We are also a local business. If you are in need of new cycling gear, the BIKEIOWA store has all our our jerseys on sale for $50 and it just might still be chilly enough for the new Northwoods BIKEIOWA stocking cap and who can't use a bottle-opener?!?

Please support our sponsors and checkout the Marketplace that list each sponsor by their specialty.

Day 33 of our social distancing quarantine in our household. We have the luxury to be able to work from home and had a well-stocked pantry. We've pre-ordered and picked up groceries twice and made one trip to the hardware store early on. The most exposure we get to people is on the trails and we try to go on off-hours since they are pretty busy these days. Most of our big gravel Spring races are not happening so we've let our guard down a bit and are not riding long distances. Mostly because we don't want to stop anywhere (convenience stores, etc.) We are still riding local though.  We are also using this time to get those pesky house tasks completed - you know, the one we always put off since we usually have all those social obligations in the way. And we've made a point not to binge watch anything or eat a whole bag of Cheetos in one sitting.

Is all this social distancing blown out of proportion? We don't think so. The fact that you could carry the virus while not being infected and pass it onto others is scary! The fact that the virus can live on hard surfaces for a period of time is scary! We are happy to do our part to flatten the curve.

Do you trust the 6-foot rule for social distancing? One of the best quotes from our friend Matt - "I can always tell when someone is smoking a cigarette in the vehicle in front of me on the highway. How is the 6 foot separation supposed to be effective?"  that made us think differently just how (non) effective it is.