This morning I am leaving for Iowa to participate in Ragbrai for the second year in a row. If you don’t know, Ragbrai stands for the (Des Moines) Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.
RAGBRAI - The Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa
It is touted as the world’s oldest, largest, and longest group bike ride. Each year it takes a different route through the state, but by tradition it starts at or near the Missouri River on Iowa’s western border and crosses the state to the Mississippi River over the course of one week.
This year’s route starts in Council Bluffs on Sunday and heads along a generally southern path ending in Keokuk the following Saturday (7/27). People come from every state in the US and I believe last year they had riders from 18 other countries as well. They sell 8500 weeklong registrations and 1500 one day registrations, each day. The registration fee is used to defray costs as they supply tractor trailers that will haul your gear from town to town for you. It also covers porta potties, they provide four ambulances along the route, and other organizing fees.
The general gist is you ride your bike along the route, stopping at individual small towns throughout the day where everyone from the local church(es) to fire companies to American Legions to Boy Scout/Girl Scout troops sell home made foods and drinks etc, there are often bands and other activities designed to get you to stop and hang out for a bit (and spend some money). It is a big fund raiser for many small towns. Each night the end town has a large street festival with free concerts. I have heard it described as a rolling county fair, which seemed pretty accurate last year.
At night you camp in your tent. Either in group campgrounds – typically city parks, high school fields or sometimes golf courses or else people in each town will host riders at their houses.
The route this year is planned for 427 miles, but it’ll probably be longer in actual ridden miles. Last year was supposed to be around 435 miles and I ended up logging 485 miles for the week.
Assuming the Iowa cellphone network holds up, and tapatalk lets me post from my phone, I hope to document the trip a little bit this year. If not, this’ll be the shortest thread ever.