Sat 7/23 to Sat 7/30 |
RAGBRAI, Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is more than just a bike ride, it is an epic 8-day rolling festival of bicycles, music, food, camaraderie, and community. It is the oldest, largest, and longest multi-day bicycle touring event in the world, with more than 15,000 daily riders traveling across Iowa 450-500 miles. It is the small towns, local food, rolling Iowa farmland, heartland hospitality, and live entertainment each day that make RAGBRAI an annual tradition for bicyclists worldwide since 1973. Registration fee: $175 to 2/28/22, $190 after, $35 daily option also. Jane Elkin and Jim & Martha Gullo are riding.
From Jane Elkin:
I’d like to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to caravan to Iowa with me to cycle RAGBRAI, (Register’s Great Ride Across Iowa) July 24-31, 2022. https://ragbrai.com/. RAGBRAI is the largest organized group bike ride in the world, with up to 20,000 riders. I’ve done this ride six times. It’s about a 450-mile ride over six days. Iowa isn’t flat in the western part of the state, so the daily elevation can be 3500’. There are rest stops about every 20 miles, with plenty of food vendors: Mr. Pork Chop, church suppers, Amish ice cream, corn-on-the-cob and of course, pie, all fitting into the four major food groups of the tour, which are beer, pork, pie, and corn. There’s entertainment: goat yoga, a pool with a swim-up bar, karaoke, beer gardens, music, rope swings, and more. If you’re worried about the heat, you can always soak yourself down with water at every town.
This year RAGBRAI registration is first come, first serve and registration began in November. The cost of the weeklong rider registration is $175 before February 28 and $190 after that. Registration includes baggage transportation, SAG support and a few other essentials. The specific route across Iowa will be announced on January 29th.
I’ll be camping with Pork Belly Ventures, https://pkbelly.com/#ragbrai-charter but there are less expensive camping options available.
Martha and Jim Gullo have also registered to ride RAGBRAI 2022, and they’re using the Quad City Bicycle Club https://www.qcbc.org/ to handle their camping, luggage, and transportation.
The drive to Iowa would take about two days, since it’s about 1100 miles. I don’t like to drive more than 500 miles a day and I don’t like to drive at night. We would take the route through Pennsylvania, since I don’t like to drive on Route 64 through West Virginia. We would park our vehicles on the Eastern side of the state at the long-term parking lots and take a bus to the Western side of the state and ride West to East across the state.
Jane Elkin jelkin87@gmail.com
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