Northwest Iowa — While it won’t be right IN our area, it will come within 20 miles, so we could see some increased traffic this weekend. The 50th annual RAGBRAI bike ride starts this Sunday morning in Sioux City.
Many riders will make the traditional back tire dip in the Missouri River before they leave, and about 500 miles later, the ride will end with an optional front tire dip in the Mississippi River in Davenport on Saturday, July 29th. The overnight towns this year are fairly large. They include Sioux City, Storm Lake, Carroll, Ames, Des Moines, Tama-Toledo, and Coralville.
Riders will come closest to our area on Sunday, when they’ll leave Sioux City for Kingsley, Washta, and Quimby, before stopping for the night in Storm Lake. They’ll leave Monday morning going basically south, and a little east.
Organizers tell us the ride is not a race. They say it’s all about riding at whatever pace makes sense to you through the cities, small towns, and countryside of Iowa. They say it’s more of a rolling celebration. Thousands of riders are expected and organizers think it’s possible that on the most popular leg of the trip on day 4, there could be as many as 100,000 riders.
