Check out newly announced 50th anniversary RAGBRAI pass-through and meeting towns

13 March, 2023
Philip Joens

RAGBRAI riders pedal past the State Capitol on their way through Des Moines in 2014.

RAGBRAI riders pedal past the State Capitol on their way through Des Moines in 2014. Zach Boyden/Holmes/The Register.

RAGBRAI will celebrate its golden anniversary by rolling past the Iowa State Capitol’s golden dome July 26 with what the organizers hope is a record-breaking crowd of riders.

The plan for a grand arrival in downtown Des Moines is among the highlights unveiled as the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa announced Monday the pass-through and meeting towns for the anniversary ride.

“Des Moines is our home. That is probably the most recognized feature in the Des Moines area,” Phippen said of the Capitol. “To bring riders by that will truly be something to look at.”

More:New to RAGBRAI? Here’s everything rookies need to know before riding across Iowa

Other top stops include Jefferson, with its Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower; Madrid, where riders can detour to visit the High Trestles bridge, the crown jewel of the Des Moines metro’s extensive bike trail system; the historic Teutonic village of Amana; and Muscatine, starting point for a ride along the mighty Mississippi River to the ride’s ending point.

The starting, ending and overnight host cities for the July 23-29 ride were announced in January.

As the ride proceeds across the state from the Missouri River to the Mississippi, riders will cycle through host cities Sioux City, Storm Lake, Carroll, Ames, Des Moines, Tama-Toledo, Coralville and Davenport. Five of the eight were on the original route in 1973.

Ride Director Matt Phippen said the RAGBRAI Capitol pass-by will occur on Day 4, when riders will start in Ames. The roads the Day 4 route takes are subject to adjustment, but the riders are expected to enter town on East 14th Street, which runs just east of the Capitol grounds, before they turn west for the final stretch to the expected camping destination in Water Works Park.

Whatever route the ride takes that day, it will likely be on major thoroughfares. That’s because RAGBRAI hopes to break the Guinness world record for the largest single-day “parade of bicycles:” 48,615, set in Udine, Italy, in 2000.

Phippen has estimated the Ames-to-Des Moines leg will draw as many as 100,000 participants, and the roads chosen will need to be able to handle all those bikes, he said.

The Iowa Capitol will provide a photogenic backdrop for the riders’ arrival.

Completed in 1886, it is the only five-domed statehouse in the country. Its center dome is 275 feet tall, made of iron and brick and covered in 23-karat gold sheets one-250,000th of an inch thick. Sitting high above the Des Moines River and the East Village, it provides a commanding view of downtown.

While the Des Moines arrival is sure to be one of the ride’s most memorable moments, every town RAGBRAI will go through this year “is known for something,” Phippen said.

Here’s a guide to the ride.

Day 1, Sunday, July: 23: Sioux City to Storm Lake

Miles: 70.7
Feet of Climb: 3,497
Themes: Mile of Silence, Throwback Jersey Day
Pass-through towns: Kingsley, Quimby
Meeting town: Washta

More than any other day on this year’s ride, Day 1 will mirror the original route in August 1973. Riders will travel to Kingsley, Washta and Quimby along many of the same roads that carried RAGBRAI founders and Register journalists John Karras and Donald Kaul and the 200 people who rode with them.

Hopefully, it won’t be a 99-degree day like the one those pioneering riders endured. But a little warmth will be welcome: Washta holds the record for the lowest temperature in Iowa history: minus 47 degrees on Jan. 12, 1912.

Washta is shy about touting its status as the coldest spot in Iowa thanks to the state’s record low of minus 47, recorded there Jan. 12, 1972. Kyle Munson/The Register

Washta residents don’t hide that fact. When RAGBRAI rolled through in 2010, riders were encouraged to dip their heads into a giant tub of ice water for an off-season Washta “brain freeze.”

Day 2, Monday, July 24: Storm Lake to Carroll

Miles: 58.4
Feet of climb: 1,842
Themes: “I Ride 4” Jersey Day. Riders raising money for charities should wear jerseys promoting their causes on this new theme day
Pass-through Towns: Early, Breda, Mount Carmel
Meeting town: Lake View

Sac County will welcome RAGBRAI riders for the third straight year. In 2021 riders stayed overnight in Sac City. Last year riders passed through Schaller and Nemaha.

More:Sac City still craves biggest popcorn ball of them all

This time riders will pass through Lake View, home of 957-acre Black Hawk Lake, a popular destination for boaters, fishers and swimmers in northwest Iowa. The city claims Black Hawk is the southernmost glacial remnant lake in the United States.

Day 3, Tuesday, July 25: Carroll to Ames

Riders roll out of Jefferson on the third day of RAGBRAI in 2018. The Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower is the town’s main landmark. Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Register.

Miles: 84
Feet of climb: 1,545
Theme: Century Loop
Pass-through towns: Glidden, Jefferson, Luther
Meeting town: Rippey

RAGBRAI riders may feel as giddy as Willy Wonka as they soar in a glass elevator to the top of Jefferson’s Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower. Built in 1966, the 14-story tower was a gift from Floyd and Dora Mahanay. Its observation deck was popular among riders when RAGBRAI stayed overnight there in 2018.

It is one of only four carillons in Iowa, with 47 bells that play tunes every 15 minutes. Will a few lucky bikers get a chance to tap out some tones? Perhaps not, but in 2018, Jefferson put a public piano on the town square for riders to riff on.

Rippey is known for its own annual bike ride, but it’s usually a lot frostier than RAGBRAI. Held on the first Saturday of each February since 1978, the Bike Ride to Rippey, or BRR, departs from nearby Perry, no matter the temp.

Day 4, Wednesday, July 26: Ames to Des Moines

Cyclist ride across the High Trestle Bridge. This year cyclists will come within 2.6 miles of this spectacular structure when they pass through Madrid, making for an easy side trip. Lee Navin/Photos for Ankeny.

Miles: 54.1
Feet of climb: 1,309
Themes: RAGBRAI Jersey Day, Guinness Book of World Records Day
Pass-through towns: Slater, Madrid, Polk City
Meeting town: Ankeny

RAGBRAI will bring riders within 2.6 miles of the famed High Trestle Trail bridge, a 13-story-tall former railroad trestle 2.6 miles west of Madrid, the second pass-through town of the day. It’s the centerpiece of the 25-mile-long High Trestle Trail. Forty-one steel frames over the bridge deck represent support cribs in a coal mine, commemorating the area’s mining heritage. Riders can see breathtaking views of the Des Moines River valley on six viewing platforms and an overlook on the bridge’s east side.

Registered riders who venture to the bridge should know that route services, including ambulance transport, are not provided off the official route. But Phippen understands that the bridge is a treasure for central Iowa cyclists, who love to show it off.

The 41 steel frames over the deck of the High Trestle bridge represent support cribs in a coal mine, a nod to the area’s mining history. Lee Navin/The Ankeny Register & Press-Citizen

“That bridge is pretty amazing. If you’re a cyclist in Iowa you know that bridge,” Phippen said. “It’s one of those things that as a cyclist you want to showcase to other cyclists all over the state.”

He said he will never advise cyclists to go off the route, but “you can only herd the cats for so long. If they know it’s close, they’re going to find it.”

Day 5, Thursday, July 27: Des Moines to Tama-Toledo

Altoona is sprucing up its Old Town district. Margaret Kispert/The Des Moines Register.

Miles: 85.7
Feet of climb: 4,140
Themes: Military Appreciation Day
Pass-through towns: Altoona, Mitchellville, Colfax, Kellogg, Grinnell
Meeting town: Newton

Thursday’s first stop, Altoona, is home to the Adventureland theme park, where generations of thrill-seeking Iowans have gone for family fun just northeast of Des Moines. The city also is home to a data center owned by Facebook parent company Meta that by 2025 will be the world’s largest at 5 million square feet.

Altoona’s leaders are in the midst of revitalizing the city’s Old Town area, home to local businesses that include a theater, offices, a barber shop and a tavern.

IndyCars will soar around Iowa Speedway in Newton just five days before RAGBRAI visits. The meeting town for Day 5 also is known as the former home of appliance company Maytag, headquartered there from its founding in 1893 to 2007, when Whirlpool bought the brand and moved it to Michigan.

The HQ campus is now home to new kinds of businesses, including Gezellig Brewing, one of a handful of female-owned breweries in Iowa.

Roman Grosjean and Helio Castroneves race in the IndyCar Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 at the Iowa Speedway in Newton. Reese Strickland/Special to The Register

With about 9,500 residents, Grinnell, the final pass-through town on Day 5, is home to Grinnell College, a world-renowned liberal arts school with an enrollment of about 1,700 and an endowment of nearly $3 billion, on par with that of the much larger University of Iowa.

Last year, U.S. News World & Reports ranked Grinnell College the 15th best liberal arts school in the country.

Day 6, Friday, July 28: Tama-Toledo to Coralville

RAGBRAI riders enter Amana in 2008. Register File Photo.

Miles: 82
Feet of climb: 3,033
Theme: College Jersey Day
Pass-through towns: Chelsea, Bell Plaine, Amana, Oxford
Meeting town: Marengo

Amana has long been one of Iowa’s most famous attractions, and it’s sure to be a favorite among the RAGBRAI crowd with its beer, sausage and pretzel necklaces. But unlike some other German-themed tourist towns, it has a genuine German heritage.

The Amana, Lutheran Pietists who fled persecution and a depression in Germany, arrived in Iowa in 1855 and founded what would become seven villages, with Amana the centerpiece. For about 80 years until the Great Depression, the people of the Amana Colonies lived a communal lifestyle, and a National Park Service-run museum in Amana preserves some of their kitchen, schoolhouse and workshops.

Tourist walk past restaurants and shops in the historic Germanic town of Amana. Register Photo File.

German-themed shops and restaurants, many in other historic structures, line the main streets.

Riders can nibble on truffles, caramels and fudge at The Chocolate Haus. Or they can enjoy authentic German food such as wiener schnitzel, sauerbraten and sausages at the Ronneburg Restaurant.

And it wouldn’t be RAGBRAI without a cold beer. Stop by the Millstream Brau Haus Restaurant for craft-brewed German specialties.

During the colonies’ communal days, craftsmanship was highly prized. Those skills birthed Amana Corp. in 1934, and in 1947 the company made the first home upright freezer. Today Whirlpool, which owns Amana, employs about 2,000 workers in Middle Amana.

Day 7, Saturday, July 29: Coralville to Davenport

Iowa’s first Capitol is a landmark on the University of Iowa’s campus in Iowa City. Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen.

Miles: 67.1
Feet of climb: 1,686
Theme: Front tire dip in the Mississippi River
Pass-through towns: Iowa City, West Liberty, Buffalo
Meeting town: Muscatine

Another gold-domed statehouse beckons RAGBRAI riders to Iowa City, big brother to overnight town Coralville. The Old Capitol on what is now the University of Iowa campus was Iowa’s first but held that status for less than two decades before the Iowa Legislature moved the state’s capital to Des Moines in 1857.

It’s still being determined if the route will go past the Old Capitol, Phippen said. The University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium, home to the Iowa Hawkeyes football team, may also be on the route, as it was in 2001. Another Iowa City attraction: a taproom of Big Grove Brewery, maker of Tailwind Golden Ale, the official RAGBRAI beer.

A can of Tailwind Golden Ale travels down a conveyor belt at Big Grove Brewery & Taproom in Iowa City. Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen.

By the time RAGBRAI riders reach Muscatine, the meeting town for Day 7, they will be able to taste the Mighty Mississippi River in the air. There, RAGBRAI L will enter its final stretch, a 27-mile ride north along the Mississippi River to Davenport.

The last 4 miles of the 2022 route along the Mississippi near Lansing stunned riders with its beauty after one of the most challenging days of the week, Phippen said. So the stretch between Muscatine and Davenport will give riders a longer view of the river they worked all week to reach for the traditional front-tire dip.

“This year, I wanted that same feel, to hug the river as much as possible,” Phippen said. “For that entire stretch out of the corner of their eye, they’re going to see the river that they’re going to eventually dip into.”

Muscating bike shop owner Greg Harper has participated in every RAGBRAI since the initial ride in 1973. Kelsey Kremer/The Register.

Muscatine is the home of Greg Harper, one of only three people to ride on part of every RAGBRAI. Harper’s father, Charlie, founded Harper’s Cycling & Fitness in Muscatine in 1966.

In the mid-1990s Harper’s Cycling & Fitness became an official RAGBRAI bike shop. Charlie Harper collected the penny-farthings and antique tall bikes that still sit in the store’s showroom.

Registration for RAGBRAI L

Early registration ended March 1.

Riders can still register until May 15. Or they can register at the RAGBRAI Bike Expo in Sioux City on July 22, the day before the ride begins. The costs of registration increase April 15 and at the bike expo.

Philip Joens has ridden RAGBRAI 17 times and completed the river-to-river trek six times. He covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joen

Hobes on March 18, 2023 at 4:16 pm

the route around Carroll should be changed. It is a mistake to ride that far on both HWY 71 and HWY 30. There are better alternatives. Contact me for better suggestions, I have ridden in this area more than 40 years. 71 and 30 are too busy and dangerous. YOu are asking for trouble. contact me 7127925610 thnaks, Phil Phillips

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