Teams serve a variety of purposes on RAGBRAI. Many are just groups of friends who ride together and develop into a team as a way of identifying themselves, group solidarity, social partying, etc. Other teams may have started out that way but expand to include friends of friends of friends for RAGBRAI. Others evolved into standing cycling groups that people join much like a cycling club. The charters are a whole other class of “teams” as they basically are put together for RAGBRAI and open to anyone purchasing their services, though like other types of teams, they have returning members each year who identify with their charters “team” name. Teams also provide support, baggage hauling, etc. for their members, which takes a little of the load off RAGBRAI and makes it easier to do the week for team members who don’t have to sort through baggage piles to find their stuff each night.

Team Flamingo has been on RAGBRAI for 30 years. We are basically a group of friends from the Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Ia, area that has expanded to include friends of friends that come back for RAGBRAI from Michigan, Missouri, California, New York and other states. We are more then just a social group though, as we also ride for pledges on the miles we ride on RAGBRAI to fund child care scholarships, build handicap accessible playgrounds, etc. for a Waterloo child care agency.

But mostly teams on RAGBRAI are there to help you have a better time on RAGBRAI.