In the past, it has always been the last Saturday of January.

No change I predict. Announcement will be 29 January. Timeline on the link below is in error.
https://ragbrai.com/hosttownapplication/

RIDE RIGHT

The announcement is Friday, January 28 this year according to the Just Go Bike podcast, episode 180. The change is so that the overnight towns can have booths for you to visit at the expo on Saturday.

Interesting Ken that is the reason. That would mean then that RAGBRAI must be informing the host towns of their selection prior to the announcement party. Otherwise, there really is no way for them to logistically prepare, staff, creat a booth, literature, etc, etc in only hours. My guess is that if this is the new practice, it will leak out prior to the announcement party. Once you have members of the community in the know, it will get out quickly.

I agree with Uncle Kraig. So if you go just for the announcement and the party, it probably won’t be a surprise. The last one I went to, we sat at a table with a team we didn’t know. 10 minutes before the announcement, a person came up to the table and said to his friends here’s the route. I will say it was a let down. The anticipation of the announcement is the fun part. Like Christmas as a child. The route was always hush hush. I will embrace the change and anticipate the actual ride.

I’m not sure it would require advance notification and this was not my decision, I’m only the message bearer and second hand at that. I’m a RAGBRAI nobody, I’m privy to nothing! Towns who have applied to be on the route only need to be told to be prepared to staff a booth. They won’t have detailed plans to share anyway at this point. They can have general information about their town and they can share the pitch they made to RAGBRAI in order to enhance their chances of selection. It’s not that far to Des Moines from any town in Iowa. They can leave and return the same day. If this becomes the new procedure the quality of the presentations in succeeding years will improve based on the feedback from the early years but I think it will be a nice addition to the party which I have never attended and may never attend!

But they could tell the towns in advance….

This Friday thing is garbage…I and a number of riders have driven a long way to attend the announcement party. It gave me a chance to see fellow riders that I havn’t seen for 6 months. Now they want me to take a day of pto take go to the party. I am sure I am in the minority, with my attending from a town 6 hours away from Des Moines, but it still bites.

Yeah, I have attended in the past but won’t on a Friday night when I would have to use vacation time to make the drive to Des Moines.

Does anyone know how the announcement parties were/are arranged? Since I have been watching, there have always been representatives from the selected towns at the party. So they must have been told that they were in contention. Were there runners-up there too? I’ve never heard anyone at the party complain that their town lost, so I suspect that only the winners were there. I think they were always given some advanced notice. This is my theory, so it could be full of holes. Has anyone who attended ever heard a disappointed town rep?
Hmmm. . . .I suppose that each selected town could know they were in, but not who the other selectees were. It would be hard to keep it secret for long, though. I still suspect the full route is known by all of the overnight towns ahead of time. How much ahead is the question.

I have been informed that there have been disappointed reps from contending towns at the announcement party. So, yes, my theory is full of holes. The secret is kept better than I had thought.

I am still waiting on either the Iowa Bicycle Coalition or Ragbrai to inform me if there will be an option to livestream the announcement party. I have reached out to both and no information in regards to livestream. We have a party at our house with several friends who have done Ragbrai and enjoy watching the route announcement. Last year they charged for the livestream and thats fine, I just need to know if its going to be available.

Looks like you can live stream….for $10. I don’t recap a fee in the past. It was live on youtube. WTH?

I’ll just consider it a $10 contribution to the Iowa Bicycle coaltion. It’s really a pretty small fee in the scheme of things. I just hope the quality, sound, buffering, etc, etc is improved over past years. If it’s no charge, it’s hard to gripe about quality. Even for the nominal $10, it at least better work right.

Any idea if they’re going to open up more tickets for the live stream?

On the Iowa Bicycle Coalition website, the $10 option to watch the livestream is now “CLOSED”. How can that be? Did they reach some sort of subscriber maximum? Can one watch the route announcement without paying? Realistically, the route will be posted on social media 30 seconds after it happens, but it’s still fun to watch and I’d spring for the $10.

I’m not all that impressed with the RAGBRAI communication this year. Is there a “guess the route” contest or not? Is the “official” entry to be posted on this forum or on a social media page? This is hardly an earth-shattering issue, just goofy fun that has always happened.