I was unable to join the ride for the last couple of days as I had originally intended, not even as a spectator, so I don’t yet know the effect of 15-20K people flooding into Allamakee Country and converging in little Lansing. So was it as much of a combination refugee camp/Chinese fire drill/clusterf*ck as I had been envisioning every time the subject came up over the past five or six years (which was the primary reason I was sure that RAGBRAI would never end in this little hamlet again)? Or were they able get their shit together, somehow manage to provide for the influx of riders, their team vehicles, and other vehicles and non-riders as they came to pick up riders at the end of the week, and make it work? Or did enough riders call it quits at Waukon or somewhere along the way to Lansing on Saturday so that there were far less than expected actually arriving in Lansing?
-“BB”-
41 Replies
We meet our group at the furniture store just pass downtown got out pretty fast got there about 1:00
Are group was at the landing south of Lansing. We left at noon with no problems.
It worked out much better than I thought it would when we got there Friday. Our bus ended up out by long term parking but it really worked out well for me having the bags close to my car. Harper Ferry was a great town. Finally found a fish fry. It’s always bothered me that we go from river to river but never see any fried fish.
Lansing did a pretty good job trying to balance the rider, pedestrian and traffic flow into, out, and within town. The problem is that Lansing was simply too compact of a town to be an effective finish town. It was great that RAGBRAI gave Lansing a turn as a finish town but, logistically, Lansing was a very poor finish town choice because of its extremely limited in/out route options.
I rode into town about 11:30 and found the downtown very uncrowded. I later found out that was because they basically had to shut down the entire town core to vehicle traffic. This must have been very frustrating to the locals who might have wanted to go down to the finish area to participate in the finish activities. It must have also made it difficult for them to make much money off of the sparse downtown crowd.
I rode out Route 9 two miles to the Red Barn Campground where we were parked. From that point, inbound traffic looked to be backed up at least a mile further west out of town. Had someone needed to try to meet up with us, I don’t know how they could have done so, especially with the almost non-existent cell phone coverage in and around Lansing.
Overall, Bravo to Lansing for trying to manage a crowd probably more than 20 times their whole population and a big thumb’s down to RAGBRAI for selecting a town that they knew would make the pickup logistics very frustrating for riders, their rides out of town, and for the people who live in Lansing.
From all the comments here, especially in the majority about how they had no problems in Lansing, tells me that it was easier because of all the riders and support vehicles that DIDN’T go to Lansing. Riding to Lansing was never the issue, it was the fact that getting out of town would be difficult…not helped if you were on a schedule for your return home. If ALL the support vehicles and people had gone on to Lansing it would have been a lot worse for everyone so thank those who didn’t ride on from Waukon. It was a great RAGBRAI and I’ll do it again if possible. I hope the organization of the ending town will be even better.
Anyone complaining about the logistics of ending in a small town can just skip RAGBRAI ON THE YEARS they visit small towns. Me personally I’m not interested in a constant rotation of Dubuque, Clinton, Quad Cities, Muscatine, and Burlington
Lansing was well organized. It appeared that all of the charters were leaving from the same area. My bus left Lansing on a gravel road and then transitioned onto Hwy. 9. Left Lansing at 2:00 and got into Des Moines at 6:30, no problems getting out of Lansing. Well done Lansing and Ragbrai!
No problem in Lansing. I thought they did a great job for such a huge challenge. People were great; welcoming; enthusiastic about the cyclists. Congratulations, Lansing, on a job well done. We were in at 1 pm and on the road out of town by 2:45. RAGBRAI is an event, well sponsored by the Register–it is not a race. Keep up the good work.
You hit the nail right on the head, Mr. Moore. About 25% of our team biked into Lansing and some of them took the 16 mile direct route rather than the Ragbrai route. A few decided to be picked up in Harpers Ferry. Small town Iowa is a huge part of Ragbrai and Lansing showed us why this is true.
Lansing was good enough to pitch a tent, throw my crap in there, and bike some bonus miles (40 miles) due north of Lansing to La Crosse, Wisconsin– Lansing, the small town that it is, did not have a Enterprise or any other car rental business. Loved how chill it was when I arrived with the car– chatting with a lady who rides with Team DLO– she was such a riot! Their bus was pretty cool too! To finish RAGBRAI, I drank the juice and ate a HOT MAMA PICKLE! I really hope RAGBRAI next year is LONGER with MORE HILLS! When you look at last year’s (2016) ride, everyday (excluding one) had more climbing than the last day of 2017’s RAGBRAI. MORE HILLS!
[quote quote=1275928]Lansing was good enough to pitch a tent, throw my crap in there, and bike some bonus miles (40 miles) due north of Lansing to La Crosse, Wisconsin– Lansing, the small town that it is, did not have a Enterprise or any other car rental business. Loved how chill it was when I arrived with the car– chatting with a lady who rides with Team DLO– she was such a riot! Their bus was pretty cool too! To finish RAGBRAI, I drank the juice and ate a HOT MAMA PICKLE! I really hope RAGBRAI next year is LONGER with MORE HILLS! When you look at last year’s (2016) ride, everyday (excluding one) had more climbing than the last day of 2017’s RAGBRAI. MORE HILLS!
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I’m with you on the Hills. by then I’ll be head deep in training to climb Haleakala and I want every Hill i can find!