RAGBRAI Guess the Route Contest Winners Announced!

Riders this has been a Guess the Route Contest for the history books. In 2009 we had one rider select all eight RAGBRAI Overnight Towns, and for years that record was unapproachable. Riders would guess five or six towns but the final two or three eluded their grasp. Last year for RAGBRAI 50 we had eight people guess all eight Overnight Towns correctly. This year we had an unprecedented TEN people guess all eight RAGBRAI Overnight Towns correctly. We are going to have to throw you all a curveball next year!

Over five hundred entries were received in the 21st (mostly) annual Guess the Route Contest to pick the RAGBRAI LI towns. Quite a few of you had many correct guesses – see below for our most frequently guessed town analysis. Of the ten people who correctly guessed the route, we randomly selected three winners. This year, all of our winners are from Iowa!

Here are this year’s winners:
Anne Lynam (Atlantic, Iowa area) – 1st Place
Aaron Bontrager (Iowa City, IA area) – 2nd Place
Shawn Poggemiller (Dubuque, Iowa area) – 3rd Place

Anne Lynam of Pleasant Hill, Iowa was the big winner and received a $100 credit to the RAGBRAI Shop.

When asked to comment on her win, Anne said, “Wow. My hometown is Atlantic, so had to pick it for one of the overnight towns. I have been a rider and now help with a charter. I tell everyone they have to ride at least one day of RAGBRAI. There is no way to explain the moving city on wheels. I like to show off the state, the great towns and Iowa nice.”

Anne picked correctly on all eight towns: Glenwood, Red Oak, Atlantic, Winterset, Knoxville, Ottumwa, Mount Pleasant, and Burlington!

Aaron Bontrager of the Iowa City area took the second place prize, winning a certificate worth $80 of RAGBRAI merchandise, and Shawn Poggemiller of the Dubuque, IA area took third place, winning a certificate worth $60 of merchandise.

With 193 guesses, Creston was our most frequently guessed town that we will not be visiting in 2024. Sorry about that! Creston is geographically close to some of our 2024 Overnight Towns so that was a great guess. Of the towns we are visiting, Ottumwa got the most guesses with 184 (although some of those were out of order day-wise). Mount Pleasant got the most guesses on it’s correct day with 173, and Glenwood was next guessed with 161.

How do this year’s results compare with previous contests?

2003 – Winner guessed 7 towns
2004 – Winner guessed 7 towns
2005 – Winners guessed 5 towns
2006 – Winners guessed 3 towns (wow, we stumped you!)
2007 – Winner guessed 5 towns
2008 – Winner guessed 6 towns
2009 – Winner guessed 8 towns (perfect!)
2010 – Winner guessed 6 towns
2011 – Winner guessed 6 towns
2012 – Winner guessed 5 towns
2013 – Winner guessed 6 towns
2014 – Winner guessed 5 towns
2015 – Winner guessed 5 towns
2016 – Winner guessed 7 towns
2017 – Winner guessed 6 towns
***GTR Hiatus***
2023 – Winner guessed all 8 towns (perfect!)
2024 – Winner guessed all 8 towns (perfect!)

We hope you have a great time on the ride!

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