15 Comments

1. 

   Connie Lang on March 5, 2017 at 8:02 am

   what is the total feet of climb without the gravel loop?

2. 

   Amanda on March 5, 2017 at 8:49 am

   1283

3. 

   Bruce Woodrow on March 5, 2017 at 7:09 pm

   RABBRAI newbie here. What is the significance of the gravel loop? Is it gravel roads?

4. 

   Eric Boyle on March 5, 2017 at 8:33 pm

   @bruce, I did it last year and it is a gravel road loop vs the paved route. I did it on my road bike 23 mm tires, and was ok. If you get to the start late enough other riders have created a little 6 inch wide path that has pushed the gravel to the side and is just dirt. I would say you want to be a pretty confident rider or take it pretty slow, because it does not take much to get sideways on the gravel. With that being said, it is a lot of fun!

5. 

   Don Baldwin on March 5, 2017 at 8:47 pm

   When will the RAGBRAI XLIII 2015 history page be done? It said it would be completed the summer of 2015, which is almost two years ago!

6. 

   Robert Weiss on March 5, 2017 at 8:48 pm

   Last year I did the gravel loop on my road bike. We were told they had gravel bikes to rent for the loop. When we got there they ran out of bikes. We decided to ride it on our road bikes.

   Looking back I would have skipped it having to ride om my road bike, with 23/700 carbon wheels it was a little sketchy. I didn’t really have a lot of control over the bike, and I am a very experienced rider.

   When we finished the loop I saw the results of some falls, it wasn’t pretty. If they have the gravel bikes I would definitely take one.

7. 

   swimmer on March 5, 2017 at 9:23 pm

   What is the route and mileage to tire dippping in the Missouri river?

8. 

   Dan Justis on March 6, 2017 at 1:19 am

   Bruce Just a Caveat about the gravel. I did Ragbrai in 2004 and after the gravel portion I lined up with others to have my bike washed by friendly Iowans. Debris jammed my gears and I had to finish the last 10 miles in high gear. At that point I just determined to complete the ride and didn’t care how my leg muscles felt.

9. 

   vinidelgado on March 6, 2017 at 4:23 pm

   Do it and take the fall……. There is no better place, done it twice and it gets better. The nicest people and the best time at the end town
   Vini

10. 

    mvalazza on March 7, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    Thomas – I posted a route from Orange City to the river and back on Ride with GPS. It is approximately 47 miles roundtrip from Orange City to Hawarden and back.
    You can find it here: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18718366

11. 

    Scotty Clark on March 8, 2017 at 12:00 am

    RAGBRAI newbie. On the list of towns,what is “(Meeting)”?

12. 

    fuji on March 8, 2017 at 9:26 am

    Scotty – For each day of Ragbrai a ‘Meeting’ town is designated by the Ragbrai organization. The meeting town is usually about half way through the day’s ride and is a place for teams or groups to catch up w/one another among other things.

13. 

    Jeff J on March 8, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    If you want to dip your tire in the Missouri river, you will need to head to Sioux City. Hawarden will get you to the Big Sioux river. Still a border river, but not the Missouri.

14. 

    Scotty Clark on March 8, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    Thank you Raphael!

15. 

    Paul Packard on March 20, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    What is the point of the gravel road loop? On my road bike, I avoid gravel roads at great cost.