RAGBRAI LII will take cyclists across northern Iowa in July, from southeastern Sioux County to the banks of the Mississippi in Clayton County. This year’s route, and the overnight town riders will be stopping in, was announced at the RAGBRAI Route Announcement Party in Waukee on Saturday.
“This will be our second shortest route and sixth flattest ever RAGBRAI, 406 miles and 10,487 feet of climb,” according to the official RAGBRAI site.
The weeklong ride kicks off in Orange City on Saturday, July 19 and finishes with riders dipping their wheels in the Mississippi at the small town of Guttenberg on July 26. Along the way, RAGBRAIers will spend their nights in Milford, Estherville, Forest City, Iowa Falls, Cedar Falls and Oelwein. The longest rider will be between Estherville and Forest City, 74.1 miles, and the shortest will be between Cedar Falls and Oelwein, at only 38.2 miles.
• Orange City to Milford: 70.1 miles; 1,522 ft. of climb
• Milford to Estherville: 44.6 miles; 1,395 ft. of climb
• Estherville to Forest City: 74.1 miles; 1,308 ft. of climb
• Forest City to Iowa Falls: 68.3 miles; 1,449 ft. of climb
• Iowa Falls to Cedar Falls: 49.5 miles: 1,262 ft. of climb
• Cedar Falls to Oelwein: 38.2 miles; 1,210 ft. of climb
• Oelwein to Guttenberg: 61.2 miles; 2,341 ft. of climb
The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa started in 1973, when two writers for the Des Moines Register, John Karras and Donald Kaul, invited the public to join them on a six-day bicycle ride across the state, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River. The following year, the ride expanded to its current length of seven days, and Bill Gilbert, a writer from Sports Illustrated, joined in. Gilbert wrote an article praising the relaxed and friendly cross-state ride, bringing international attention to the event.
The annual cycling event has grown so popular over the last half century that organizers now cap the number of week-long riders at 8,500 “to maintain a sense of control and insure fewer injuries,” according to RAGBRAI’s site.
The Des Moines Register staged RAGBRAI for the ride’s first 45 years, but in 2019, Gannett, the media corporation that owns the Register and over 1,100 other newspapers, transferred RAGBRAI to Ventures Endurance, part of its USA Today Network Ventures, which describes itself as “creat[ing] impactful consumer engagements and experiences through world-class events, promotions, races and technology.”
RAGBRAI always follows a west-to-east path across the state, and is often described as going from the Missouri to the Mississippi. But some years, its starting line isn’t near the Missouri River. This is one of those years. The nearest point where cyclists can dip their tires in the Missouri before starting on their cross-state trek is about 40 miles from Orange City.
