7/24/2010 - RAGBRAI shuttle from Dubuque to Sioux City

What is RAGBRAI? It is an acronym of Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa which started out as a small bicycle group ride across the state sponsored by a Newspaper back around 1972. It was a huge success and it has become an annual event.

It was once thought that the limiting factor for the number of participants would be the logistics and how to feed and provide sleeping quarters for all the riders. Superb planning has solved those problems. The actual limiting factor is the two lane roads which even though the bicycles use both lanes, they are not wide enough to accommodate the number of cyclists. So, the planners had to cap the number of riders wanting to register and they initiated a "Lottery" system. Even though the ride has a huge number of participants, it is a well planned event that provides everything that a group ride would need.

RAGBRAI is where bicycles rule the road across the entire state of Iowa for one week.


(1) Above left: Catching the shuttle bus from Dubuque, Iowa on the east side of Iowa which is the final destination to Sioux City, Iowa which is start of RAGBRAI on the western side of the state. (2) Above right: Driving into Sioux City, it became apparent that this was going to be a big event. There were tents throughout the city.


(3) Above left: Got our bags set aside, found our bicycles which were trucked over separately on an 18 wheeler, and now it was time to check into the service we were using to make life easier. This was our initiation into waiting in lines. (4) Above right: Wow, there are a lot of tents at this one location.


(5) Above left: After we got our gear into the tents and settled in, my cousin, my brother, and I (left to right) took a short bike ride to do the ceremonial tire dip into the Missouri River. (6) Above right: We also rode into town to the main expo area where bands were scheduled to play and walked around looking at all the goods.