🌽 Fields of Dreams: Cycling's Greatest Race
How RAGBRAI became one of the America's great sporting events
Past picturesque fields and through town after town, a massive peloton of bikers are out there, right now, competing in one of the most historic cycling events in the world. It happens every summer, like clockwork, holding a permanent spot in the annual calendar of sport. There’s nothing else like it.
No, I’m not talking about the Tour de France.
I’m talking about RAGBRAI—Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
Celebrating the ride’s 50th anniversary this summer, bikers are likely pulling out of the town of Tama (population 3,000) right now and are heading towards Coralville. In this race, the only yellow jerseys in sight belong to fans of the Hawkeyes.
See, RAGBRAI isn’t your typical sporting event. It’s not even exactly a race. It’s more a celebration—of being active, of the outdoors, of community, and of the beautiful state of Iowa. Sports Illustrated once called it “Woodstock on Wheels.”
It all started as a way to sell newspapers during the dog days of summer. In 1973, two columnists at the Des Moines Register hatched a plan to bike from one end of the state to the other over the course of a week. They’d start near Sioux City by dipping the rear wheel of their bikes in the Missouri River which makes up Iowa’s Western border. They’d finish in Davenport, at the Mississippi River on the Eastern side of the Hawkeye State. Along the way, they’d stop in towns and cities like Camp Dodge, Marshalltown, and Waterloo. As they wrote columns from the road, interest swelled. By the end of their six day-long trip, around 300 people had joined them.
Then, the newspaper started to get calls. And not just from Iowans. They came from all over the country, people asking when it would happen again, people wanting to join themselves. In 1974, when riders pulled into the town of Guthrie Center (population 1,500), there was a sign waiting for them. “Please be kind,” it said, “You outnumber us two-to-one.”
In the years since, RAGBRAI has grown into, “the world’s longest, largest, and oldest recreational bicycle touring event.” When the race passed through Des Moines on Wednesday, an estimated 60,000 bikers rode together. Some ride state-of-the-art bikes, while others ride beaters. One man once used a 1941 single-gear antique with a sign on the back that declared, “GEARS ARE FOR WIMPS.” Over the years, Lance Armstrong has been a frequent participant. The governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, joined for a day this year. It doesn’t matter how you do it; it just matters that you’re there.
“The RAGBRAI is like the Grand Canyon,” John Karras, one of the two Register writers who co-founded the race once said. “You can't envision it until you get there.”
Bikers camp along the route, and mini villages sprout up overnight. There are pancake breakfasts and foam parties, masseuses and mechanics. Riders have gotten married along the route, tying cans to the back of the bicycles as they rode off into the Iowan sunset. Churches open their basements to carbo-loaders in search of a spaghetti dinner. A lot of locals bake a lot of pie to share with whoever wants a slice. They say it’s the only place where you can bike 500 miles and gain 10 pounds.
What RAGBRAI has become is the sports world’s deviant stepson, swapping those famous Tour De France sunflowers with corn fields. Water breaks are often forgone in favor of a cold beer; rather than a power bar, racers will take a bratwurst. There aren’t winners or official times or even much competition at all. That might just be the secret to its five decades of success.
There’s something perfect to me about the fact that RAGBRAI has hummed along during a week in which the Saudis offered Kylian Mbappé $776 million for a single season, a monumental new study yet again pointed out the connection between classism and college sports, and the Los Angeles Angels seriously considered trading Shohei Ohtani, the most exciting player in baseball. Sports, like so much else, have become a business, and it seems as if every day, the joy gets sucked out just a little bit. At least, someone is trying to sap that joy.
And then, there’s RAGBRAI. It’s grassroots, it’s ridiculous, and it’s full of creativity. It’s everything we need more of in sports.
At their core, sports are about something much more basic than sponsorships and television deals. They’re not about winning, either. Almost all of us fell in love with these games in backyards and recesses, where maybe we kept score, maybe we didn’t, and really, it was just about the idea that we could play. We could go outside and see how fast we could run, how far we could jump, how many times we could make a free-throw in a row. It’s about wanting to see whether you can bike from one end of Iowa to the other not because you’ll win something. But precisely because you won’t.
So, rock on, RAGBARI. Here’s to another 50 years.
Have you ever participated in RAGBRAI? I’d love to hear about it. Comment on this post, or reply to this email to let me know!
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