RAGBRAI 2024 Winners

Well, another RAGBRAI is in the books. But this one was different. This year, instead of just my Buff Riders team “winning”, I won too. Yes, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa is a “bicycle ride”, not a “race”. They don’t crown a winner at the end, but I did win RAGBRAI. Instead of SAGing the entire way, I completed my first three on-bike segments this year.

However, the communities are winners too. Not just the “overnight towns” that host the hordes each night. The “meeting towns” that host lunchtime gatherings between bikers and their SAG crews win as well. And, for the first time, I saw that the towns in between win as well. Each of these communities put their best foot forward and welcomed riders with open arms. The communities that lie along the route did an amazing job of showing their Iowa hospitality and charm.

No Awards This Year

Typically, I “award” one “meeting town” and one “overnight town” that appeared to excel above the rest. However, more and more, my team isn’t wandering into town as much as we did the past few years. So anointing one town as a winner over another that I didn’t get to fully experience would be unjust. Hence, no awards will be handed out this year from Rural Resurrection.

Yet, I did see quite a bit of interesting tidbits in each community that were worth pointing out. So this year, I’ll give a brief rundown of some of the great work from these small towns that I DID get to see.

Coast to Coast

Each year I typically break down the towns that stick out to me based on their type. A rundown of the best overnight towns or meeting towns would be talked about separately. This year, let’s just go “coast” to “coast”, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River to talk about the towns that did a job worth noting in my eyes.

Emerson

Let’s start it off with a community along the route that didn’t serve as an overnight town. The community didn’t even serve as a meeting town. The town of Emerson sat along the route and was the last town before the hills that led into Red Oak, the first overnight town. Maybe it was because Emerson was the first “Ride Through Town” that I visited as a biker…ever, but I think they did a great job. On top of the typical vendors and music in their downtown, Emerson had inflatables dowsed with water for a slip-n-slide experience. It was a great addition to a hot day. They also had some good live music in a picnic shelter at the park that adjoined their downtown area.

Red Oak

Of course, I cannot talk RAGBRAI 2024 without talking about my hometown. Not only did the Buff Riders get to stay at Casa de Solberg, but they were able to see a decent amount of the town which drove me to start this blog. It appeared that Red Oak utilized its open spaces well to house the masses that came into town and had the shuttles necessary to get people around effectively. 

The square was also well set up with vendors, seating, and the night’s concert venue. The stage was tucked into the back side of a vacant lot in downtown Red Oak. This allowed the riders to stand in grass, rather than the hard concrete of the street circling the square. After a long day of riding, that little added cushion under your feet helps. Although the park had quite few seating options, hay bails were brought in for additional seating. But many of the riders were content with sprawling out on the grass or bringing their own chairs.

Atlantic

Atlantic hosted RAGBRAI just five years ago. But they did a bang-up job in doing so. That year Hairball brought the house down, but this year they had the Pork Tornadoes to lure riders downtown. Yet what didn’t change was the great linear arrangement from the downtown vendors to the concert venue and the adjoining park space. The vendor area was enhanced by street lights and light strings in the trees along its length. It provided ample light and a great atmosphere for the crowds that strolled through.

Once again, we were hosted by the Scott Bennett family, owners of NISHNANET. With their office location in downtown Atlantic as our home base, we were a short walk to the night’s festivities. NISHNANET also provided free WiFi in select locations in the community. This is important to note as often the existing cellular data networks in RAGBRAI towns are overloaded during the event.

Thankfully, I was able to capture the nighttime scene with a little better clarity than in 2019.

Greenfield

If any town should win an award for their achievements this year, it should be Greenfield. After an F4-size tornado ripped through the community on May 21, 2024, few believed that they would be able to act as a meeting town on the third day of the ride. But they did so and did it well. Even if the townspeople were tattered and torn, you couldn’t tell. One of the shuttle drivers had lost her home to the tornado, but that didn’t preclude her from putting forth a jovial attitude as she ferried people about for several hours.

If you want to help their recovery efforts, go to RAGBRAI’s Greenfield Strong page and follow the link to the page to donate.

Winterset

I’d like to write about the work that Winterset put forth to welcome riders, but I didn’t spend much time in town. One of the Buff Riders had secured an overnight stay at PepperHarrow Farm (Facebook Link). Sitting just south of town, this farm was not your typical farm with massive combines and other tractors roaming the land. It is a flower farm that provided a setting reminiscent of our stay in Ida Grove a few years ago.

On top of the gorgeous setting, this agritourism attraction offered food and entertainment for the night. In addition to burgers and wood-fired pizza, they brought in local artist Liv McNair to sing to those in attendance. Although she had to put up with a wild, raucous Buff Rider audience, Liv put on a very good show.

Mount Pleasant

Much like some of the other overnight towns, we didn’t have the energy to go into town to check out the local vendors and the band that RAGBRAI set up for the night. But they had a massive campground that was perfect for the event. The “Old Threshers” campground was great, with electrical service at each of the many campsites (along with campground showers and restrooms), it offered more than many of the other communities did along the way. 

It’s not a campground that exists for no reason. Each year the campground hosts the “Midwest Old Treshers Reunion“. Each year thousands descend on Mount Pleasant to celebrate antique steam tractors and other unique farming equipment.

But what really stuck out about Mount Pleasant was the Midwest Electric Railway. A standard gauge trolley would routinely circle through the campground to pick up campers to take them up toward McMillian Park, where the evening’s festivities were hosted. It was the most charming shuttle service I’ve encountered since my annual RAGBRAI pilgrimage started.

Standing Out Above the Rest

All the communities that participated in RAGBRAI 2024 did a great job this year. Whether it was a “Ride Through Town”, a “Meeting Town”, or an “Overnight Town”, they all did a great job. As always, I’m already looking forward to next year!