The Winning Towns of RAGBRAI 2025

Another successful RAGBRAI has ended. Tired riders, tired event staff, and a myriad of others have all gone home for a good rest. The Buff Riders team “won” the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Though the “bicycle ride” is not a “race”, we all have our little wins. Mine was my first full-day ride on a peg leg and a prayer.

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, once again, I got the opportunity to see a few of the towns in between win as well. The Aventon bike I’ve ridden over the past couple of years has given me the ability to see a few of these “Pass Through Towns” that I’ve missed out on over the years.

Each of the communities along the route put their best foot forward and welcomed riders with open arms. These communities did an amazing job of showing their Iowa hospitality and charm.

No Awards, Just Winners

In the past, I would “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 experience fully would be unjust. Hence, once again, no awards will be handed out this year from Rural Resurrection.

Yet, I did see quite a few interesting aspects in each community that were worth pointing out. Some were related to how they handled the ride across Iowa. Others had unique aspects about the community itself that I just have to point out.

Hartley

Let’s start it off with the first meeting town on the route. Hartley welcomed riders on Sunday with a solid setup. Not only did they have maps for the riders’ route through the town, but they also provided maps for the SAG route through town to a dedicated parking area. This is nothing new, but the signage along the route for the SAG drivers stood out. Rather than the typical route arrows printed in a letter-sized format, the signs were roughly two to three feet square in size. Highly visible from a distance, which is quite helpful to drivers.

They also had good wayfinding signage. With a sign hung way above the masses, they pointed the direction to WiFi, restrooms, medical assistance, and more.

Informational signage during events is huge! Make sure it's located in highly visible locations. pic.twitter.com/bkTBBqxvg3

— Rural Resurrection (@ruralresurrect) July 20, 2025

Estherville

The first overnight town that I think deserves mention is Estherville. The downtown setup itself is unique, with essentially a two-square format. The county offices sit on the north block, and the library sits on the south block. The space provided a good layout for the night’s activities.

Additionally, the south end of the Estherville Public Library is one of the many Carnegie Libraries in Iowa. Carnegie Libraries are yet another future subject here on Rural Resurrection. Keep your eyes peeled!

Bancroft

Another meeting town that deserves attention is Brancroft, in Kossuth County. They had an ideal setup for housing the SAG crews during their time in town and a viable route through town. However, what caught my eye the most was south of the main event area. After passing the St. John’s Baptist Church and enjoying the delicious pies supplied by the congregation, you arrive at the Summit Center.

Originally built in the 1930s, this former school has found new life as a community center. During the event, the Summit Center provided clean, modern bathrooms, food, and cold air conditioning for the exhausted riders on the route. But that’s not the whole story on the Summit Center. We’ll be taking a deeper dive on this magnificent project during Rural Resurrection’s Adaptive Reuse Month in December.

Cedar Falls

Another overnight town that deserves mention is Cedar Falls (@CityCF). The community has obviously spent quite a bit of time and money revitalizing downtown. A relatively recent streetscape project reconstructed eleven blocks of the public environment downtown. For more on the streetscape project, check out the Snyder & Associates page on the project.

The festival grounds also highlighted their River Place project. River Place is a mixed-use development that has been constructed between Main Street and the Cedar River. What has been developed over the years has provided a great mix of office, retail, and residential space in close proximity to the nucleus of downtown Cedar Rapids. The pedestrian-friendly design has included plaza spaces that play host to a number of events throughout the year and provide a connection to the trail system along the Cedar River.

As a community planner by trade, I am, of course, drawn to the planning and regulation aspect of redevelopment. Hence, I dug up the City’s webpage on their downtown revitalization efforts. The Imagine Downtown Vision Plan has 92 pages of interesting planning content on the project. The webpage also provides links to the Downtown Character District Plan and its Character District facade review application.

Fairbank

Fairbank was not an Overnight Town or a Meeting Town, so it didn’t get as much attention as other communities along the route. But this Ride Through Town deserves recognition nevertheless. Day 6 of the ride across Iowa was short enough that it didn’t have a planned Meeting Town along the way. But Fairbank served as that Meeting Town for many. Its quaint downtown welcomed riders and included Costa’s Sports Bar and Grill, which also fronted the Wapsipinicon River.

The community’s park system along the river is a great amenity with an island park, a waterfall, and other features, including a veteran’s memorial.

A Comprehensively Great Effort

All the communities that participated in RAGBRAI 2025 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!