RAGBRAI, Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is more than just a bike ride, it is an epic eight-day rolling festival of bicycles, music, food, camaraderie, and community. It is the oldest (50 YEARS!), largest, and longest multi-day bicycle touring event in the world. For the second year, Linn County Rotary Club is sponsoring the Rotary RAGBRAI team! 

This is a great opportunity for a club fundraiser, as well as create awareness about Rotary. No matter if you’ve always been curious to check out RAGBRAI as a rider or volunteer, this is a great way to get involved with this Iowa tradition. 
 
You can find many more details in the points below, but in brief, we are looking for people that may wish to ride the whole week or part of the week, volunteers to help drive the team and transport during the week, and people to refer friends and family and neighbors that may wish to join on RAGBRAI. If nothing else, we will be looking desperately for host families to allow us to camp in their yard and use their driveways as a team works its way across the state. The route will be released on January 28, at that point will send another message for requests.1. RAGBRAI will take place from July 22-29, 2023. The route will be released on January 28. We will plan to drive out from Cedar Rapids early Saturday, July 22 and will get back to Cedar Rapids Saturday the 29th in the late afternoon. We will plan a kick off dinner the 21st at our home 225 Wasatch Ct. NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52402. This team will depart and return to Cedar Rapids.2. Registration takes place at https://ragbrai.com/ragbrai-l-registration/
 
There is a discount right now for registering early until February 28. However, keep in mind you must register no later than May 15th, or earlier if the ride sells out. When you register, make sure to join team “Rotary”.3. In addition to paying your RAGBRAI registration, the Rotary team fee will be $275 for the week. This will be due before the start of the ride and net proceeds will benefit the Linn County Rotary Club. This fee provides a lot! Including: Transportation to and from the start and ending towns, transports of your bike and gear, light snacks each morning and at the end of the ride, SAG service if you need to skip a day or have a breakdown or can’t finish a day, kick off dinner and the company of some amazing Rotary and friends of Rotary people! We will also work to find overnight housing/semi-private backyard camping each night.4. We will need volunteers to help drive out the team and 1-3 drivers for the week. We will need one person to captain the RV and gear trailer and likely 1 or 2 others to drive support vans. We will plan to cap the team size this year at 25 riders so we can find reasonable overnight accommodations. If you would like to fill one of these roles, let me know! PLEASE also forward this to anyone who may be interested.5. Don’t want to ride a bike across the entire state of Iowa but want to check out part of the ride?? You are welcome to join as a “day rider.” You will still need to register for the days you wish to ride with RAGBRAI (use link above) and you will need to contribute to Linn County Rotary $50 for each night we transport your gear. You will also need to figure out your own transportation to and from your start/stop points. Finally, priority will be given to week long riders if we approach capacity limits.6. As mentioned above, we will work to find host homes. Once the route is released, we will seek Rotary friends in these communities. This gives our team the potential for indoor plumbing (toilet and shower), power, and most importantly a place to set up tents in relative privacy. If there is inclement weather, host homes will often allow some indoor sleeping. However, plan on tent camping. More information will come as you register and details develop.Please consider joining us for this great ride!! If you wish to join, please register and contact me at johnmschultz@gmail.com to confirm details. Please share this information with friends and family and let’s work to fill up the team and promote Rotary!! I have done 13 RAGBAI’s and can answer many of your questions. It is truly a ride for ALL and a great way to discover Iowa.John SchultzPresident, Schultz Strings