Hunter
02/01/22
The group that splintered off from the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa apparently has decided to call it quits after never staging a ride across the state.
Little Village Magazine reports that Iowa’s Ride was established in October 2019 after RAGBRAI director TJ Juskiewicz and two other longtime staff members quit due to disagreements with the management of the Register’s parent company. They announced that they would hold a competing event the same week as RAGBRAI, crossing the state in the opposite direction.
The group decided not to directly compete with the established event, and both were canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Iowa’s ride kept 25 percent of registrant’s fees because of what they called “un-recoupable costs.”
Juskiewicz relocated to Arizona to run another cycling event in 2021, and remaining organizers planned a weekend cycling event this past July based in Eldora, Iowa that was expected to draw about 500 riders.
Little Village reports that the last post on its Facebook page was July 4th, and their former website is now listed as available for purchase on GoDaddy.
RAGBRAI organizers expect 15,000 riders in 2022.