News : RAGBRAI Route Inspection Pre-Ride to visit Vinton June 4

There really is only one good way to inspect the selected roads for a bike event … get out and ride it on bike! And that is exactly what we are going to do with a team of knowledgeable cyclists thoroughly examining every mile of the RAGBRAI route on bicycles.

For the eleventh consecutive year the RAGBRAI Route Inspection Pre-Ride Team will ride the entire RAGBRAI route 50 days in advance of the event. The team is comprised of RAGBRAI staff & crew members, former RAGBRAI host town committee chairs, veteran RAGBRAI riders, bicycle shop owners and friends.

The Route Inspection Ride spends the entire week inspecting the route and teaching the local RIDE RIGHT Committee what to do with the information learned during the inspection ride. They also will be looking at traffic patterns since they will be riding the route on the same day of the week that RAGBRAI will ride on later this summer.

In addition to reporting on road conditions, the RAGBRAI staff will be writing a daily update for the website. We try to point out some places of interest along the route that no one would want to miss. We are always looking to find the best pie in each town! We plan to stop in every town and discover in advance the great food that will be served during RAGBRAI and the places to visit.

RAGBRAI works diligently with the RIDE RIGHT committees to continually inspect the roads and report potential hazards to local officials and engineers who might be able to repair the roadways. The local RIDE RIGHT committee also alerts home owners on the route about the event and educations townspeople about bicycle safety.

Be sure to tune in each day for the daily updates and photos from the route inspection ride on the RAGBRAI website www.ragbrai.com. You can also follow the pre-ride adventure and learn interesting tidbits about the route by following @TJRAGBRAI and @RAGRAI_IOWA on Twitter.

Vinton’s RAGBRAI Pre-Ride committee is thrilled to be able to host the pre-ride crew for lunch on Thursday, June 4. RAGBRAI committee members will meet with the pre-ride crew and discuss any questions or concerns the riders may have prior to our big day in July! Please warmly welcome the group of riders as they come into Vinton following the designated RAGBRAI route!

Our next community meeting is June 23 at 6:30pm in the basement of Farmers Savings Bank. Please plan to attend!

As always, if you have any questions about RAGBRAI rolling through Vinton or are interested in volunteering on the day of the event, contact the Vinton Unlimited office.