Iowa’s Ride To Revamp for 2021 Launch
They followed the lead of their more famous counterpart in canceling this year's event, which was to be their first, and now Iowa's Ride has announced changes for the new launch in 2021--or if and whenever it finally gets off the ground.
The ride will try to roll out its inaugural event again next summer. It is set be held July 18-24, 2021, and will go across the state that week from Dubuque to Rock Rapids.
Registration for the ride will now be free, but a waiver of liability must be signed by participants. Organizers recommend that riders who signed up this year use their money, if they took a refund, to help support the communities in Iowa along the 2020 Iowa's Ride route, or donate to their preferred charities.
KCRG reports that the organizers will provide "limited support" to riders. That means one single campground per overnight stop, which includes Monticello, Vinton, Eldora, Clarion, Emmetsburg, and Sheldon. A truck will carry riders' baggage from town to town and showers will be available from municipalities, or from a limited number of shower trucks. Not exactly the party RAGBRAI always offers.
It really sounds like Iowa's Ride participants are going to be left largely on their own and it doesn't seem like a good look for an organization trying to establish an alternative to a famous and well-oiled machine of an event like RAGBRAI. The leader of the group operating the new ride is TJ Juskiewicz who, for his part, stated in a report published by KCRG, "I plan to ride with everyone that would like to ride their bikes from Dubuque to Rock Rapids in the summer of 2021".
Hopefully, by 2022, they can work out a more organized approach, and get their ducks in a row with no obstacles (or pandemics) standing in their way.