UPDATE: RAGBRAI releases road route to Charles City

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

THURSDAY, 9 a.m. – The route from Charles City to Cresco will take riders through Ionia and New Hampton for the first time in 40 years, RAGBRAI organizers announced on Thursday morning. The crowd will also make their first RAGBRAI visit to Lawler, then carry on through Protivin before going north to Cresco. Support vehicle maps will be released in July.

WEDNESDAY – One more piece of the massive RAGBRAI planning puzzle was put into place this week for Charles City, after the state planning committee released the travel route to town from Clear Lake.

Riders will bike in from Rockford along Highway 14 to Charles City. This leg of the journey will also take them through Thornton, Swaledale, Rockwell and Cartersville before entering Floyd County. The route from Charles City to Cresco will be announced on Thursday morning.

Now that the roads have been announced, Charles City volunteers will begin planning which roads in city limits will be set aside for the thousands of bikers arriving in town.

“We want to find the safest route possible in town,” Fire Chief Eric Whipple, a member of the Charles City Executive Planning Committee, said.

Volunteers have a range of variables they need to consider before settling on separate routes for bicyclists, RAGBRAI support vehicles and other motorists in Charles City. RAGBRAI riders will be entering from the west side of town.

“Which way the support vehicles will be coming in –– we don’t want the riders and support vehicles to cross at any point,” Whipple said. “We’ll look to see if there will be road construction anywhere … We have to find out those few things and make a plan.”

It will take between two to three weeks for the subcommittees Whipple works with to finalize routes in and out of Charles City. Those committees are made up of medical, law enforcement and public safety officials.

“A lot of the other committees are depending on (us for) where they set up information booths, campgrounds, and thing like that. We’ve got to make a decision fairly quickly,” Whipple said. “Our main priority is safety, that’s what we’re aiming for.”