RAGBRAI drops plan for Guinness World Record July 26

DES MOINES — The Des Moines Register has announced it’s dropping plans to shoot for a world record number of cyclists during the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa next month.

The event is known as RAGBRAI and this is the 50th year bicyclists will make the week long, statewide trek from the Missouri River to the Mississippi. RAGBRAI organizers had hoped to set a Guinness World Record mark for largest parade of bicycles on the day riders bike from Ames to Des Moines. However, the newspaper says new criteria from the publisher of Guinness World Records make it impossible.

Planners do expect as many as 100,000 riders to be on RAGBRAI’s Wednesday, July 26 route from Ames to Des Moines. RAGBRAI will start in Sioux City on Sunday, July 23 and end 500 miles later in Davenport on Saturday, July 29.

Axios Des Moines is reporting Gannett, which owns The Register, has sent a cease and desist letter to a former RAGBRAI director and a long-time RAGBRAI rider who’ve posted an alternative route online for riders to make their way from Ames to Des Moines. The RAGBRAI veteran told Axios he’s concerned about having so many riders on the same path on July 26. The letter from Gannett suggests the alternate route will not be as safe since it will not be staffed by law enforcement.