Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Craig S. on November 12, 2010 at 5:22am

Unless you're riding with a long established team, it doesn't matter when you register as participants are selected by lottery in the spring.

Long established teams like S.N.I.F.F., Checker, SKUNK, Bad Monkey, Pink Floyds, Gourmet, etc. do get the benefit of entry without going through the lottery process, even though the Des Moines Register will vehemently deny this.

Regarding the route, it's pure speculation but if you've been doing this for quite some time, you can kinda guess based upon past routes. My money is on a very southern route moving to a south-central ending like perhaps Bettendorf or Davenport which will also be very hilly. I wouldn't mind if the ride never ended in Burlington again as the mayflies really suck.

Then again, they could pull something like the route in 2001 where we meandered around western Iowa for 3 days then they wisened up and had us sprint across the state for three 80+ miles days in a row in order to finish on time. That was a great year, took it's toll on a ton of people that forgot RAGBRAI is a bike ride.

So in other words; nobody knows but the planners at the DMR and the towns they contact and everyone is sworn to secrecy so it helps to get your legs and your liver conditioned appropriately regardless of the route.

Mark Newald said:

Monday is the first day you can fill out RAGBRAI application. Does anyone jump right on it, or do you wait until after the route has been posted? I saw some blogs guessing 2011 was going to be a long ride.....

Permalink Reply by Mark Newald on November 12, 2010 at 6:35am

I guess it would depend on when you wanted to spend the money also. They probaly cash your check right away. I guess i will probaly wait till after the first of the year.

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