There is something oddly fascinating about the day RAGBRAI leaves town.
Yesterday, Guthrie Center was bursting at the seams with tens of thousands of bicyclists, support crews, vendors, musicians and campers. This morning? They left, pedaling out of town and through Panora and Yale toward Boone, leaving behind memories, tire tracks and a faint aroma.
Hosting RAGBRAI is a lot like throwing the world’s biggest backyard barbecue. Many residents spent months planning for guests who stayed about 24 hours, ate everything in sight, used every restroom available and then disappeared before breakfast.
The amount of preparation is almost impossible to comprehend. Committees met for months. Volunteers spent countless hours planning parking, entertainment, sanitation, security, medical services, camping, traffic control and enough portable toilets to make a plumber dizzy. Every detail mattered because there are no do-overs when 20,000 or so cyclists are rolling into town.
And then … just like that … it is over.
The final riders left this morning, strapping on their helmets and waving goodbye. Hopefully, they left with more than full stomachs and tired legs. Hopefully, they remember smiling volunteers, friendly conversations, a welcoming community and towns that made them want to come back someday. Those lasting impressions matter.
Many riders never visited our county before. For them, this whirlwind stop became their first impression and, quite possibly, their only one. That makes every smile, every helpful volunteer and every local business part of the community’s résumé.
Of course, after the last bicycle disappeared over the horizon, reality returned. Mountains of trash now need collecting. Temporary fencing needs to come down. Signs will be removed. Streets will be swept. Parks will soon be restored. Volunteers who survived on little sleep finally can head home for a well-earned nap. Somewhere, we will discover a lonely lawn chair, a single flip-flop or a tent stake that somehow escaped cleanup.
Yes, the communities of Guthrie Center, Panora and Yale are slowly exhaling. By tomorrow, life will look mostly normal again. Traffic will return to ordinary. Restaurants will regain available seating. Grocery stores will once again have bananas in stock. The only reminder that RAGBRAI came through will hopefully be a few sunburned locals and that lingering scent of sweaty spandex. It eventually disappears. The memories, however, stick around much longer.
That is the real legacy of hosting RAGBRAI. Not the crowds. Not the logistics. Not even the cleanup. It is the pride of watching an entire community pull together to welcome strangers as friends.
Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital newsletter
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707