BRING ON THE BIKES! Waukon and Lansing to be final stops for RAGBRAI 2017

Tourism and economic development officials from Allamakee County are celebrating the announcement made Saturday evening, January 21 by RAGBRAI officials that the annual seven-day bike ride across the state of Iowa will be making Lansing its final destination for the event's famous "dipping of the tire" in the Mississippi River to bring the ride to an official close. Furthermore, Allamakee County will be receiving a double dose of RAGBRAI excitement, as Waukon was also named as a final overnight stop for the annual event. Those announcements were made official at the RAGBRAI Announcement Party held Saturday, January 21 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. RAGBRAI, which stands for the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is a non-competitive bicycle ride first organized by The Des Moines Register in 1973. This year's 45th annual edition of the ride will take place July 23-29, beginning in Orange City and ultimately making its way across the northern portion of the state of Iowa before reaching Cresco for an overnight stop Thursday, July 27 and its final overnight stop in Waukon Friday, July 28 before officially ending in Lansing Saturday, July 29. Local officials and volunteers will now be spending the next six months laying out the welcome mat for an anticipated 10,000 bike riders. Local organizational and volunteer opportunities will abound as details are worked out. Additional details will be published in The Standard and at www.waukonstandard.com as they become available, and local RAGBRAI information will also be posted consistently to a newly-created website, www.allamakeeragbrai.com.