With a potential world record in the balance, online registration for the 50th anniversary edition of the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa opens moments after midnight Tuesday morning.
Started in 1973, RAGBRAI evolved from an idea by Des Moines Register Washington columnist Donald Kaul and copy editor and features writer John Karras to make a six-day, trans-state ride and write about it. Now it's an annual, seven-day event billed as the “oldest, largest and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world.”
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Organizers are setting their sights on breaking a
Guinness World Record for the largest single-day "parade of bicycles," said RAGBRAI Director Matt Phippen. That record was set on June 11, 2000, when 48,615 people rode an 18.2-mile circuit around the city of Udine, Italy.