KDSN RADIO News
Up to 20,000 expected in Forest City as RAGBRAI rolls in
The number of people on RAGBRAI — the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa — would classify as the state’s 28th largest city, but the bicyclists and others who join the week-long rolling event stay in one place for just one night.
Troy Thompson, a member of the RAGBRAI host committee in Forest City, has the estimate of this year’s RAGBRAI entourage. “We think 20,000,” Thompson says. “That’s a nice round number. It’s somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 people.”
Riders who left Estherville this morning will travel nearly 74 miles to get to Forest City, where the population will more than quadruple for this one night. “I think most of the riders will be here…the biggest group will start coming in after lunch…I don’t know (maybe) one to six and then the stragglers,” Thompson says. “They’re supposed to be off the road by six.”
The Forest City theme is “Ride Forest Ride” — a play on the movie “Forrest Gump” — and host committee member Signe Meinders says the Forest Theater has some special showings. “They will be showing ‘Forrest Gump,’ like, on a loop all day,” she says.
Last night, residents installed pennants, flags, and artwork on the town square in Forest City. There’s chalk art on the street, and artwork from Forest City students has been plastered on windows, including the windows of the Winnebago County Courthouse.
(Reporting by A.J. Taylor, KIOW, Forest City)
