Riders on RAGBRAI.

Riders on RAGBRAI.

The 10,000 people who are being accepted for this year’s big bike ride across Iowa should have gotten their notice via email over the weekend. RAGBRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, will start July 18th in Sioux City and conclude a week later in Davenport.

Joe Taylor, president of the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, says a new website for the event is now “live.” “That’s one-stop shopping for all information about RAGBRAI, parking, hotels, if you want to volunteer, you can put your name on the list,” Taylor says.

That website is: www.DavenportRAGBRAI.com. As the ride makes its way across the state, it usually swells to around 15,000 riders who will dip their bike tires ceremoniously in the Mississippi River at the end. Other host cities during the week are: Storm Lake, Fort Dodge, Eldora, Cedar Falls, Hiawatha and Coralville.

Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba says he’s looking forward to showing off the community as the final host city for the ride. “We have extensive recreational paths and a thriving downtown,” Mayor Gluba says. “We have the opportunity this gives us to showcase our wonderful community to people across Iowa and across the nation.”

The bike ride ends in Davenport on the same day as the Bix 7 road race with its annual participation of up to 20,000 runners and walkers.