Greene County was overtaken Tuesday by thousands upon thousands of bicyclists.

The 50th anniversary of the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) went through the central and southern portions of Greene County, as Jefferson was a pass through town and Rippey was the meeting town, which was the one chance that bicyclists had to be with their support vehicles for that day. 

Jefferson Matters Executive Director Matt Wetrich thought everything went very well as anywhere from 40,000-50,000 cyclists made their way from Carroll through Jefferson and on their way to Ames as the next overnight stop on Tuesday. He thanked everyone involved for pulling together to make sure the day went smoothly. 

“That positive attitude to be willing to help and chip in as possible is everything for those of us doing the organizing and trying to fit pieces together. And it really makes a tremendous difference.”   

Mary Weaver was one of the organizers with the Rippey stop and she described the scene of when most of the bicyclists came into town.

“From about 10 o’clock until 2 o’clock it was (just) solid people. If you tried to walk through them, because of their bikes, it was just almost impossible. And then they were stopping and being in line for the food vendors as well. It was just mass humanity.”     

Weaver added there were about 40 vendors in Rippey and five were from Greene County. It was also reported that over 400 people visited the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower, 150 people signed into the Greene County Historical Museum, which also included 25 states; and people from five different continents went through Greene County.

The RAGBRAI route started in Sioux City on Sunday, July 22nd and ended in Davenport on Saturday, July 29th. Click here to see the photos of Raccoon Valley Radio’s coverage of RAGBRAI.