By Xiomara Levsen
Index Editor
Over 20,000 bicyclists came through West Liberty and rural Muscatine County Saturday, July 29, for RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa).
“I love it,” said Jessica Koch, who was waiting for her friend from Maryland to come down North Calhoun Street Saturday morning. “I enjoy coming out and saying ‘Good Morning’ to them all and just seeing the accomplishment that they’ve been able to do.”
West Liberty Chamber of Commerce Director Charles Brooke said he thought the event Saturday went well in town. Mary Larson, his co-chair on the RAGBRAI committee, also told Brooke after the event was over she felt it went well.
“All of our work paid off,” Brooke said. “The late night conversations, meetings on a weekly basis since April and dodging a small rain storm Friday night paid off.”
RAGBRAI has come through West Liberty before and each time Brooke said the bicyclists love it.
“West Liberty is always on RAGBRAI’s radar and we always show up,” he said.
West Liberty was the second stop after Iowa City Saturday morning. Everything downtown and on Calhoun Street was cleaned up by 12:30 p.m.
“All my (vendors) had their items picked up by noon,” Brooke said. “We even had to disperse some leftover food items from our out of town vendors that had to get rid of (the food) because this was their last town of the week. I even got a pie from the Kalona Bakery vendor.”
Brooke would like to thank everyone affected by RAGBRAI over the weekend.
“We understand that we closed streets and riders may have been to town before everyone was awake, but I received so many thanks from our riders, which truly goes to all of the residents in West Liberty,” he said.
This was an amazing experience for West Liberty to be on the RAGBRAI route for the 50th anniversary, Brooke added. He would love to see the bicyclists return to West Liberty in the future.
Muscatine County Sheriff Quinn Riess told the supervisors during the Muscatine County Supervisors meeting Monday, July 31, that he appreciated the work his staff did during fair week and then for RAGBRAI. He said he didn’t hear of any issues.
Supervisor Jeff Sorensen said he was out Saturday morning when the RAGBRAI bicyclists came through the county and also thought everything went well.