Vendors hoping to bask in the fun of RAGBRAI 2026 will have limited room to roam in Story County.
The 53rd edition of the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will run July 19-25 and cover the shortest distance in history at 391.4 miles, starting in Onawa and ending in Dubuque.
While Story County doesn’t have an overnight stop, the route will pass through a trio of towns on Wednesday, July 22, including Gilbert, Nevada, and Colo.
RAGBRAI participants will ride through Story County after overnighting in Boone on Day 3, Tuesday, July 21.
On Tuesday, May 5, the Story County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution banning vendors from setting up along the road, or the right-of-way, in unincorporated areas of Story County. Vendors are also banned along the roughly four-mile stretch of road between Highway 69 and Interstate 35 that passes the Martin Marietta mine.
The right-of-way includes the ditch area from the slope to the middle of the road.
Story County initially considered a resolution that would ban RAGBRAI vendors from all unincorporated areas along the route.
County staff will present more specific vendor limits at the next supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday, May 12.
The Boone to Gilbert leg is 17.8 miles, while the stretch from Gilbert to the meeting town of Nevada, using a combination of E-23, Highway 69, W. Riverside Road, E-29 and S-14 is 18 miles.
Riders will leave Nevada and head to Colo on a 7.3-mile stretch of the old Lincoln Highway (E-41) before departing Story County into State Center and Marshalltown.
The entire Day 4 route spans 67.9 miles.
Story County staff cite safety concerns
Nicholas Lennie, chief deputy with the Story County Sheriff’s Office, said public safety must be considered any time a special event like RAGBRAI comes to the county.
“When you have vendors setting up within the right-of-way of the route, our concern is bottlenecking of the bikes with oncoming traffic, which creates a significant increase in risk of a car versus a bicycle accident,” Lennie said during Tuesday’s supervisor meeting. “Vendors being set up free and clear from the right-of-way, where there’s not an issue with bicyclists bottlenecking up on the roadway, I think that mitigates the concerns from law enforcement.”
Story County Emergency Management Services Coordinator Melissa Spencer said staff is also concerned about RAGBRAI riders on Riverside Road, which passes Martin Marietta, since the mine doesn’t plan to stop operations as riders pass through.
“There’s roughly 1,000 trucks a day that come through that road,” Spencer said. “That does pose a risk of rock coming off of trucks, rock on the road, and traffic issues as well.”
Residents speak against RAGBRAI vendor restrictions
Several Story County residents and RAGBRAI vendors spoke Tuesday in opposition to the restrictions.
Marty Chitty, who is running in Story County’s primary election, said “Story County exists to be a welcoming place,” and thought the county would champion Story County as open for business.
Josh Boersma, who lives in the Milford Schoolhouse along the RAGBRAI route on E-29 outside of Nevada, said people participate to “enjoy and see what all Iowa has to offer.”
“By trying to implement a rider ban on rural areas, you’re taking away from the rural community, the very people you claim to represent as public servants,” Boersma said. “This isn’t equitable or fair to all taxpayers.”
Scott Carlson, owner of the Iowa Craft Beer Tent, said that though his business serves a small portion of riders, about 2-4%, it introduces them to a wide number of Iowa businesses and breweries.
The Iowa Craft Beer Tent often has multiple stops along each day’s RAGBRAI route.
“We invite just about every Iowa brewery to come, so they get to try things they’ve never had before,” Carlson said. “We get to expose them to a lot of what Iowa has to offer.”
Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: RAGBRAI vendors are banned from certain areas along Story County route
Reporting by Celia Brocker, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
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