Iowa bike ride’s 50th cycles on

Cyclists flooded streets at an unprecedented rate Wednesday as the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa passed into the state’s capital.

Organizers for the weeklong ride, better known as RAGBRAI, say the yearly journey is the largest bike tour in the world — but they had never seen anything like Wednesday’s ride.

“We’re just in awe of seeing Highway 30 be all four lanes full with bikes for as long as you can see. It’s a pretty magical thing,” director Matt Phippen said Wednesday evening.

The deluge of wheels came as the tour celebrated its 50th anniversary, with a 50-mile ride between Ames and Des Moines.

Despite pre-ride estimates of as many as 75,000 cyclists expected to join for the day, organizers declined to pursue official accreditation for an in-reach world record, instead focusing resources on safety, Phippen said.

But the massive influx of bikes, abnormal even for the typically bustling “carnival on wheels,” was impossible to miss. Early in the morning, cyclists were forced to walk as crowding in rural Slater stretched a half-mile ahead of the town.

As the riders, many coming off a 100-mile trip Tuesday, gorged on pancakes and coffee on Main Street, the town’s residents worked to raise money for a new library and community center by selling everything from water to Advil. Darla Hornbuckle, 58, photographed visitors posing under a Dr. Seuss backdrop at the spot where the building could be built. Seeing the downtown crowd was overwhelming, she said.

“It’s been so weird to see so many people,” she said.

But after weeks of planning, the big day where tens of thousands passed through the small town was also a relief.

“It’s kind of like when you’re doing a wedding. You plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. And then the day is finally here,” Hornbuckle said.

Madrid, the next town down the road, with a name definitively not pronounced like the Spanish capital’s, opted for a Mad Hatter aesthetic for its RAGBRAI celebration.

Beyond its similarly packed main intersection and past an inflatable slip-n-slide near the fire station, Amy Schleier manned the gate of an animal enclosure.

The 65-year-old said she had volunteered the day before in nearby Luther, selling beer out of a stock tank. Far into the morning, no baby goats had escaped under her watchful eye, she said.

“It’s like the circus coming to town,” she said. “It’s just a load of fun.”

Schleier said she was proud the town had been full of cyclists for hours.

“It makes a good impression. Nobody wants to be the lame stop,” she said.

Many riders joined the cycling tour for one day as it passed between two of the largest cities along the seven-day route. Among the new riders was Brett Zeller, who last tried riding RAGBRAI when he was 15 years old.

Back then, he bailed two days short of the finish, and his mom told him the ride was a party for adults.

But older now, and legally able to party, the 30-year-old pulled his gravel bike over in Ankeny when he saw a sign that said “air conditioning and free beer” while friends lagged behind.

“That seemed like a good point to hold up and wait for them,” he said, beer in hand. “This time around, it’s a lot more fun.”

The busy roads thinned out later in the day, Zeller said. Plus, his Hawaiian shirt offered good airflow. A friend rollerblading had a tough time with hills and potholes, he added.

As the sun beat down on the gray concrete roads outside Des Moines in the afternoon, Shelly Dougherty hung behind a group speeding in line, speakers blasting pop music. The 54-year-old is riding RAGBRAI for the third time, but this year’s tour is her first with her two teen daughters, she said.

The road felt crowded early Wednesday, she said as she biked. But she passed biker after biker on the left as she sped through the suburbs late in the day.

Dougherty, of Phoenix, hasn’t gotten to train with long bike rides this year because of the heat. But back on the bike, she’s found strength in realizing she can take on the challenge of biking 500 miles across the hilly, hot state, she said.

“Sometimes, you don’t realize all the power of what you can do,” Dougherty said.

And if the long bike ride unveiled the willpower she has, it would have uncovered the same for countless others. The roads filled with everyone from racing athletes to kids on training wheels, Phippen said. The bikes pulled onto the route from trails, side streets and driveways, he said.

And the whole way, the riders were cheered on by entire towns and country road spectators.

“It brought out everyone,” Phippen said. “It really spotlights Iowa. We’re not a flyover state. You need to come visit.”

Tens of thousands of people pitched tents and set up recreational vehicles throughout Des Moines Waterworks Park in the evening, where legendary rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd was set to perform at night.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com