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The route for this year’s Register’s Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) has been no secret for months now, but recently the through stops for each day have been announced, and Guthrie County is represented once again.

Panora Mayor Curtis Thornberry says that he and other city officials knew that the town would be the first morning stop on the third day for a few weeks before it was announced, but had to wait for the official announcement from RAGBRAI before they were able to discuss it with the public. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that he’s excited for both Guthrie Center and Panora to be part of the journey for this year’s bicyclists.

“I think that that’s a wonderful opportunity for our county to kind of have two primary locations for that day. I would expect from about six o’clock in the morning until about 12pm, 12:30pm that day, we’re gonna be seeing that influx of people coming from over there to Panora. And so being the breakfast stop, we gotta make sure we can feed everybody between local groups as well as some of the veteran vendors that kind of come along.”

Thornberry mentions that with the town being the breakfast stop, it’s important to bring in local businesses, and that he’s excited to see some Panora Chamber Members take part in the process. He adds that an important aspect RAGBRAI officials stressed was making this an opportunity for local organizations and entities to participate, but to not try and do too much, because once the bicyclists are gone there may not be much of an avenue to sell the rest of what they’ve made.