DES MOINES, Iowa — With RAGBRAI just a week away, first-time rider Matt Heiller and his teammate Matthias Peters, a returning rider, are winding down their training before hitting the pavement.
His team has quite a few newbies, and Heiller admitted they didn't get to train as much as they should have.
"Our team has probably not put in enough miles, but I think there's a couple of us, get the adrenaline going, I think we might make it," he said.
Heiller, who is from Boone, is spending the final weekend pre-RAGBRAI biking with a friend.
"So far this will be the first ride of the season, and RAGBRAI is next week," Mathias Peters said.
The six-member team has been training individually. Heiller had the idea to ride RAGBRAi as a team: three members are RAGBRAI first-timers and the other three have done RAGBRAI, but never the full week.
"I think the next couple days we're going to try to get a couple long rides, put back to back, maybe get a feel for how the week might go," Heiller said.
In Fort Dodge, the RAGBRAI association is donating over $15,000 to various area charities.
"These are all local charitable organizations in town that do a lot of good and they're getting some money just because Fort Dodge is agreeing to host RAGBRAI as an overnight town," Cameron Nelson with RAGBRAI Fort Dodge said.
RAGBRAI 2021 route (July 25-31)
- Le Mars to Sac City
- Sac City to Fort Dodge
- Fort Dodge to Iowa Falls
- Iowa Falls to Waterloo
- Waterloo to Anamosa
- Anamosa to DeWitt
- DeWitt to Clinton