"Pre-RAGBRAI" rolls through Decorah Friday morning

Some of the pre-RAGBRAI riders enter Decorah

Hosting 10,000 bike riders is a big deal--even if Decorah is a pass-through community on this year's border-to-border Iowa bike ride and not an overnight destination.

So representatives from RAGBRAI are riding the entire 2017 route this week, using the same schedule that will be used during the last week of July.  That meant a group of three dozen bike riders rolled into Decorah around 8:30 Friday morning.

RAGBRAI Assistant Director Scott Garner says having a group of bicycle riders do the route in advance helps to inspect road and traffic conditions on the RAGBRAI route.  It's easier to notice potholes or cracks in  the concrete while on a bike, Garner tells decorahnews.com. Riding the route on the exact schedule of the actual RAGBRAI also helps organizers to see the traffic patterns at that time of day.

The pre-RAGBRAI group Friday morning met with Decorah RAGBRAI planners at Toppling Goliath.  Garner says it's a chance to answer questions from organizers and to double-check their preparations for handling 10,000 bike riders.