RAGBRAI has come and gone, and the city of Sigourney was able to look back on their experience as a success. Organizer Amber Kephart said riders entered town as early as 7:30 a.m. on Friday, and the last didn’t leave until after 5 p.m. They even had a few who camped overnight, even though Sigourney was not an official overnight stay. Kephart said she was pleased with how smoothly everything went, and they had very few problems arise over the course of the day.

Their hope was to change the city’s opinion of RAGBRAI, and she believes that was achieved. They had numerous people ask if they had started cleanup early on Saturday morning, but in actuality they didn’t have to do much because the riders took care of themselves. Kephart said they didn’t have to tell the riders to stay out of the fountains, which was a big problem the last time they were there. She added, “The whole attitude toward RABGRAI has completely changed for our town.” Additionally, the city was able to open their beer garden for the community earlier than they’d planned, since there was so little cleanup to do.