Getting Excited About RAGBRAI Again

The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) started in 1973, when 2 writers for the state’s newspaper of record, the Des Moines Register, sought to bike across Iowa from the Missouri to the Mississippi rivers and stop in small towns in rural Iowa along the way to tell their stories.

Now the largest gathering of bike riders in the world, RAGBRAI has been host to nearly 350,000 riders over the years, passing through 780 different communities and covering more than 80% of unincorporated towns in Iowa. This year, upward of 40,000 riders are expected on some days. Lance Armstrong, who rides annually and often with Jimmie Johnson, another avid biker, refers to the ride as Woodstock on wheels.

The Iowa Pharmacists Association (IPA) began sponsoring a group to ride in RAGBRAI 5 years ago, with the purpose of engendering goodwill with the association and the profession by pulling buggies behind the IPA riders’ bikes, with essentials for the ride, such as Band-Aids, butt cream, ibuprofen, and sunscreen.

The IPA makes it a focus of the ride to stop to visit with smalltown pharmacies and local hospital pharmacists to highlight their presence and importance in their communities. I remember growing up in Iowa and RAGBRAI passing through my beloved hometown, Forest City, and now I have grown to appreciate the role that the event plays in promoting the consciousness of rural America to us city dwellers.

Total Pharmacy™ and Pharmacy Times® have partnered with the IPA this year to bring you coverage of the ride. Follow the ride on our social media feeds #PTRidesRAGBRAI.

We are getting ready! #ptridesragbrai pic.twitter.com/VAuL9dBtwX

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 18, 2019

Siights and sounds from Day 2 of RAGBRAI #ptridesragbrai #rollinrx pic.twitter.com/bkrr6sWV16

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 23, 2019

Thanks to the Clouses for hosting us last night and the fire pit! #ptridesragbrai #rollinrx pic.twitter.com/rRpleL02Sg

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 23, 2019

Setting off for the morning’s 67 mile ride ...@RAGBRAI_IOWA #ptridesragbrai pic.twitter.com/xB4kYJM7kQ

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 23, 2019

A very popular stop on the RAGBRAI bike route... #ptridesragbrai pic.twitter.com/EN4TCeeJEe

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 23, 2019

Ret. RADM Pam Schweitzer and Iowa Pharmacy Association exec Kate Gainer showing off some road crash injuries during Day 2 of @RAGBRAI_IOWA 37 miles to go!!! #ptridesragbrai #rollinrx @IPA_Kate pic.twitter.com/ZGcp8iDpbv

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 22, 2019

It wouldn’t be RAGBRAI without some creative farmer art! #ptridesragbrai @IowaPharmacyIPA #rollinrx pic.twitter.com/k1LE62QTUf

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 21, 2019

Thanks for hosting us at your house in Winterset last light Allen Fann! Drake SOP grad ‘61 Go Bulldogs! #ptridesragbrai #rollinrx @DrakeUniversity @DrakeCPHS @IowaPharmacyIPA pic.twitter.com/zpE2kjax4y

— Pharmacy Times (@Pharmacy_Times) July 22, 2019