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Justin Brady: You can’t escape it. RAGBRAI is here. It’s here. Every year it’s here. It’s a huge deal. You can’t escape it. You can’t ignore it. Love it or hate it, you’re involved if you’re in Iowa. And of course, people from all over the world come to this ride. What’s new? What’s changed over the years? And what should you look forward to? If you’re a beginner, how do you even do this thing? I think it can, you know, across the state, that’s big. Sounds intimidating. We’re gonna answer all those questions for you today on the Iowa Podcast. I’m, of course, Justin Brady, and we are joined with Matt Phippen, the director of RAGBRAI. Thank you so much for coming in the studio. Thank you.

Matt Phippen: you for having

Justin Brady: Really glad you’re here. Uh, before we get started, everybody, if you like barbecue, go to iowapodcast.com. We are, of course, in the Jethro’s BBQ Studio. Scroll to the top of the website, click that banner, buy a $100 gift card, and they will give you a $30 gift card so you can buy more chicken wings. Matt, um, obviously, thank you very much for coming in here. RAGBRAI’s a big deal. Everybody knows about it. Um, there is It’s a hu-I mean, I don’t even know what to think. It’s over 50 years old now, ’cause I think your 50 year anniversary was a few years ago. So it’s a big frigging deal. Let’s talk about this year, though, 2026. Any notable, new, exciting changes people should be aware of?

Matt Phippen: I wouldn’t say anything big from a change standpoint. I mean, you being 53 years in, you try to find, you know, different routes each year, different communities, different roads, you know, all the, all the above. Uh, I think probably one of the biggest highlights will be RAGBRAI riding to the Field of Dreams, and that is something that riders are super excited about. Uh, obviously, if you follow the field, they have a MLB stadium that has been g-being tested right now and will be opened up for MLB games here shortly, and our riders will be able to, you know, ride past to go to the old field

Justin Brady: That’s super. Okay, so the ride this year includes going past the Field of Dreams. Is it like right past it where you can see into it, or is it just a little bit off route?

Matt Phippen: comes right past. So they put new roads in. Um, we’re gonna use those new roads to get to the back parking lot and bring in you by, bring in by the MLB stadium, and then, you know, be able to cut the back corner and go to the, the old field

Justin Brady: Do they put new roads in just for RAGBRAI or are you

Matt Phippen: Did they put new roads? in or are you just-I would love to tell you it was because, all because of reg, right? But no, it’s not

Justin Brady: So are there any… Is it just, um, riders are just going by it, or are there gonna be special things set up, special activities set up for people to do?

Matt Phippen: Yeah, so when I was looking at, you know, building a route, obviously Dyersville was on, on the map. Uh, I instantly wanted to try to find a way to get riders to the field. Uh, you know, looking at all the options, you know, r-we, I can’t just put riders on gravel roads if there were just gravel roads out there. So we found the roads, uh, and it all made sense it, from a timeframe standpoint. So yeah, we were able to route the ride directly to the field and then bring them in and then bring them back to the road.

Justin Brady: Dude, that’s, that’s historic.

Matt Phippen: It’s very cool. Yeah, I mean, it’s gonna be something that, you know, being there and just walking on the property, you get the chills. I mean, you sit on the bleachers where, you know, Kevin Costner carved, you know, the heart into, into the, the bleacher, and you see the Ghost players walk out onto the field. Like, it, it truly brings back memories of watching the movie. Um, you know, we, we watched it, um, you know, a couple weeks after being there, and, you know, I teared up like a little baby watching, you know, the, the scene with, with the dad playing catch. I mean, it’s just a, it’s a pretty cool experience

Justin Brady: Dude, that’s so awesome. I love that. Are there any other stories in the past kinda like that? Like iconic locations or iconic moments?

Matt Phippen: Um, on route there’s, I mean, obviously you’re in some pretty memorable towns. You know, this is, you know, it’s been a while since we’ve been to Dubuque. We’re dipping our tires i-into Dubuque. We’re starting in Ottawa. Uh, but you have, you know, established communities on route. Uh, every town though that is on route is trying to pull together this magical experience for riders, and it truly showcases the best parts of I-of Iowa

Justin Brady: This is interesting. You mentioned every town is kind of like trying to put on a show, roll out the red carpet. Are there any notable moments of like red carpet rollouts for towns when it comes to RAGBRAI riders? Are there any towns that have done something that you’re like, “Wow, that was a first,” or, “That was crazy”?

Matt Phippen: Well, I think it’s just the, it’s the little things, right? I mean, when you roll into a town and there are kids on the side of the road that have signs that they’ve made and they’re cheering you on, you know, that last 10 miles where you’re into a, a headwind, climbing hills, and you are miserable, is all behind you because of the experience that these, these towns provided. You know, one thing that I tell towns is do what you do the day before and the day after. Don’t bring things to this ride that you’re just doing for show. Riders wanna see why we call rural Iowa home, why we love, you know, our hometowns, and they wanna experience that. So, you know, truly the Iowa nice comes out, and that’s really what we want. We w-we want these towns to showcase why they live there, show off the freedom rocks and the things that make their town very, very special. I think sometimes as Iowans, we take for granted ’cause we see it every day. This is what our riders are looking for. It’s those, those amazing things that live in our communities that they wanna see, and then th-the towns can showcase that

Justin Brady: That’s interesting. So the advice for towns is don’t, don’t try new things. Like be yourself. I

Matt Phippen: Do you. 100% do you

Justin Brady: a RAGBRAI per-town, be you, do you, um, don’t get crazy. Just put on… Yeah, I, I don’t know why I’m belaboring this point, but just the advice for RAGBRAI towns is be yourself. We, people, we’re coming to your town ’cause we wanna see what it’s like, and we wanna sh-we, we wanna see how the town is in its normal state

Matt Phippen: Absolutely. And that’s the, you know, riders can tell when, you know, stuff gets brought in for the day of, and they know it’s going to be gone. You know, obviously, you know, we’re bringing in a massive stage, that’s, that’s going to leave. That travels w-across the state with us. But they wanna see your downtown for how it is the day before, the d-the day after. So when we invest in these towns, you know, one of the first things I tell them is, “Use this money to invest in your community. Use it for a, you know, a gallon of paint to paint the gazebo that has, you know, peeling paint. Use it for your flower pots that are downtown. Don’t go out and, and rent a $1,000 bouncy house that no one cares about. Do things that are gonna live in this community after the ride leaves, and you c-that you can be proud of.”

Justin Brady: Tell me about that. So y-do you give funding out of the, out of some r-all the RAGBRAI participants, RAGBRAI entries, whatever? Uh, there’s a registration fee, obviously. This all goes to the towns on the route to beautify and up, and, and for upkeep?

Matt Phippen: Yep. So we, you know, early on before me and, you know, before a lot of the other directors, there was not a whole lot of give back to these communities. You know, the, the team kind of stopped it and said, “Hey, guess what? You’re on route. We’ll see you in July. Figure it out, and hopefully you have a good experience.” And then when I came into this role, you know, this is my fifth ride, um, you know, I learned very fast that, you know, these pass-through towns had no funding. So then I’m thinking, “Okay, small town Iowa, RAGBRAI’s coming. It’s gonna be, you know, a town of 70 turns into a 20,000 for, for the, for six hours. How are they gonna pull this off without having any funding? Do they have to pass the hat at church? Like, d-do they just go to the vault and pull out, you know, m-money that’s been left, left in the vault?” So we said, “How, how do we make this work?” So our give back year after year is a million dollars. We look at every town that’s on route, and they all get funding. So a pass-through town gets $5,000. A meeting town is a halfway point. It carries a bigger load. It gets $10,000. And then every overnight town is, is at $50,000. And we’ve kind of, you know, this is now year two or three of looking at these numbers and, and kind of dissecting them, and it seems to be the right number. Uh, I would love to give back more, and we need, we need more of these, you know, bandit riders to register to help us give back, give back more. But, you know, at the end of the day, that town can then take that money and, you know, go out and feel good about ordering porta potties and some of those general expenses that come right away and not have to hold until they raise, raise funds or get sponsorships or, you know, all the above that goes into pulling RAGBRAI off. They feel comfortable right away that they have the funding to be able to do that.

Justin Brady: Does RAGBRAI bring–You mentioned, uh, 70 to 20,000 or, you know, in some cases maybe more. Does RAGBRAI coming to a town bring just a giant economic windfall for like the day?

Matt Phippen: Absolutely. I mean, you are bringing a captive audience that is there to spend money. You know, th-they’re on vacation. So, so when you go on vacation, you know that day by day you wanna spend this much money on food, this much money on trinkets, you know, all, all of the above, right? Oh. So, you know, our job is to prepare these towns so when a rider comes, they can hold that rider for as long as physically possible. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, there’s a reason why we have shutdown times because, you know, t-a town does a fantastic job and no one wants to leave, and, you know, a one beer stop or a one piece of pie stop turns into a s-second piece of pie or a second beer stop. And then before you know it, we’re having to push riders out of towns because they’ve been there too long. So we, we wanna make sure that every, every town has the same piece of the pie, you know, that has the ability to, you know, hold riders as long as they can. So when, as a rider, when you get there, you start fueling up. You get in the line to get food. You see that they’re selling a T-shirt and you love the T-shirt, or there’s a sticker, or, you know, a lot of it comes back to just the fundraising that they do. You know, ri-our riders want to know that they’re leaving good behind, and when you have the church raising money for new pews or new something and they’re selling pie, they will, you know, they’ll give you a, you know, a $10 bill for a $5 piece of pie and say, Keep the change.” Uh, you know, so, you know, so it’s great to see when we come back in August and we recap with all these towns, truly the magical impact that is left behind because of the riders knowing that this is a monster lift for this community. Like, you know, a, a town of 70, it needs all of the 70 people to pull this event off. So they, they know that if we keep doing right by these towns and give, and give back and, and support them, I can come back year after year after year and do this thing called RAGBRAI.

Justin Brady: So the riders are very aware of the economic impact they’re p-playing, and so when they go into a community, they’re, like, donating and saying, you know, “Keep the change,” and that kind. That’s super cool. I didn’t even think about people, like, budgeting for this, and they’re like, “Yeah, we got, like, $400 to spend, and so let’s just blow it and have…” Like, I didn’t even think about

Matt Phippen: You gotta get across the, you know, the, the state in seven days, so you can’t be outta money on day one. You know, you need to budget a little bit. Everybody tries. Everybody, yeah, everybody tries. But yeah, I mean, that’s the thing that we, we wanna make sure that every town, you know, the big focus is Iowa and community and, and, you know, being able to check those boxes. And, you know, part of checking those boxes is making sure that the riders know, you know, truly how the town is fundraising, what they’re looking for, um, you know, what, where they’re at in a project. So we, you know, we tell towns, “If you have a thermometer, put the thermometer out. You’re at, you know, you’re at 50 grand, you got 20 more grand to go. Let’s, let’s get there with, with RAGBRAI.” And then be able to tell that story afterwards, because I think that’s one of the biggest things after the ride. After everybody’s sharing their stories, they wanna know how small town Iowa did on that project. So then we connect with that town to fi-figure out that they were able to hit their goal, and they were now able to, you know, to buy those things. And I think the cool thing for me is being able to go back to a town in three to five years and show the riders that the project worked. They have the new park, they have the splash pad because of RAGBRAI coming through in, you know, in that year

Justin Brady: that’s so cool. Uh, what is the, what is the most inspiring, if you have to pick a few, that’s fine, but what is the most inspiring community story that RAGBRAI came to a town and then?

Matt Phippen: Well, I think it was last year, you know, we finished the ride, had one of our best years ever on route. Um, you know, had tough weather, but overall, the, the magic of RAGBRAI was fantastic. We do a recap tour where we go to every town afterwards, and we talk wins and losses. You know, what can we learn? What can we help teach you? You know, what things did you do that you are very excited about, and where did, where did you end up, right? Uh, and we had a church that we, we talked to that had three of the cutest church ladies there, and they were so giddy because they were able to raise $18,000 selling pie, and they’ve never had that much money before, anytime with any of these three ladies. And they were so giddy because they didn’t know where to start spending money. They had all these ideas of where the money should go, and now they had, they had the funding to be able to pull it off, and they didn’t know where to go first. So to be able to sit there and see, you know, you know, three grandmas, you know, kind of spitballing ideas of back and forth of where they wanna spend the money first, that happened because of RAGBRAI. You know, it was the homemade pie and, you know, pie is a huge deal on RAGBRAI because our riders wanna know that it’s made with love. They wanna see grandma’s thumbprint in the crust, you know, they wanna know that there’s lard and it’s not this store-bought p-pie from Hy-Vee that, you know, sits on the shelf. But it is truly, there’s, there’s time and effort put into it, and when our riders know that there are, or there is homemade pie in these areas, it’s the first things that, that sell out every day. So to be able to, you know, take these three ladies and ha-have them put the time in, put the work in to, to build all these amazing pies, to be able to sell a lot of the pies, and then to be able to say, “Now we have funding to be able to do this,” it makes me wanna go back to these communities, you know, in three to five years and keep giving them that shot in the arm that they need

Justin Brady: I mean, it’s, that’s really cool. Well, first of all, like, everybody knows if his p-pie is locally made, it’s not gonna have high fructose corn syrup and a bunch of preservatives and toxic crap, right? So that’s, like, a huge selling point when you get something homemade. You’re like, “All right, this is pretty much, you know, for the most part, safe. Um, and you know, it’s not gonna make me feel sick later,” especially if you’re on a ride. Um, are there any incr-I mean, that’s I gue-I guess I have to add some commentary on this, because as a kid, I went to some smaller Iowa towns. Not, not great. Like, you know, things were fading, and small town Iowa didn’t look so good. And dur-when I did this show, started doing this show, I’d been visiting tons of towns all the time, doing, like, workshops and guest appearances and some stuff like that. And I’m just like, “Dude, small town Iowa, what happened?” Like, I just thought, “Oh, it’s just this town. Oh, it’s just this to-” My gosh, like, small town Iowa, some of these main streets are just so frigging cool. They have incredible coffee shops. They have incredible little butcher shops, little bakeries. I’m like, “What happened?” It’s, you know, so I, I It’s not obviously just RAGBRAI. It’s a team effort. But this stuff’s working. Like, small town Iowa’s thriving, and there’s some really cool stories out there. That being said, obviously, you know, getting a Not that being said. That sounds like a terrible transition. It’s like, “That being said, what’s the controversy?” Um, RAGBRAI controversy. We need some

Matt Phippen: Yeah, we, we don’t need any drama

Justin Brady: Des Moines Register’s probably like, “Come on. Can’t you do something about it, Matt?” Um, are there any very clever lobbying efforts that these towns do to try to get attention? Because it sounds like getting RAGBRAI is a cool thing. So do you guys get gift packages? Do you get singing telegrams?

Matt Phippen: man, that’d be awesome if we did

Justin Brady: hint, hint, everybody.

Matt Phippen: if you wanna

Justin Brady: the wildest stories that you have, people trying to get on the RAGBRAI route, and did it work?

Matt Phippen: Well, I think there is, you know, in my role, phone calls, emails, uh, you know, walking in a downtown with a RAGBRAI shirt on or driving a RAGBRAI truck. You know, people come up and wanna know, “Is RAGBRAI coming?” You know, and, you know, I could tell people, “This truck goes all the way across the state. It goes to soccer games, it goes to softball games. You know, it’s, it’s my, you know, my daily driver.” So if you see the RAGBRAI truck i-in your community, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m coming in, in, in next year. It means I’m probably there for a softball game or something else. But where I think it works is, you know, we, we submit or we have towns submit an application, you know, at the end of this year for next year. And, you know, we have, you know, a perfect example is, you know, Dubuque and Dyersville. Three years ago we started having conversations because they came to me and said, “Hey, we’re gonna be in a really, really good spot with some big projects.” And obviously they didn’t tell us about the MLB stadium and stuff like that three years ago. “But we’re gonna be in a spot where we would love to showcase this. You know, could RAGBRAI and Dyersville and Dubuque be on Route 2026? Is that a possibility?” And you know, I have a three to five-year plan, so you look at it and go, “Man, it is a possibility.” Um, so there, there, there are those, there are those conversations. So for me, I don’t need a gift basket, I don’t need the singing telegram. I just, I want the locals to reach out that have the ability of saying yes. Because you’ll, you’ll get riders that say, “You gotta go to my town,” and the, the town can’t support it, right? Sure. Yeah. But, but the riders want it. So if you have locals that are in city government that look at it and go, “Man, we really want RAGBRAI,” you email me, you f-give me a phone call. We, we talk through it. You tell me what you’re looking for, and I look at kind of the master plan of a route and go, “It doesn’t make sense this year, but maybe in two or three years we can make, we can make this work.” You know, I’m, we’re getting to a point where, you know, towns, because of the impact and what we’re doing to support them, now feel more comfortable with hosting RAGBRAI. And, you know, from the standpoint of the ride has changed. You know, and, and I, I still fight this to this day, where it’s these drunk cyclists, they come to our town, they trash our community, they drink all our beer, and they leave us with the bill. And that’s the farthest thing from that. It’s these riders come to your community. They wanna be part of your experience and your celebration, and they wanna leave the community better than how they found it. So they clean up their trash. They leave, they leave money behind. And it’s truly th-you know, these towns, after we go through, they see it and they go, “We now get how it’s changed. It’s so much better now. It’s so much safer.” You know, the, the party scene isn’t what it used to be back in the day because they’re, you know, they’re, they’re too old now. They can’t party like they used to. But, but it’s just one of those things where-

Justin Brady: the partiers get, they’re out by like

Matt Phippen: Yeah, they’re, they’re they’re in bed. You know, they’re, they’re in bed sound asleep, you know? Oh. But it’s it’s now getting to a point where I want towns to fight for RAGBRAI and say, “Hey, we wanna be on the route this year.” And you know, we had a couple towns that since I’ve been in this role year after year after year until we can take it to them, put an application, make phone calls, you know, lobby for their community, and I wanna go to towns that want us. I mean, it just makes the, the, the experience better because you said it earlier when we kind of inter-introduced this was if you love RAGBRAI or you hate RAGBRAI, it is, it’s both sides of the coin. It really is. And my job is to make everybody fall in love with RAGBRAI

Justin Brady: Yeah. I think one of the best cap-people who captured RAGBRAI, um, was this YouTuber, the YouTubers Kara and Nate. They do, like, travel th-I don’t know if

Matt Phippen: Yep. Oh, yeah

Justin Brady: But I think they captured it so well because they’re, um, both amateurs, right? They, they’re not professionally trained. Uh, but they really captured the community aspect. I think so many people capture the ride and the fanfare. They did a really good job telling stories of the individuals on the ride in a way that was just really cohesive and really well done. That’s actually how we found their channel.

Matt Phippen: Very cool. Yep

Justin Brady: we saw, like, oh, this couple went on RAGBRAI travelers and it was so cool, and we’re like, “Oh, that’s, you know, hometown. I’m gonna watch that.” And I was like, “These people are pretty sweet.” So I, I think, you know, they did a really… Actually, I don’t know if you know this, but in one of their recent videos, one of the YouTubers, Nate, actually got, I think, a bicycle logo tattooed on himself for the

Matt Phippen: Very cool.

Justin Brady: that’s kinda, that’s pretty sweet.

Matt Phippen: So that’s kind of-Yeah, that’s awesome. Good job. Well, thank you. Good job, Eddie. Thank you. Yeah,

Justin Brady: Did you guys work with them, by the way? Or did you have any idea they were there?

Matt Phippen: I believe they had reached out and said they were gonna be on route, and this was like, it might have been my first year, so I was obviously kind of learning everything else, too. But yeah, I mean, that was definitely something that when I talk to new people that they’ve heard of that show. They, they watched the video, and that’s kind of why they’re there, because of that, that, that show.

Justin Brady: Yeah. That’s, that’s super awesome. Uh, speaking of, well, I-speaking of notables, are there any past, like, notable people that have shown up that you guys are like, “Wait, what?”

Matt Phippen: Well, you, you know, you hear the, the Matthew McConaughey-Matthew McConaughey yeah. You, I mean, you hear things. You know, last year, David Robinson, um, you know, the seven-foot whatever he is, you know, player from the Spurs back in the day. You know, I grew up watching him and Jordan, and it’s like he’s en route every single day. And, you know, I get driven across the state, so I’m trying to find this guy every single day because he was one of my, my idols growing up, right? And, you know, I never got to see him, but he was there in, in multiple pictures, and I don’t know how I missed him ’cause the guy’s, you know, seven feet plus tall. Um, you know, back in the day when Lance Armstrong was en route, you know, he brought in celebrities. And, you know, this year because of-Big on Lance Armstrong. Yeah. He was, he was definitely on RAGBRAI, and he, you know, he brought a, a crew of people. And we’ve had NASCAR guys, we’ve had movie stars, you know, all those things. And at the end of the day, too, it’s, they’re on vacation. You know, I want them to feel that they can just ride their bikes and not be overwhelmed by people. But we do have people that reach out to us and say, “Hey, so-and-so’s coming. How do you wanna manage this?” And, you know, it’s not like we provide any extra security. You’re, you’re in the middle of 20,000 people riding your bicycle. Right. Um, you know, but this year with, you know, the race with governor, I’m sure we’re gonna have, you know, people are trying to get their name out there and be en route, so you’re gonna d-you’re gonna deal with that. You know, our governor was en route, you know, the last couple years, and she brings a support team with her, and we work, we work directly with that. So it’s, it’s great having those bodies on there. But at the end of the day, you put a, you know, a helmet on, sunglasses, and spandex and you can’t tell who’s who, and you just, you just, you just ride your bike.

Justin Brady: Are we gonna have a, uh, Rob Sands-Zach Lane race to see which one can make it from one side of the state to the

Matt Phippen: We are not a political event, but if they wanna, if they, if they wanna race, by all means go for it

Justin Brady: Let’s stoke that fire. Th-they’re both thinking, if they see this, they’re like, “Oh, please no. Please don’t let this catch on. I don’t wanna do that.” Um, any notables this year?

Matt Phippen: Uh, I’ll keep it kind of under my hat, you know, a little bit So there are You sh-uh, you just watch social media. We’ll see

Justin Brady: uh, so RAGBRAI notables this year, 2026, right? You know, we’ve never had to torture anybody on this

Matt Phippen: There you go But

Justin Brady: maybe we should start. Can you give us a hint of some RAGBRAI notables this

Matt Phippen: I can’t. I’m gonna, I’m gonna, uh, I’m gonna keep it quiet

Justin Brady: Can you give us an industry like music, entertainment, arts?

Matt Phippen: Ooh

Justin Brady: Business? Come

Matt Phippen: Yeah, no, I, you know, I just, I-It’s so grown up I, I am, I am very good at keeping secrets. You know, this, this, this route is always a secret. We don’t want to release it, so I think I’m good at it. I’m just gonna hold it close to the chest.

Justin Brady: Can I get you in a country? Like, are they from a

Matt Phippen: you to-United States. They’re from what country? United States. You’re from the United States. They’re, they’re, They’re from the US. So we have-Nothing, nothing crazy

Justin Brady: we have some A-listers coming from the United States

Matt Phippen: So we have A-listers. Well, I think our riders are all A-listers, right? I mean, when you look at what these towns provide, you know, I, I have so many riders that just can’t believe everything that the town did for them. And it’s, you know, it’s, it’s just that, it’s that cool, “They did, did this all for me,” but yeah, they did it for you and 20,000 other people, right? But you feel like it’s all for you based on the little girl screaming and cheering for you, and, you know, just the experiences they provide. So I would say all our riders are A-listers

Justin Brady: So for those listening, you, the record, let the record state I tried really hard to get Matt to crack, and I could not do it. Um, but I guess you’ll have to find out and go on RAGBRAI this year to find out who the celebrity sup-superstars are that are coming. Um, uh, with an event this old, there are, there’ve gotta be some sacred cows. There’ve gotta be some things that, like traditions that you guys have discussed in your office ending, and maybe you’ve even floated that out there, and people are like, “Absolutely not. Don’t you dare fricking touch it.” You know? What are those traditions that just you don’t think will ever go away?

Matt Phippen: Well, I think it’s, it’s just the ride just in general, right? Um, you know, going on one side of the state and ending on the other. You know, why don’t you switch the route and go, you know, backwards a-and then the other side? And it’s like, you can’t. Well, why not? Well, there’s so many other, there’s so many variables dealing with weather and sun and all those things that, that play a role. Uh, you know, when you look at last year, we left the state for the first time. You know, we took our ride up into Minnesota and, you know-Oh there was, there was emails that I got, “Why would you take a ride that is Iowa-based, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, and leave our state?” And the answer was Tell me another ride that had the ability to go into another state and have the support from their state patrol and their, you know, th-their city government and their DOT, and help, and help us pull it off. So for us to be able to leave our state, dip into Minnesota and experience what Minnesota had to offer and then bring it back down was a pretty, pretty cool thing. Now, am I gonna do that every year? No. It, the route, the route and the ride has to make sense. It has to be a key road that I have eyes on that if we did this it’ll be really, really cool. You know, after that South Dakota, Sioux Falls, you know, reached out and said, “Hey, you’re g-close to us sometimes. If you’re ever in our area, we, we would love to have it.” So it opens up other categories, right? But I love tradition. I love what, you know, the founders put in place many, many years ago, and I don’t wanna go against that. Uh, I also, it, it’s one of those things that’s tough because our riders love tradition, so anytime we do something that’s different we have to explain the why behind it and show it’s because of safety, show it’s because, you know, of an area that we’re in that we have to make something work. And, you know, I think, you know, too many times those riders will hold me accountable and say, “You can’t do this. This is not good for the ride.” But what I’ll tell them is, anything that we do is always going to be for the betterment of the ride, the safety of, of the ride. Otherwise, we, we wouldn’t do it. We’re not gonna turn RAGBRAI into this corporate event where, you know, it, it turns into not what it is anymore which is showcasing rural Iowa and it’s all about the, the paycheck and getting paid at the end of the day. It’s about our towns getting paid and, and it’s about our communities thriving after RAGBRAI leaves, and it’s about riders that look at Iowa and go, “Man, this state is beautiful. Man, this state is hilly. Man, this state’s hot,” right? I mean, all, all the things that they experience when they come here. And, you know, too many times I hear, “Well, Iowa’s just a flyover state. We fly over Iowa to go on vacation.” And the answer is no. You know, fly into Iowa, go on vacation, fall in love, and then don’t leave. I mean, that’s, that’s the goal, you know? I’ve had multiple opportunities in my previous role, you know, with Scheels to, to leave our state and go to other, you know, um, states and open up new stores, and I always came back to Iowa. And, you know, we had the ability to, to leave and, and move our family to Colorado, and we chose to stay in Iowa because of all the good and all the, the great that’s in Iowa. My job in RAGBRAI, the team’s job, is to show that off so when riders come here they are blown away by Iowa. They fall in love with Iowa nice, and they experience the small town hospitality that they can’t get anywhere else, and they wanna come back every year now

Justin Brady: It’s very true. Um, and you do hear like, you know, now with YouTube and everybody has a channel, you do hear, uh, people like, “Oh, I came to Iowa and I couldn’t believe…” Like, people go out of their way to, you know, so you do hear that. Um, what was the, like, the core purpose of dipping into Minnesota? Was it a PR thing? What was the, like, you’re, you guys, ’cause I’m sure there was conversation about, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are we doing this?” So what was that core reason of just dipping our toe

Matt Phippen: It was very selfish, and it was selfish from the standpoint of I found a road that was on the border, and it was a, you know, a Minnesota road maintained by Iowa, and I thought, man, how cool would it be for us to say, “I’m in one state on one side of the road, I’m in the other state,” and kind of make this magical experience and not leave Iowa. And then we found a park that was into Minnesota. Um, we were able to talk to the park and, and, and, and figure out how we can turn this into a community for the day. We were able to provide them funding. Um, and then it kind of opened up this can of worms of, you know, what we just didn’t know. You know, my state patrol couldn’t leave the state. Their state patrol can’t come into our state. Our ambulance services, you know, had to work differently in, in the state for as far as transport. So, like, there’s a lot of things that kind of bubbled up after we said yes to this, but the, the cool thing for me was, you know, when I reached out to the, their DOT and to their sheriff and to their county, they all said yes. No one said no, and it was, it was almost like instance, yes, let’s figure this out. And then you’re able to take them a day where it was beautiful, so that obviously that helps with everything. But riders loved it. You know, the, the community of the park that, you know, we, we built showed up for the riders. They had an amazing experience. They were able to dip their tire in one of the, the many lakes that are in Minnesota. Um, so it was

Justin Brady: That’s cool.

Matt Phippen: thing that came out of it, but it was just… It came back to a road that I found looking at a map, and then it evolved into actually leaving our state and going into Minnesota.

Justin Brady: How far in?

Matt Phippen: Uh, I think the, this whole trip was, like, 15 miles when it all was said and done. So Into Minnesota up, up and back and, you know, but I think the, the, you know, the cool thing was to be able to see…

Justin Brady: gopher territory Yes

Matt Phippen: it was Gopher territory.

Justin Brady: Hawkeye protesters?

Matt Phippen: Everybody was good. Everybody played well that, that day together. But you know, they, you know, it was truly Minnesota nice. They, you know, they took, they took, care of us too. But, um, no, it was just great to see the, all our partner agencies work together and be able to pull it off and to make it happen was, was pretty cool

Justin Brady: tip to the Minnesota State Patrol, thanks for the assist. Um, I have some last questions for you, rapid fire stuff for beginners really. Um, I would put myself in the… I’m just like, I like biking, but, eh, this is a little too much for me. Um, I know p-a lot of people love it. It’s obs-you know, it’s just I’m not one of them. But, um, do they have to haul their own gear? Like, ’cause people have tents and they sleep over. Are they packing all that on their bikes, or are there services that do that for them?

Matt Phippen: Yeah, so there’s two options, right? You can pack everything on your bike and, you know, basically bag across the state. Uh, what I recommend is use our services. So we have two semis that are in every overnight town. Uh, we will take a 50 pound bag across the state. So you get in line, you hand your bag off to one of our baggage guys, we throw it on our semi. Once that’s loaded, that bag is transported to the overnight town. You come to that overnight town at the end of the day after you do your ride, grab your bag off the ground, and then you go camp. So

Justin Brady: probably all on the website. Like, you, you can register. The RAGBRAI will take your bag. I’m assuming all those fees are covered under the entrance fee. Correct. And so, okay, cool. Uh, the other question, the other RAGBRAI question is, do I have to go the full way?

Matt Phippen: No. Uh, RAGBRAI is whatever you want it to be. And, you know, that’s the, the, kind of the, both the good and the bad of what RAGBRAI is. You know, we have riders that will ride every mile, and sometimes they wanna go out and they want, they wanna ride more after the day’s done. And we have riders that, you know, just do l-little legs of the day. Uh, with RAGBRAI, there’s a meeting town every single day. So it’s the one spot where riders can get dropped off or picked up, and we allow vehicle access to, to come in. Uh, so, you know, we have riders that will only ride half the distance because that’s all they wanna do, and then, you know, the husband or the wife or the team picks them up and takes them into the overnight town. Uh, but you do have the ability to decide whatever you want. We sell week-long passes, and we sell day passes.

Justin Brady: Oh, you can do a day

Matt Phippen: You can do a day pass. Absolutely.

Justin Brady: Kinda like a subway or something.

Matt Phippen: That’s right

Justin Brady: Um, and you just kinda answered the next question, which is, it sounds like a lot of people either charter buses or, you know, there are probably groups that go together, or some people just, you can be dropped off by a family or friend member at the beginning and the end

Matt Phippen: Correct. Yeah, so we, you know, obviously we start, you know, for the most part on day zero in Ottawa, but we’ll have riders that will get dropped off in Dubuque, leave their vehicle, and then get shuttled to the start. So they can then ride their bike to Dubuque, have their vehicle waiting and then move on. So our, you know, our teams and our charters work with charter bus companies to, you know, mana-manage that route in and out

Justin Brady: so you can do this through RAGBRAI as well. You can work with RAGBRAI on your transportation? Yep.

Matt Phippen: so we have, we have charter groups that, you know, are, are part of our charter program, so we can give you names and contacts of w-you know, what, what, what you want. And we have everything from, you know, indoor sleeping arrangements with air-with air conditioning to, you know, tent service, all the above. It’s really whatever your experience w-you know, from a reg price standpoint wants to be. We are a camping event, so we want you camping. You know, we secure all the green spaces so you can go out and camp. But we also have people that get to a point where, you know, “I want an air-conditioned room. I wanna be able to plug my sleep apnea machine in so I can breathe in the middle of the night.” They want those h-you know, elevated services. Those programs and those charter groups can provide that for you

Justin Brady: do that too. So even if you have a sleep apnea machine, a medical device, something like that you need, that’s something you can work with RAGBRAI on the planning in it. Obviously it can’t be guaranteed all the time, places fill up,

Matt Phippen: We can help with that

Justin Brady: that people have concerns and you guys have anticipated.

Matt Phippen: to figure it out

Justin Brady: And then the last question before I let you go, what is the biggest rookie mistake you can make on RAGBRAI?

Matt Phippen: Not riding your bike enough prior, you

Justin Brady: Re-oh, no. Yeah,

Matt Phippen: Yeah, and that’s, you know… I will tell you that my first RAGBRAI, you know, I grabbed a bike that was probably not the best bike for it. We didn’t train with a bunch of, you know, a bunch of my buddies, and we rode RAGBRAI, and it was probably one of the most miserable experiences of my life. It hurt every day. You know, I, I was not strong enough to, to ride some of the hills, but I had an amazing experience, and that’s what hooked me, right? It was, was the experience. But I want riders to experience RAGBRAI on a bicycle, not in a bus or in a shuttle van because their body just can’t do it anymore. So I always tell, you know, riders, “Once we announce, you, you know it’s gonna be in July, you know you’re coming. Get on your bike and start preparing for RAGBRAI so when you show up, you can bring the best version of yourself to Iowa and enjoy every mile, every minute with these towns, and be able to look back and not miss anything because you were in a vehicle getting shuttled across the

Justin Brady: Okay, I promise this is actually the last question now. Um, but are you seeing more, and, and this can be a fast question ’cause we’re way over time, but are you seeing more adoption from older people or people with like, you know, knee injuries and stuff because of e-bikes? And that would mean are e-bikes allowed?

Matt Phippen: Yes, e-bikes are definitely allowed. Now, I will tell you, and I’ll say this on, you know, record, that I, I love e-bikes. E-bikes are keeping our riders on route longer. As they get older and their bodies physically can’t do it, an, an e-bike allows that person to ride RAGBRAI. Now, what I don’t like is wrong e-bike etiquette. Oh. Which means you and I are riding together, I’m riding my bike up the hill, my heart’s about ready to pop out of my chest, I am miserable, and you go zipping by me at 25 miles an hour, smiling, laughing, and you just blow by me. Sure. It’s not very cool, right? Yeah, yeah. Um, so there is that, you know, ride right mentality, which is, you know, don’t use the e-bike to do 25 miles an hour up a hill. Right. Use, use the e-bike to get to the top of the hill, but use it in a way that you pull up alongside me, you’re encouraging me, you’re having fun. You know, know your, know your surroundings. You know, the other thing, too, is know how your e-bike handles. We see a lot of accidents where, you know, an e-bike is on the side of the road, they get ready to get on the road, and they go to hit the… you know, press down on the pedal, and it shoots them into a bike, because th-there’s that, you know, that engagement with the, the e-assist. So get tons of experience on your bike, and understand that, you know, e-bikes are a bad word on RAGBRAI, you know, when you talk to other riders because of some of these bad experiences. But I also, I love seeing the 65-plus-year-old, you know, husband and wife riding together, and they’ve been a part of RAGBRAI for many, many years, and that e-bike is keeping them on route because they can’t physically do it anymore.

Justin Brady: So e-bikes are f-so the ra-to sum that up then, for RAGBRAI this year, e-bikes are fine, but blend in and don’t be disruptive is kind of… I mean, the same with if you have, like, a super powered athlete, the same thing would be probably true of them. If everyone’s huffing and puffing and they just, like, zoom by everybody and they’re g-weaving in and out and, like, flipping people off, that’s probably

Matt Phippen: 100 Google or something like that. That’s right. Probably not. We don’t want that. Yeah, we don’t want that.

Justin Brady: Uh, Matt Fippen, the director of RAGBRAI. If people are super excited, they wanna sign up for RAGBRAI, what’s the website? How, what’s the best way

Matt Phippen: Yep, ragbrai.com right now. Uh, you can get your week-long passes, and then if you’re looking for a day pass, we sell day passes at day zero and every day on route y-during the

Justin Brady: And that is R-A-G-B-R-A-I. Did I get that right? It’s

Matt Phippen: It’s on his shirt That’s correct.

Justin Brady: watching on the video. Matt Phippen, thank you so much for coming on the Iowa Podcast.

Matt Phippen: for having me