Reinbeck City Councilor and Reinbeck RAGBRAI 2026 Steering Committee member Dale Wambold mimics knocking on a door while explaining how Reinbeck became the ride’s Day 5 meeting town (official lunch stop) to the approximately 50 people gathered for a food/beverage vendor meeting at the Memorial Building, Monday, April 27, 2026. RAGBRAI will roll through Reinbeck this summer on Thursday, July 23. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

REINBECK – July 23 is looking to be a “really big day” for Reinbeck.

This past Monday evening, local businesses and nonprofits were given a first look at how plans are shaping up for RAGBRAI’s Day 5 pass-through of Reinbeck this summer during a pair of back-to-back meetings – the first for food/beverage vendors, the second for businesses – at the Memorial Building organized by the Reinbeck RAGBRAI 2026 Steering Committee. The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is set to travel through Reinbeck as the official meeting town on Thursday, July 23, while the route moves between overnight stops in Marshalltown and Independence.

Reinbeck’s five-member RAGBRAI steering committee includes Sharon Wambold, volunteer coordinator and entertainment team lead; Brittany Yates, marketing team lead; Adam Bently, green team lead (restrooms and refuse); Dale Wambold, parking and signage team lead; and Elisabeth Bueghly, food and beverage vendor coordinator. The committee recently finalized the town’s RAGBRAI theme — “150 Years…No Brakes: 150 years of resilience, progress, and small-town pride. Reinbeck keeps rolling with no brakes!” — in a nod to the community’s 150th birthday which is also being celebrated this July.

“So how did we get here to this point?” Dale Wambold, a member of Reinbeck City Council, said to the first meeting’s audience Monday night which numbered just over 50 people. “In January, [RAGBRAI announces] the host overnight towns … and then they have to decide how they’re going to get from one town to the other … So they came knocking at our door in March, and they said, ‘hey, we’d like to come to your community, would you be willing to to be what they call a meeting town?’ This is a nice way to show off our community and what we can do here and make some money.”

He went on to explain that about 20,000 people are expected to register for this year’s RAGBRAI, but using past meeting town data, Reinbeck can expect somewhere between 5,000-10,000 riders to pause on their way through that day.

From left, Reinbeck RAGBRAI 2026 Steering Committee members Dale Wambold, Sharon Wambold, and Elisabeth Bueghly pictured in Des Moines earlier this year while receiving a $10,000 check from RAGBRAI officials for volunteering as the annual bike ride’s Day 5 meeting town. Overnight towns receive $50,000 in financial support, while pass-through towns and counties each receive $5,000. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Per RAGBRAI, a meeting town operates as the official lunch stop and is the only place along the route that riders and support drivers can meet during the day.

“Half of them will probably go right on by us and head up the road,” Dale Wambold said before later stating, “On average, RAGBRAI (riders) will drop $50 in your town each – each person … $250,000 coming into our community for people, our local businesses and nonprofits. … It’ll be hectic, true, but it’s something that we can do … We’re only talking about maybe seven or eight hours, then (they’re) rolling on.”

A slide of the Day 5 route then flashed on the screen.

“OK, here’s the route,” he continued. “They’re coming from Marshalltown. They’ll come up T-29. They’ll go through Green Mountain, Beaman, up to (Grundy) Center, Morrison, and then Reinbeck. We’re the meeting place, halfway. Then from there, they head on over to the east and go over to Independence.”

Locally, riders on Day 5 will enter Reinbeck from the west on Highway 175 before turning south onto West Street to connect with Main Street – the designated “festival” area. From there, the route travels two blocks down Main before turning back north onto Broad Street and reconnecting with Hwy 175.

“[RAGBRAI officials] say bikers, on a good day, are averaging 10 miles an hour on their bikes – which means that they get up at six in the morning,” steering committee member Bueghly, who also sits on Reinbeck City Council, later explained to the audience. “They could be here in our town by 9 a.m. if they’re on the move and they maybe don’t stop at some of the towns before us. So our hours of operation are (from) 9 [a.m.] to 2 [p.m.] approximately.

“At one o’clock the ‘buzzkill team’ – that’s what RAGBRAI calls them – comes into town. It’s members from the Iowa State Patrol, from RAGBRAI … and they come in and they walk down our festival area and they ask you to start shutting down your businesses and your sales. They tell the bikers that they need to get a move on – and we are officially closed at 2 p.m.”

Food and beverage vendors

During the first hour-long meeting, much of the presentation centered around best practices for locals interested in being food and/or beverage vendors during RAGBRAI. Prospective vendors were advised by the steering committee to “stay in your lane” in regards to what they already do best; “cash is king”; and that menus should include four to five items only with a quick turnaround.

The steering committee repeatedly emphasized that local businesses with a Reinbeck building or storefront as well as local nonprofit organizations would get first dibs on the downtown festival area as long as they apply by May 10 using a Jotform accessible via QR code.

The RAGBRAI 2026 Day 5 route includes passing through the community of Reinbeck. IMAGE COURTESY OF RAGBRAI

For those downtown businesses that choose to close during RAGBRAI, the steering committee suggested allowing staff to work as RAGBRAI volunteers instead.

After May 10, the steering committee will work to register 10-15 additional, outside food trucks serving “meal options.”

In terms of fees, outside food trucks and large vendors (those needing a generator) will be charged $350 by the steering committee; outside vendors using a 10×10 tent/set-up will be charged $100; and local vendors using a 10×10 area will be charged $45.

There will be no charge for nonprofits.

“The elephant in the room – who is responsible for cleaning up after this?” an audience member asked during the first meeting’s Q&A.

“Adam (Bently) and his team,” Bueghly answered. “So, the theory behind it is what RAGBRAI calls ‘the Disney model’. We will have trash cans staged about every 10 feet. There will be bags below as they get full. Adam and his crew will be tying those up, pulling them out, and then we have two roll-off dumpsters placed just outside the festival area so that their crew can take those trash bags and toss them into the roll-offs.”

Iowa Shrine Bowl comes to town

The same day RAGBRAI rolls through Reinbeck, the Iowa Shrine Bowl plans to hold its annual Thursday evening hog roast at the Memorial Building – the very building slated for use as a cooling shelter and ADA-accessible bathroom by roughly 80 adaptive RAGBRAI riders.

“We got a big day for Reinbeck. The Shrine Bowl’s going on that week,” Dale Wambold explained toward the end of the first meeting. “They always host the (high school) football players in here. So they will be rolling in on Greyhound buses at five o’clock in the afternoon – here. The football players, cheerleaders, and everybody will be coming rolling in here. But our people, RAGBRAI, will be out of town.”

“We’ll have a team of volunteers setting this up (for the Shrine Bowl),” Sharon Wambold added.

“It’s a big day for Reinbeck. Really big day for Reinbeck. And we couldn’t do things better here,” Dale Wambold said.

“We’re very fortunate, we’ve had the Iowa Shrine Bowl (hog roast) here in Reinbeck for many years,” local Shriner Chris Witt told the second meeting’s audience. “We’ve been working with Dale, and we’ll come up with a plan to accommodate everything. And, you know, we’re going to live up to our motto of the city – the small town that does good things better. … We’re bringing about three bus loads, four bus loads of high school kids (to) town from Cedar Falls. We’ll come down Pioneer Road – we’ll cross there somewhere – and come back in the back way.”

The why

In closing out the second meeting, Dale Wambold circled back to why the steering committee was all-in on RAGBRAI coming to town.

“If we break even (as a committee), that’d be fine. If we do come out ahead, we want to give it back to the locals. That’s what we want to do – give it back to whoever we can, to help them out.”

“[But] we’re not here to make money. (We’re here) to help our community out.”

To learn more, follow the Reinbeck Ragbrai 2026 Facebook page. In addition, the steering committee is planning a community town hall for May. Watch the Facebook page for more information or contact City Hall at 319-788-6404. Jotform registration for local vendors (due May 10) can be accessed using the following link: https://form.jotform.com/261113924970153.