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All participants must have arrived at our transportation staging point at the end of RAGBRAI by 3:30 pm

Based on years of previous experience we feel this arrival deadline time best balances arriving back in Chicago at a reasonable time with the needs of our slower riders since we will be departing on what is still a riding day. Everyone will still be able to linger in the interesting towns along the route that day and enjoy the last day of their RAGBRAI experience. You will not need to get up at the crack of dawn or make a mad rush to arrive at our staging point on time, making an otherwise enjoyable ride into a stressful one. If you are a faster rider you may want to slow down your pace on the road that day but if you do arrive in the ending town well before this arrival deadline time there will still be plenty for you to see and do there.

We certainly do not want to you miss our transportation service back to Chicago so it is extremely important for you to plan your day so that you complete the ride and activities in the ending town and arrive at our transportation staging point at the end of RAGBRAI by the arrival deadline time. Your actual arrival time in the ending town will depend on such considerations as your departure time from the previous ending town, your riding pace on the road (particularly if the route that day is high mileage and/or has a lot of climbing), and the amount of time you spend at stops and the pass through towns on the route that day.

You should also plan on leaving some extra time just in case any unforeseeable situations come up such as mechanical trouble, inclement weather conditions such as rain, heat, or headwinds, extra stops because you are tired and riding slow after a long week, or just something really cool to go check out! You should also leave enough time in the ending town to do such things as dipping your tires at the finish in the Mississippi River to signify you made it, dropping your bike off at the bike shipping location (if applicable), picking up your baggage and transporting it to us (if necesary), taking a shower, eating and drinking, checking out the ending town, and riding to our transportation staging point.

Both we and our coach bus(ses) will arrive in the ending town as early as possible. That way there will be as much time as possible for you to have a secure, dry place to leave your bicycle and baggage after you arrive you and also be able to use the restroom on the bus. Arriving early and loading bikes and bags continuously also helps decrease the commotion around our transportation staging point at the end of RAGBRAI and prevents us from rushing to quickly load everyone's bicycles and baggage all at the same time.

RAGBRAI Ending Town Locations
The RAGBRAI ending town will inform us of these specific locations around May 1st and we will develop the specific routes and provide more information about them after this time.

Riding to Our Transportation Staging Point at the End of RAGBRAI
At the end of RAGBRAI, you will need to ride directly to our transportation staging point yourself from the ending location and dip site. We will provide a route for you to follow.

Cue Sheet and Map
We will distribute a printed cue sheet and map of our routes in the RAGBRAI ending town to all participants before the start of RAGBRAI as part of the registration materials.

We will also post a link on the bicycleillinois.com home page and our RAGBRAI transportation service home page for you to download the .pdf file of the cue sheet and map onto your smartphone in case your paper copy gets lost or destroyed during the week of RAGBRAI.

Unfortunately we will not be able to distribute them after the end of RAGBRAI, so if you do not register for our transportation service from Chicago to the start of RAGBRAI you will need to download and print them yourself and carry them with you during the week.

Ride with GPS Routes
Our locations and navigable routes in the RAGBRAI starting, previous ending, and ending towns will be available for free through the Ride with GPS app on your smartphone. GPS route dataset files will also be available for you to download onto your own individual personal GPS device for navigation through Ride with GPS.

Detours and Reroutes
In the extremely unlikely event that either our transportation staging point at the end of RAGBRAI or the route to it changes after all printed materials and the GPS route dataset files have been distributed (such as in response to unexpected blocked roads, new road construction, etc.) we will indicate our route to our transportation staging point at the end of RAGBRAI by using painted road markings directly on the road designated with both "BI" and "DT" to signify Bicycle Iillinois and the DeTour. We will also inform all of our participants on their cell phone using both text message and voice mail of the situation. Unfortunately we will not be able to provide anyone with a new individual printed cue sheet or map of GPS route dataset files of our new routes.

Other Signage
We will not mount any Bicycle Illinois specific signs onto sign posts or telephone poles because they will be too easy to miss and will not stand out enough among the hundreds of other club signs posted there. In addition we will not be able to come back later to take the signs down.

Transporting Your Baggage to Our Transportation Staging Point at the end of RAGBRAI
In order to prevent unnecessary traffic in the RAGBRAI ending town, RAGBRAI only allows us to travel to our transportation staging point and we cannot pick up any participants or their bicycles or baggage at any other location. If you used Pork Belly Ventures charter service during the week of RAGBRAI, they will not deliver your baggage to our transportation staging point in the ending town.

If you do not drop off your baggage with us in the previous RAGBRAI ending town you will need to transport it to our transportation staging point in the RAGBRAI ending town yourself.

If your baggage is not within a reasonable distance to our transportation staging point at the end of RAGBRAI, our transportation staging point will be a stop on the official RAGBRAI Rider & Support Shuttle Service which will run all day. To use this shuttle service to transport your baggage to our transportation staging point you should bike to our transportation staging point (without your baggage) using our route from the RAGBRAI ending location and dip site and drop off your bicycle with us. You should then take the shuttle service back to where your baggage is located (without your bicycle), pick up your baggage, and then take the shuttle service back to our transportation staging point with your baggage. Shuttle busses can take up to an hour and a half each way, so make sure and budget at least three hours to get your baggage after you arrive at our transportation staging point.

Baggage Staging and Loading
All baggage will be staged loaded together because all coach busses will arrive together at the Chicago hotel on Saturday evening.

Bicycle Transportation Services
After the end of RAGBRAI we will have two separate bicycle transportation services that travel from the RAGBRAI ending town to Chicago. You must let us know when you want to pick up your bicycle in Chicago so that we can properly stage and load bikes together as one group to quickly and easily unload them in Chicago in the following order of pick up times and locations:

Premium Bicycle Transportation Service
Our premium bicycle transportation service will depart the RAGBRAI ending town first and drop off bicycles at the Chicago hotel on Saturday evening. We will give priority to loading all the bikes that are part of this service to make sure they arrive in Chicago as soon as possible on Saturday evening. You should register for this service if you need your bicycle back in Chicago on Saturday evening such as if you have an flight or train ride out of Chicago early Sunday morning.

Please note that the longer, hillier, and more challenging the last riding day is the more it will impede the premium bicycle transportation service departing at the same time as the coach busses. This is because more riders will arrive later in the day and we will have to check in and load more bikes closer to our arrival deadline time.

Standard Bicycle Transportation Service
After our premium bicycle transportation service crew has departed we will continue to load all remaining bikes (as well as our equipment and supplies) as part of our standard bicycle transportation service. We will then drive through the night, arrive back in Chicago early Sunday morning, and unload all of the bikes at our standard bicycle transportation service staging point at the Goose Island Brewery where they will be waiting for you to pick up on Sunday.