Knoxville will be an overnight stop for RAGBRAI 2024.

The announcement was made Saturday night at an event held at the Iowa Events Center. RAGBRAI, the annual great bicycle ride across Iowa, is an eight-day rolling festival of bicycles, music, food, camaraderie, and community. This is the 51st year of the oldest, largest, and longest multi-day bicycle touring event in the world. RAGBRAI 2024 will be held July 20-27th and will be an overnight stop in Knoxville on Wednesday, July 24th. Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nathan Sage said Knoxville will be a desirable stop for the large bike ride.

“It wasn’t like the City of Knoxville went out and wanted to bring this in. This is something we are obviously excited to be a part of but they chose us. The RAGBRAI group wanted Knoxville. What that means for us and for Knoxville is people know what we’re doing here. They know we’re a thriving community. We have the amenities to have that many people here and get the volunteers. We know how to hold big events, and do things right. Think about the kickoff part with nationals and just nationals in general.”

The other overnight stops include Glenwood, Red Oak, Atlantic, Winterset, Ottumwa, Mt. Pleasant, and Burlington. The route will be 434 miles long which is the eighth shortest route but will be the hilliest ever. The theme for RAGBRAI 2024 is Home Sweet Home.