RAGBRAI 51 route reveal coming on Saturday night

The countdown to the 51st edition of RAGBRAI begins Saturday when the route is announced during a party at the Iowa Events Center's Hy-Vee Hall.

The Des Moines Register will publish the route and a map on its website, desmoinesregister.com, the minute the announcement, scheduled to come a short time after 8:30 p.m. The route and map also will appear in the Sunday edition of the Register, and look for more information in the Register and about the route and the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa over the news few days.

RAGBRAI also will release the route of the July 20-27 ride on its website, ragbrai.com, and name the winners of a contest to guess where the ride is going. You can sign up for RAGBRAI and pay the registration fees there.

Livestream of the route announcement program will begin at 7:45 p.m. Saturday at facebook.com/RAGBRAI.

Also on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Iowa Events Center, will be the Iowa Bike Expo. The free event, put on by the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, offers a wide array of biking products and information.

Founded by Des Moines Register journalists John Karras and Donald Kaul in 1973, RAGBRAI is the world's oldest and largest annual recreational cycling tour, drawing tens of thousands of participants from around the world.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: RAGBRAI route to be revealed on Saturday evening