PHOTOS: RAGBRAI heads into Manchester

After a soggy morning, the thousands of Ragbrai bicyclists converging on Manchester got their groove back when the sun finally came out.

“It was a rough morning, but I am feeling good now after a shower and some dry clothes” said Logan Oney, a first-time Ragbrai rider from Grosse Pointe, Mich., who was camping with thousands of other cyclists, their Lycra garments drying on fences around an athletic field complex near the Delaware County Fairgrounds.

Another first-time Ragbrai rider, Postville Police Chief Mike Halse, said the event has turned out to be more family-oriented than he had envisioned. “I was expecting more partying, but it has been a good relaxing week. I'd do it again,” the chief said.

Of the hundreds of cycling clubs gathered at the Manchester campsite, each with a name clever enough to make an ad writer envious, one of the more enviable was Team Stream, a group from Amana promoting Millstream beer on their weeklong tour of Iowa.

“Millstream provides the van, pays for the gas and gives us free beer,” said Kristie Wetjen, executive director of the Amana Colonies Convention and Business Bureau.

“We have not had to work very hard to get some of our fellow riders to try it,” she said.

Manchester Mayor Milt Kramer said he could not be prouder of the city's residents, many of whom were filling sandbags during last week's record flood of the Maquoketa River

“People were calling me Monday saying, ‘Milt, you can't have Ragbrai.'  But I never doubted they would be ready to provide a warm welcome to more than 20,000 overnight guests,” Kramer said.

Jack Klaus, co-executive director of the town's Ragbrai committee, said he worried for awhile that there would not be eough volunteers or overnight accommodations. “The town really rose to the occasion,” he said.

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Photos by Liz Martin