Eighty-eight cupcakes greeted John Karras for his 88th birthday at Bike World in West Des Moines on Saturday.
A co-founder of RAGBRAI, Karras was surrounded by a crowd of about 80 friends, fans and loved ones.
FROM 2017:John Karras is the inaugural guest on the Just Go Bike podcast
"John Karras was usually associated with RABGRAI with Donald Kaul, and he was actually promoting bicycling in Iowa even before RAGBRAI started," said state curatorLeo Landis. "He wrotearticles about the beauty of small-town roads and why you should get out into the countryside evenbefore the great six-day bike ride. When it comes to Iowa bicycling legends, I don't thinkyou can find anybody bigger than John Karras."
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