2008 RAGBRAI expected to boost LeClaire and QCA

Fri January 25 2008
Posted Jan 25, 2008
6,205

by Kia Carter LECLAIRE, Iowa -- After much anticipation the official RAGBRAI route for the 2008 tour has been released and there's exciting news for the quad city area, the Iowa cross-state tour will end in LeClaire. WQAD Newschannel 8 got exclusive reaction from the city right after leaders got the official news. When folks from Polk County arrived at LeClaire's city hall...and smiles broke out on faces behind closed doors...it was obvious LeClaire go the news it had been hoping for. Later, the Des Moines Register's website confirmed what Newschannel 8 had already learned. "There's been some wonderful additions to the city they've redone downtown and people have showed they would love to host RAGBRAI, so they really rolled out the red carpet and said this would be great place to end this year. It happened to work out that we can go 471 miles and end in a beautiful river town of LeClaire," says T.J. Juskiewicz, RAGBRAI Director. It was an historic moment for the city. Since last year LeClaire's spent $3.3 million dollars in renovations to streets and sidewalks to get the city RAGBRAI-ready. Now more than ten thousand official riders, possibly twice that number, will end this year's 471 mile tour in traditional fashion...by dipping their front tire in the Mississippi by LeClaire's Buffalo Bill Museum. "We just want more and more to help us grow so this is another catalyst you could say to get more things going more development to help the town grow," says Ron Leiby, LeClaire's Mayor pro-temp. Last year's construction took a toll on businesses like Sneaky Pete's restaurant. The owner is hopeful he'll recoup some of that loss as thousands of cyclists wind down in LeClaire in July. "I am really surprised...wow...it's a good jump for LeClaire. I don't know where they usually end up, but I thought it was bigger towns. But I'm sure LeClaire will do a good job for them. We'll do whatever we can to make them satisfied and want to stop here again. I know we'll have enough help and prepare for it," says "We're still on cloud nine in regards to hearing the news so it'll take us awhile to figure out the multipliers and figure out numbers we're expecting. We hope it will have a significant impact on the Quad City community," says Pam Ellis, Vice President of QC Visitors and Convention Bureau. The RAGBRAI director says the 8 communities with official stops, including LeClaire, stand to gain as much as $2 million dollars in revenue through sales in restaurants, hotels and tourist shops. The bike tour will go from July 20th to the 26th, ending LeClaire, on the same weekend as the Bix 7 road race and the Bix Jazz Festival in Davenport, so many communities stand to gain.