Dear Friends,
Thank you for your interest in Pork Belly Ventures LLC, the best RAGBRAI Charter Service on the road. The Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa is the biggest bike ride in the world, a moving festival, whose route from the Muddy Missouri to the Mighty Mississippi is characterized by hills and heat, pigs and ponds, barns and silos, and rows of corn all the way to the horizon. As one of the 10,000-plus cyclists from all over the world who converge on Iowa every summer during the last week of July, you can expect a step back in time, an athletic challenge, friendly and interesting fellow riders, and all the pie, watermelon, sweet corn and hospitality your Iowa hosts can dish out. We invite you to come and pass the corn!
For over twenty years, we at Pork Belly have devoted much of each summer to planning, strategizing, and coordinating our ever-better services for the benefit of our team members. Our hardy Porkers come from all walks of life-cardiologists and teachers, stock brokers and firemen, grandparents and gen-Xers-and from all over the country and the world. We serve long-time friends and first-time RAGBRAIers every summer. While we love to welcome our old buddies back to Iowa, meeting new ones and sharing a first RAGBRAI with a newcomer are great pleasures, too. So, if you're friendly and you regularly exercise your sense of humor, you'll be right at home with Pork Belly Ventures LLC.
You're probably wondering about a few things, like who we are, what we do for our team, and a whole lot of logistical stuff. In the Q & A format below, we'll do our best to help you with that information, and if you don't find an answer to a question, please don't hesitate to write us (hit "Contact"). We'd love to hear from you. Read on...
Who runs this thing? Pork Belly Ventures LLC (PBV) is operated by Peter Phillips and Tammy (Phillips) Pavich (my brother and me). We've been on this ride for over 20 years, 11 of them on bikes. We know what a rider needs and we pride ourselves on making improvements to our service every year. Our large family and our crew help us take care of the PBV team.
What does PBV expect of its team members? Very little, really. Be good to our crew. Read your email updates and do what they say. Tell jokes if you know any. Help us learn your names. Be friendly and courteous to our crew. Keep our campsites clean. Be pleasant to our crew. Don't miss an opportunity to help a fellow Porker. Be of good cheer. Roll with it. And above all, be nice to our crew.
What are the dates of the ride? The ride always occurs during the last FULL week in July. The seven-day ride is Sunday to Saturday. That means that we will meet up with most of you on the Saturday immediately prior to the ride, either at the Omaha airport, at the Mississippi River ride's-end town (for the east/west shuttle), or at the first host town campground.
How can I find out this year's route? Check ragbrai.com. The Des Moines Register (ride sponsor) typically announces the route in early February. We cannot establish our pricing for services until the route is announced, but when the announcement is made, we'll get our prices and invitation letter on our website and in the mail asap. Whether or not the route has been announced, you can always plan to fly into and out of Omaha, and Pork Belly Ventures LLC will get you to/from the bike ride smoothly and comfortably.
How do I get an official RAGBRAI XXXIII Wristband? Go to pete@pkbelly.com