IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Organizers of the popular summer bike ride across Iowa are cutting ties with its longtime sponsor, the Des Moines Register, amid backlash over the newspaper’s handling of a story.
The four staff members who work full-time running the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa resigned on Tuesday.
Amid the backlash over the Registers handling of a story involving past tweets of viral sensation Carson King, The register advised organizers of RAGBRAI to not comment on the matter. And this was one of the many factors leading event organizers to resign.
The group immediately launched a competing event, called Iowa’s Ride, which will be held next July during the same week that the Register’s ride had been scheduled.
It wasn’t immediately clear if RAGBRAI would continue. The weeklong event draws thousands of cyclists from around the country and had been founded by Register employees in the 1970s.
