Thousands of bicyclists and their support vehicles and/or entourages are set to enter Atlantic today (Sunday), as they dip their rear wheels in the Missouri River and take on the first leg of pedaling from Council Bluffs to their first overnight stay here in town. When they arrive, they can expect to find a lot of food and entertainment downtown.

Vendors will be ready to serve them in the City Park, and many church groups or organizations will be available as well to serve a variety of tasty treats to help replenish some of those burned-off calories from the first ride, which is 60-miles, or about 80-miles if riders chose to take memorial loop in McClelland.

A reminder, several streets have been blocked-off to vehicle traffic through 2-a.m. Sunday. Information about street closures and parking restrictions have been mentioned numerous times on KJAN, and the information is still available in stories on our News page, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

There’s a beer garden that will be set-up in the City Park, and the Atlantic Chamber has teamed-up with First Whitney Bank to have the downtown Christmas light turned on tonight, to add an extra special glow to the festivities. Stage entertainment in the downtown City Park includes opening act “Freakabout,” a four-piece rock band from Lincoln, NE. The headliner band is “Hairball,” who will perform a two-hour homage to some of the biggest arena acts in the world, including Van Halen, KISS, Motley Crue, Queen, Journey, and Aerosmith. Both concerts are free.

The riders and their support teams will begin to depart Atlantic on Monday, some well before the sun rises, so motorists are urged to be extremely cautious. They’ll be pedaling 68-miles from Atlantic, through Wiota, Anita, Adair, Casey, Menlo, Stuart, Dexter and Earlham, with their second overnight stop in Winterset. The 427 mile cross-State ride ends next Saturday, in Keokuk, with the dipping of wheels into the Mississippi River.