Hometown partnership helps open America's most famous bike ride to new riders
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Sept. 23, 2026) – Chris Pochiba and Sara Aho, the Chattanooga travel creators behind the YouTube channel Chris and Sara, will lead a group of riders across Iowa at RAGBRAI LIV, July 24 to 31, 2027, in partnership with Chattanooga's Litespeed Bicycles. It will be the couple's third time riding across the state.
The group is built for people who have always wanted to ride RAGBRAI but never knew where to start. As part of the partnership, Litespeed will provide loaner bikes to select participants who don't have one of their own.
Litespeed has handmade titanium bicycles in Chattanooga for more than three decades and is known by riders around the world. The company has spent the past two summers at RAGBRAI, setting up in overnight towns to keep riders rolling toward the Mississippi.
"We've been to a lot of places, and we still love telling people we're from Chattanooga," said Pochiba. "When we started planning this ride, we didn't want to go find a partner somewhere else. The best bikes in the world are built a few miles from our house. Getting to carry a Chattanooga company across Iowa with us means a lot."
"Litespeed didn't have to say yes to this," said Aho. "There are people out there who've wanted to do something like RAGBRAI for years and never had the chance. Litespeed is helping some of them get there, and we're so thankful for that. It's the kind of thing a hometown company does."
RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, began in 1973 when two Des Moines Register writers invited readers to join them on a ride across the state. Nearly 300 people showed up. Today it draws around 20,000 riders each July for a seven-day trip from the Missouri River to the Mississippi, rolling through small towns that open their doors, streets, and kitchens to the riders passing through. It is the oldest and largest multi-day bicycle ride in the country.
Chris and Sara have traveled the world full-time since 2018, and Chattanooga has always been home base. After two rides across Iowa of their own, they're inviting others to experience it with them, guiding their group from registration to the finish and camping alongside them every night on the route.
More information: chrisandsara.com/ragbrai
Chris and Sara are travelers, storytellers, and creators who have been capturing their adventures together since 2018. They met in 2014 on a cross-country bike ride from Seattle to New York, and they haven't stopped moving since. They've driven a van to the Arctic Ocean, sledded down a volcano in Nicaragua, visited all 50 U.S. states, and driven the Pan-American Highway through Central America. These days you'll find them somewhere in Europe in a 1988 Toyota Land Cruiser with their dog, Kramer. Through their YouTube channel, their weekly newsletter Field Notes, and their podcast What No One Tells You, they share the highs, lows, and unexpected moments of travel, inviting others to come along for the ride. Home base is Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Litespeed builds titanium road, gravel, and mountain bikes by hand in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
DROPPIN Press provides media relations for travel creators.
Anthony Paxton
DROPPIN Press
anthony@droppinmedia.com
