When it began in 1973, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) had less than 300 participants; this past summer, for its 50th anniversary ride, the approximately 500-mile, weeklong ride through the small and midsize towns in Iowa had tens of thousands of riders. Fifteen of those riders were members of the West Point Women (WPW) group, including Casey Moes ’99.

“I started riding RAGBRAI with my mom when I was a teenager,” Moes says. When her mom, a veteran of 27 RAGBRAIs, passed in August 2020, Moes rode the following summer with her mom’s team, the Donner Party, in honor of her mother. “RAGBRAI has done many things for me,” she says. “I earned my first Army award riding for the Des Moines Recruiting Battalion in 2001, and it has been a way to reconnect with my home state and family.”

In July, Moes, along with 14 other WPW, ranging from the Class of 1982 through 1999, saddled up for the physical and emotional test of endurance of the 2023 RAGBRAI. They were joined by three other women who epitomized the grace, stamina, and demeanor of WPW. “The RAGBRAI with the WPW team was a reminder of just how good we—women, mothers, corporate executives, senior Army leaders—are and can be,” Moes says. “We bonded while enduring the heat, hills, and headwinds of the ride, inspiring one another to do our daily best on the road and after the ride.”

Halfway through this year’s route, which changes annually, the WPW were hosted by the Nosco and Schwartz families of the West Point Society of Central Iowa. “They gave us the perfect A/C reset and recharge,” says Moes. “It was a terrific example of how deep our Army and West Point connections run across the Long Gray Line.”

Read the complete Winter 2024 edition of West Point magazine here.

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