The Dairyland Dare is an annual bicycle ride that began in 2006. It starts and finishes in Dodgeville, WI. This ride raises funds for a charity and provides a hilly challenge for its participants on routes that span distances from 50k up to 200k (see tentative route maps).
Dane and Iowa County ARES coordinates ham radio support for this event. This includes rest stop communicators, mobile vehicle SAG drivers (mileage reimbursed), net control operators, etc.
- Overview of Bike Routes for 2026
I’ve been wrestling with finding a good repeater for an upcoming ride, Wright Stuff Century, and I created a map that includes the routes of four 2026 rides, Horribly Hilly, Dairyland Dares, Bike the Barns and Wright Stuff Century along with the approximate location of repeaters in the area, blue is FM38 and orange is 2m repeaters from RepeaterBook. It’s not perfect but I am a visual learner. I thought I’d share it with you all. At the moment, since I am working on Wright Stuff Century at the moment, those routes are bolded. Once I’m done I’ll make all the lines the same width. I am finding it interesting to see a bird’s eye view (a very high flying bird) of what we have to cover each year.
Note: I don’t have the Badger Challenge incorporated yet.
https://earth.google.com/earth/d/1Sk50NWJM6g0KZVu–ayNja7r50h4KswB?usp=sharing
- Dairyland Dare 2026
The 2026 Dairyland Dare bicycle event is on August 1, 2026. Ham radio sign-ups are now available! If you are a ham radio operator that would like to volunteer for this event, please fill out the signup form.
- Dairyland Dare 2025
The 2025 Dairyland Dare bicycle event is on August 2, 2025. If you are a ham radio operator that would like to volunteer for this event, please fill out the signup form.
- Dairyland Dare 2024
The 2024 Dairyland Dare bicycle event happened on August 3, 2024.