Tacks placed on road at Show-Me Games--and now RAGBRAI

Someone--apparently purposefully--placed tacks on the road to flatten bicycle racers' tires at the recent Show-Me Games held in Callaway County, Missouri.

Now dozens of riders are reporting tacks thrown on the ride during a stage of RAGBRAI held in Story County, Iowa. Law enforcement officials believe those tacks were placed on purpose as well.

The Columbia Tribune reported the Show-Me Games incident:

. . . someone apparently tossed a handful of thumbtacks along the Missouri Show-Me State Games bicycle race course on Route DD near Hatton in Callaway County. . . .

The white thumbtacks ended up flattening the tires of about a dozen of the 50 bikes competing in the 19.6-mile, six-category race.

Participants suspect the tacks were thrown into the road sometime in the middle of the three-hour event.

"The first three groups didn’t have any problems at all," race organizer Raymond Sapp said.

"From that point on, it seems like everybody starting having flats. We got to looking at the tires and found white-headed tacks in them.

"You always want to think it was accidental, but the tacks were on both sides of the road, so we know somebody had to actually throw them out," he said.

KMBC TV reported on the tacks thrown on the road in Story County, Iowa, during RAGBRAI:

Dozens of Iowa cyclists were sidelined by a possible prank during their ride Wednesday morning, reported KCCI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa. . . .

Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said tacks were dumped along the white lines of the eastbound lanes in three different stretches of old Lincoln Highway.

"Bikes have been falling off left and right with tires. I've come across some people who have had gone through three or four tubes on their bike tires already," Fitzgerald said.

Dave Hendricks, who was fixing the trashed tires, said his crew had pulled at least 50 tacks out of tires in just a couple hours. . . .

"It's too bad that some people are inconsiderate of others, but we riders still go on. (It) doesn't stop us from riding," Sherman said.