As an aside - Iowa has an enormous annual bike ride called [Ragbrai](https://ragbrai.com). I’ve wanted to go for years. Those that I know that have done it loved it.

Absolutely do it at least once but do not expect it to be super easy. Most years we average more climbing than Ride the Rockies and it's always 10 degrees hotter on the pavement than the air temp which will likely be in the 90F's. The great thing though, this is not a race, and there's lots of places to stop and relax along the way. You have all day to make it to the next overnight town. Many of us do a gravel route and end up in the same towns every evening as the main ride. Riding gravel is a really big deal here and this alternate route has caught on. The official ride now even includes an optional gravel loop on one day. Hope you make it some summer soon.

Speaking of gravel, I think this is really cool: https://dirtykanza.com/ - it really makes the most of the roads and land they have, even if it's not someplace 'spectacular'. And it looks pretty brutal to boot.

Yes, it's also in July and it's brutal if you ride during the afternoon. That's why everyone does all of their riding in the morning.

Edited to add:

There are biking trails, but the state of Iowa is not particularly bike friendly, because six months out of the year it's impossible to ride your bike.

The bicyclists I knew that lived there did road and highway biking. There's no mountains, so mountain biking is out.

I live in Des Moines, many of us bike year round. The paved bike trails are well maintained in all seasons and there are many miles of them. Snow and ice in the metro areas are promptly removed, though this often takes a while in some of the more remote areas. We also ride single track and winter only trails on fatbikes made to handle the snow. It's fantastic. Also, we have mountain bike trails and we do have a lot of elevation change. The difference here is we have what's called rollers. Ends up being forced intervals and make for a great workout. As a trail steward, I maintain one of the local trails near Des Moines and here's a link to the page that coordinates our efforts and catalogs the trails in the central Iowa region. http://www.centraliowatrails.com/ Whiterock recently opened and is fantastic. ~30 miles of single track and double track with around 3000 ft of climbing for a full lap.