Today we had our annual pre-race ride to (1) give members the chance to ride the route, as we work as marshals on the day, and (2) we get to see the conditions of the roads used for the race.

Today started out with overcast skies, but dry conditions. Around the 24km mark (on the Vet’s 121km route) we were greeted with rain making for treachery conditions on the corners. One of our members tested out the wet conditions on the left turn at 26.5km with a slide worthy of 10/10 score. He got up, rubbed himself off and finished with the front group riding the 121km route.

Road conditions are very good for most of the route, even in the rain. Potholes, as always, will be fixed/filled before the race and the few obstructions marked. The only concern is coming out of Heidelberg on the R42 towards Nigel as there are roadworks outside a new shopping centre currently being built. With five weeks to go, we hope they will be finished with the road, as it is a single lane out of Heidelberg.

Safety is one of the aspects we consider important, and who better than the @SafetyMarshals (Road Rangers) to keep cyclists safe on the route. We had the privilege of having them and the EMPD Bike Squad along for the ride.  If only all our training rides had them in our company.

Anyway, we still have work to do before the race and being cyclists holding down a full time job, we need to squeeze everything in. Safe training and we hope to see morw than 765 cyclists riding our event (count as of 20:00 tonight).