Thursday 5 February 2009

TCR Show - Road Ride Preview

We've been out today marking out the road course ready for Sunday - not something I was looking forward to after waking up to find a couple of inches of fresh snow had fallen over night.

I actually decided to take the mountain bike rather than the road bike as was prepared for the worst, however, by the time we started most of the snow on the road seemed to have melted mainly aided by a couple of rain showers. Once you got moving it wasn't really that cold either and I think 4 layers might have been over doing it :-)

The route sticks to fairly main roads so unless we have loads of snow over the next few days we're not expecting any problems and it should be fine on a road bike. From the racecourse the route heads out towards Guildford and Albury then through Wonersh and on towards Cranleigh. From here the route starts to head back through Holmbury St Mary, Gomshall and East Horsley.

The only section for any real concern was the climb up from Gomshall, we had originally planned to take the route up the Combe Bottom climb but found out this morning that that road has been closed. We've changed the route but don't worry we've got an equally tough climb (18% in places) for you to tackle. The descent down after the climb was still a bit slushy so we're going to do a final check on this section early on Sunday morning to make sure the route is safe.

I think even if it's not raining on Sunday come prepared for a wet ride as there's a lot of water around from all the melting snow. Jon the Gore man might be in for a busy day lending out his fancy Gore Bike Wear jackets.

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