(Shenandoah) -- It's not RAGBRAI, but an incredible simulation.

Members of the Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa made their way to Shenandoah Sunday evening as part of a route inspection pre-ride tour of RAGBRAI 44's course in late July. From Glenwood--the starting point of this year's ride--a team of 35 participants rode the nearly 50-mile course making up the ride's first day July 24th. RAGBRAI Director T.J. Juskiewicz tells KMA News the pre-ride is designed to assess road conditions along the course, and to check the state of readiness in each community involved in this year's event.

"We get to hear from the committees one more time," said Juskiewicz, "hear their plans 50 days out what they've got lined up for RAGBRAI. But, it's also a chance to take a look at the roads, look at the traffic patterns along the way, see if there's lots of trucks on the roads, if there's cracks that are being filled. Lots of stuff happens during the summer on road construction. So, this is a good opportunity to take a bicycle out there, and take a look and see what kind of hazards await RAGBRAI, and see if we can get those things marked or fixed before RAGBRAI rolls."

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