OTTUMWA — It’ll be mostly smooth sailing for RAGBRAI bicyclists heading into and out of Ottumwa next week.

Road crews from Appanoose through Washington counties were patching, paving and pothole filling along the 152-mile planned bike route thousands of bike riders are expected to use on Thursday and Friday.

“We were in pretty good shape, though we did do some minor patching,” said Jefferson County Engineer Tom Goff.

Most of their work had been done before the RAGBRAI announcement of the 2009 route.

“It was a pretty clean route they picked through our county,” he said. “Just two years ago, we [replaced the road] from Packwood east to Highway 1, and we put in a new bridge.”

Unfortunately, nature’s whim can undo an engineer’s intentions. Earlier this week, two spots between Packwood and Pleasant Plain had the lane of travel blocked by orange barricades.

“We had a blow up ... When it gets really hot on concrete pavements, they literally blow up,” Goff said.

Workers removed that road segment, then replaced it. The barriers usually come down after 24 hours.

By next week, those bicyclists looking for a fast ride will find that stretch of road long, flat and smooth, one of the longest paved straightaways in Jefferson County.

In smaller towns like Packwood or Pleasant Plain, the county normally handles the main road, as it will often come under the heading of “farm to market” extensions, he said.

Similarly, Blakesburg, which riders will pass through as they enter Wapello County, is maintained by the secondary roads department under Brian Moore, the county engineer.

“We’re ready,” Moore said. “No concerns.”

When the RAGBRAI route was revealed, he said he already knew, in general, what those roads looked like.

“I drove them just to make sure,” he said. “We didn’t have to do a lot.”

Once inside Ottumwa city limits, a section of Bluegrass Road was being repaved recently.