On this Saturday 3,500 individual athletes and 650 relays checked in their bikes into T1 at the Europakanal for the 30th anniversary Challenge Roth. And here is the first of two galleries from there.

The flow of athletes was steady but not overwhelming. Lots of age groupers showed up in regular road or aero helmets for a race day that promises to be hot.

We selected this early arriving age groper for a random chat interview. Some time after the race.

Meanwhile many athletes still had their bike looked after at the bike shop near the swim start.

Joe Gambles who is flying a bit under the radar here was the first Pro to check in.

His Trek Factory Team bike looks ready.

Team TBB athlete Andrej Vistica is a bit of an unknown quantity here too.

Rudy Garcia-Tolson will race this Cannondale Synapse tomorrow.

2012 Challenge Roth champion Rachel Joyce was the first female Pro to get here.

It took no time for Rachel to set up her bike and drop off her run bag.

The Viner of Richie Nicholls is quite distinctive and has a Braveheart quote on the top tube.

But maybe it shows that this editor is a dweeb for knowing that.

In the age group racks there were quite a few interesting bikes.

German Pro Markus Fachbach was 4th here last year, and he wants to improve on that tomorrow.

His Canyon is racked and ready, but needed a bit of ziptie love to mount the Junction A box again.

This year Felix Walchshöfer will race here and that is his bike. He has never raced in Roth before, and the bib number represents his father's May 21st birthday.

After hugging a bunch of the volunteers he finally dropped off his run transition bag.

With the man out of sight friends added a picture of his dog to the top tube to inspire Felix.

By about 4pm the Pros and fast Elites really started to roll in.

Team Arndt has several Pros in this race - including Fabian Conrad.

When Yvonne Van Vlerken arrived she was immediately hounded.