Ironman Cork Details
Cutting and pasting from conversation between @Paul Hough and @Sam Lawrence ....
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@Paul Hough In respect to IM Cork, I have a few questions. Do you have any concerns about the cold water swim? From what info I've collected, it should be in the mid 50's. My second concern is the Windmill Hill street. I am not the strongest climber, and it looks to be about 400 meters of some significant grade of up to 20 degees. There is an You tube video of a couple bikers climbing the hill, and they are doing some zigging and zagging to get up some of the steeper sections. I have an 11-28 cassette, and think I may need to get a smaller gear. Any thoughts?
@Sam Lawrence, I have my fingers crossed for water around 58 to 60. I'm bringing my polar cap and booties in case it is mid 50s.
I've already ridden the course profile on Rouvy and Windmill Hill will come at 54 and 110 miles ... definitely a match burner. My travel bike is a compact w 11-28. I'm going to see if my Etap can handle a 30 on the back, but I can climb it without it. Locals posted to Facebook that it only takes a minute longer to walk it but that will be the Hot Corner with the crowd screaming to go for it. Depending on who posted the GPX file I've seen 20 to 25% but it came up at 17% on my Hammer.
@Sam Lawrence - here are the Cork bike notes I promised. Coming out of T1 we go about a 1/3 mile take a left and start a long clockwise loop. It's pretty flat up to 6 miles when you hit a short steep 15% grade as the road comes to a T intersection and we go left. Next big hill comes from 11 to 11.5. The gradients I saw in that half mile went from 5.5% - 13% - 6.4% - 4.1% - 2.9% then it's over. A couple miles later there is a 1/4 mile hill at 13.4 that goes 3.5% - 5.9% - 11%. Then just light rolling until a 1.7 mile climb from 24 to 25.7 with max grades of 9.5% and 9.9%. Next up is a full 3 mile climb from 31 to 34. It is mostly between 2% to 5% grade with one section at 7.5%. You don't get too much of a break after this because the next climb goes from 37.4 to 39.7. This one is also mostly between 2-5% with a max grade of 8.1%. Coming off this climb you are at the highest elevation on the course and now you start the descent to Youghal but the downhill fun is interrupted with a nasty 0.9 mile hill that stayed between 6.5 - 8.5%. When we come into the North side of town and you turn right onto Windmill Lane (54.3 miles) the big hill is immediate with a slight taper off at the top. If you watched the Facebook course talk this past week, the RD said it was 20%. It felt like that but my system said 17% for the first couple hundred yards, then 14% then 10% and then we take a left at the top and head back by T1 - and get to do it all over again. The second time up that hill at the very end of the bike will be incredibly tough!
@Paul Hough- Thank you very much for that detailed break down of the course. It doesn't look too bad except for a few short sections and the Windmill Hill x 2. I ride a Ventum and was able to rent one through a service provided through Ironman at this race. I originally told them to set it up with a 11-28, but just sent them a message to change to an 11-32. I agree with you on the Windmill Hill being a hot corner on the course, and would hate to have to get off and walk up it.
You mentioned you have ridden this course profile on Rouvy. I have heard of Rouvy, but not very familiar with it. What would I have to do to set it up to ride the course on my trainer?
@Sam Lawrence - I've been with Rouvy for over a 1 1/2 years now. Zwift is much more popular but I'm not at all attracted to the animated world. Rouvy has both workouts and REAL rides. There are premium rides filmed with high definition video, regular rides filmed by anyone with their Go Pro, and plain rides without video. There are literally thousands to choose from around the world. You can search for rides on a world map, drilling in, or by name, or by distance, or by rating (1 to 5 stars), with or without video and so on. I saw 5 rides loaded for IM Ireland but no one has filmed the course yet. If there is no video, Rouvy defaults to a Satellite map view with the course marked as a bright red line and your avatar follows that. All the other data is there including course profile and the exact grade you are on at the moment. I verified the route against the turn by turn directions on the Ironman page and it was spot on. Below are two recent articles that Slowtwitch did on Rouvy. It seems to have a growing presence and Slowtwitch has sponsored some group rides on Rouvy (as well as Zwift). You just have to use what works for you. Although I'm in Tampa, FL, I can do rides in the mountains (every classic in the Alps is in Rouvy) all the time. I've also included a youtube link to Rouvy's new Augmented Reality rides. There are only several dozen of those right now, but it's a new feature that's pretty cool.