Course Review of IM Tremblant (by Dev Paul)
Dev is a long-time Slowtwitcher and has done more triathlons than like half of EN combined. He can be a bit over the top, but he's a super nice guy and he knows what's what. He drove the IM MT course this past weekend and suggested I forward the following on to the crew. If you are on ST, please shoot him a note of thanks...
You can view the course and get PDF downloads here: http://ironmanmonttremblant.com/course/bike/
> Guys,
>
> I am in Tremblant on spring break doing some XC skiing with my son. I should have brought my rode bike....it was 12C and the roads are bone dry and I ran for an hour outside in shorts. I also just got back from driving the lac Superieur section of the IM Tremblant bike course with all the steep stuff.
>
> I was not too worried about the section on the 117 towards Mont Laurier as I had ridden it several times in the last 5 years.
>
> The section to Lac Superieur I had not ridden since 1997. The good thing is the pavement is sweet with the new work they did. Very smooth and a nice shoulder too...sure beats the "almost single track white knuckle road from 97"
>
> However it is much harder than I remember it being (we are always studlier in our memories than reality).
>
> I take back my previous statement about compact crank for everyone under 4W per kilo. If you are not more than a 4.2W per kilo athlete, you need a compact crank with a 12-27. If not, you will be walking lots of the run. There are just too many steep hills that are moderately long that over time, these will catch up with you. Sure you can get over the hills with a standard crank set, but you need to run a marathon afterwards. Make sure your bike set up is nice and slick and you're not carrying everything from Home Hardware on your bike and weight it down with 7-10 lbs of crap (don't laugh, just walk the transition at IMLP and you'll see this). Being lighter will be you friend on this course. The good news is that there will be no IMFlorida draft train to T2....draft trains will end after around 50K...
>
> This is going to be the hardest IM Course I have done outside IM France. My guess is most people will be 15 minutes slower on the bike split than IMLP, and if they are not, they will be 30 minutes slower on the run (in other words, they overcooked the bike).
>
> So getting to T2 fresher took on a entirely different meaning. It's not IM France style relentless, rather the back half is like riding endless loops in the Gatineau Park...relentless hills, but with some coasting breaks (which will make it even easier to overcook things on loop 1).
>
> Dev
>
> PS. I am looking forward to the carnage on the side of the road from those who ride beyond their fitness....there will be many but hopefully none from this email list. Those with powermeters will have an "unfair advantage", because they will know when their oponents are riding at 5W per kilo and overcooking it.
Comments
Thanks much.
It's called Signal hill, it hits most of the % grades that are on the course and is a mile long. I think I should be OK once I do some hill reps on it.