IMMT 2012 Bike Obervations Only!
Well the biking portion of my trg weekend is over. Over 2 days of riding and feeling the terrain here are a few observations in quick format. If any of you have a question just use this thread and I hopefully will have an answer. So it is a two loop course around a beautiful area of the Laurentians. The course itself has good smooth pavement with nice 6 ft shoulder in most sections to train or race on no issues there!
The first 10 km out of town(Mont Ryan) is rolling hills.You can get your grove going and not over tax your system out of the gate. Playing the downhill well here willl bring you up the next without over exerting yourself. Next up is the Highway 117 basically 25 km out 25 km back, again there are 4-6% hills all the way out and back of varying degree of distance. There is only one long climb( 1 KM approx) on this stretch. So back off highway onto Mont Ryan, by this time you should be flying. The hills here I rolled into them and was up most of the next hill(but you have to work it). Through the village you move very fast. Then the out and back to Lac Superior, here is where you will make or break.On the out portion from the village again hills but there are two hills back to back that will tax you. Gears, spin, soft pedal, watch your power. More hills to the turn around point. Coming back that 10 km into town you will fly due to the terrain itself. Now once into the village you get to do it over again
For those doing the half the back 10 km end will set up a good run no doubt.
Personal Thoughts/Obesevations - Those who live and train with hills keep it up. Those who have no hills find them even if it is only one do repeats till the cows come home. There is no rest on this course. For me personally this bike course put a smile on my face it was fun(except for the 117 highway). There are lot's of twists and turns and you definitely will make use of every gear on this course.
My bike set up is basic I used 53/39 with 12-28 more than adequate.I will probably not change to a 27 for this race. If you have a 27 fine as well.The weather here over the last 2 days has been around 30 C" with no wind. Water temp 56 F(COLD).Tomorrow I will loop the run course and give back obersations.
Comments
Elevation change for the course? Varying info out there.
Robin, are you asking if the information on the website re: elevation change is consistent with what we got on our garmins?
Lynne - I do not ride a compact crank, but do have a 12/18 on my Cervelo. I did not run out of gears on the 3x big hills, however I did go into my lowest gear on them. Hope that helps.
Lynne type o brenda also has a 1228 same set up as me!
How would you to compare the course overall to IMLP - (other than better road conditions) ?
This ride is fun!
with work of course!
My race is the 70.3 and it is in a month. Assuming that the weater warms a little, do I need anything speacial for the swim or bike?
@ Jimmy sorry dude my posts are in Celsius not farenheight. So 30 is actually around 90 F and the water will be around 74-76 F on race day
Back to the water though. I am racing the HIM at the end of June. Will the water really warm from 56F to 74F in the next month?
brenda and all.
I can not find the bike course elevation change anywhere. What is it???
Lots of numbers on the internet that vary wildly.
No idea what the temp will be since I'm not from the area, but I doubt it will heat up to 74 in a month, for those temps we are talking about the full in August. Sure it will have warmed up a bit by the half though, and it really shouldn't be bad in a full suit. Problem is you really need to get some practice in with your fullsuit, get used to swimming in it, get comfortable.
Subjectively, I find fears of cold water almost entirely unfounded if you have a good fitting full suit. I'd be much more worried about warm water personally. In cold water I feel like a properly cooled engine, I can push harder and my core temp stays within reason, I pop out of the water feeling fresh rather than cooked.
Re: the bike course elevation. Likewise, I really haven't seen any solid numbers yet, but maybe I just haven't looked in the right places.
@Jimmy, no on the water temp getting to 74-76 F for June. IN all will be much warmer than 56-58 F historically mid 60's. No issues with wetsuit.
@Robin andTrevor, yah I noticed slow twitch with all sorts of extreme numbers.Started the ride at 280 m and for the next 10 km you drop to about 160 m with rolling hills(warm up). Then you turn onto the highway. From 10 km to the 70 km mark you ascentdescent from 160m to 250m with multiple rolling hills.One big hill you go down for 2 km the descent is from 255m to 163m. One the return you have to climb this. Once off the highway back to transition area the same you climb 160m to 280m on multiple hills. Past transition to Lac Superior(out/back) for the 10 km out my Garmin topped out at climbing to 295m. You work hard going out and you fly coming back to transition because of the terrain. Trevor I hope this helps I use a Garmin 500 on my bike and this is the info it gave me.
I just noticed this link that Ironman put up. It's great info. http://ridewithgps.com/trips/645328
Steve, in the first 40K, there appear to be 2 decent climbs: one at about 10K going to about 15K and one at about 41K to 43K. Did those feel as rough as they look? Same question for the hills between about 68K and 75K. They look rough.
Where are the winds likely at on this course? Interested in where we might see a stiff headwind, if you know.
Thanks for all your help!
So according to that gps link, 1400 meter gain for the race. 4600 feet. About the same as cda and regensburg.
But hills are just hills. Ride the watts.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/193449472
If I could do it over again, I would have changed my gearing from what came withthe bike to something more hill friendly. I had to work too hard to stay upright coming up the hills towards the end of the ride.
But man, what great roads and pretty scenery.
Good luck to all in the full!
My RR hd about 2500ft and the race had 6k. I also see now that I ran my avg HR about 5bpm too high on the bike. Part of that higher avg was settling in after T1 but part of it was the latter sections of the bike loop.
I will post my gearing on monday. I am curious to find out myself...
I hope this adds something to the thread. I am finally getting around to posting my 70.3 data. The link on the IMMT website to the ridewithgps map is also useful.
My background: I rode a 50/34 with a 12-27 on the back. I spiked my watts above threshold on the steep portions of the climb to Lac Superior. My FTP is 250W. I held back a bit during the 70.3 race because I wanted to have a good run. My 90k data were: IF 0.75, TSS 150, time 2:44. My run was strong, so I think the bike strategy worked.
So......
I am happy to answer any questions.
Bang on obsevations. When I was up trg there that out and back I did 4 times from the highway Montee Ryan to Lac Superior turn around. I felt the area of the out/ back to be pivitol so I familied myself on this and what is the best way to ride it on multiple times in a day. Patience is needed or your run will pay even though the run course is front and back end hill loaded with flats in between.
1. Numbers: Did each loop in about 3:05 - 3:10. At about .67 IF (270 FTP).
2. Gearing: Compact with a 28/12 (my wt/kg is around 3.0). I used all my gears in order to ride steady, granny gear on hills and usually max out at 35mph so there are some coasting sections on the descents.
3. Montee Ryan Section (Beginning of each loop and do it again prior to climb up to Lac Superior): I think some people will overlook this section as just a means to get back & forth from Rt 117 to Lac Superior section. But it has 3 decent rollers where I lose all momentum and have to spin to top, then quickly back to max speed. Give this section its due respect and ride your watts.
4 Rt. 117. Immediately do a long steady climb (very similar to heading out of town from IMLP). Then fly down hill, a few rollers and then a flat section. This is the so called boring section where you rmind can wonder as it is not technical in nature. It will likely be into the wind as you are heading north/northwest. Coming back I was 5-6mph faster on my RR on both loops. After the turn around you do the same but in reverse w/the long climb coming at the end of the 117 section. Then you fly down big hill to sharp left and into original town of MT. On the second loop I began to really feel the fatigue on this long climb coming back to MT (probably mile 85ish).
5. Old Mont Tremblant Section (just 5-6k). Again this section is short but probably has the worse roads and a few turns. It will be crowded with all the outdoor cafes, and has some elevation at the turnaround. Could be very easy to get out of your box during this section and use it to either drop watts too much or get too excited w/the fan support after the lonely 117 section.
6. Back to Montee Riyan: see above - again a few rollers to deal with here. I think people will be thinking about the upcoming climb to Lac Superior and may lose focus. But this is 20-25 minutes of riding on Montee Ryan.
7. Out/back to Lac Superior. This is the highlight of the course for me - love it. Realize that on the way UP there are descents. In fact I reached 40mph on one of them. So its technical in terms of trying to ride steady, maintain momentum where you can. But this keeps your head in the game and focused which I like! The climbs are not long, but some are very steep, but you know there will be some relief coming shortly after each climb. I think there will be athletes pushing way to hard on this climb during the first loop. I had to fight the urge not to stand and finish off a climb (save it for the 2nd loop). The trip down is awesome but you still have to work to keep your momentum up so you can fly over the smaller bumps. The terrain will act as a natural brake as I never touched them on the way down. There are 3 sections where my momentum ran out and I still had to spin up the hill. I hope they don't allow cars on this road as it is somewhat narrow and with all the athletes going up & down (at varioius skill levels) it could get a little dicey - but the road condition is perfect.
I think it took me approx 4 minutes longer to make the climb up to Lac Superior on the 2nd loop. If you didn't ride smart prior to that 2nd trip up Lac Superior - you will know it rather quickly. But I like the fact that it comes at the end of each loop. Make sure you have fluids at bottom of climb since I don't think there will be any aid stations until the turn around. But its really only 7-8 miles (12k) to turn around.
To compare it to IMLP course - this course just has more hills but for the most part are shorter climbs. At IMLP your doing one thing for a long time. IMMT, other than Rt 117 part, your switching gears more often, and probably have a harder time riding smoothly due to Montee Ryan and Lac Superior climb.
I did do 1 hour, 6 mile run afterwards and felt okay, not great. But I am excited for race day and overall like the course alot. The next day I rode the Lac Superior climb 2x just to get more familiar w/it. Note, once you come to the intersectoin at the top, you hang a right and only go maybe 1km before the turnaround at 1st house on right (B&B)- no surprises here.
ref your #5 --- I found this section to be the worst as well during the 70.3 , they had narrowed down alot of the sections , got very crowded , was hard to pass , etc.... viewing my power file I was very steady thru the whole course with the exception of this short out and back having more power spikes with the speed up slow down areas of this section.
@Lynne when in town if you need to bike again when you get in for IMMT. I suggest doing what causes your aungst and no more, you will be ready!