IMWI BIKE COURSE RECONNAISSANCE RIDE
I rode the IMWI bike course on June 26, 2013. I used both my Garmin 910 and ran MapMyRide on my Iphone (in the leg pocket of my Desoto 400 mile shorts) since the course is hard to navigate without race day road markers. I averaged 14 MPH, but that included a least a dozen stops to check my bearings, take photos, and a couple of short wrong turns and backtracking. It was a very scenic and enjoyable ride, probably because I kept my power down. I am now 100% convinced that if I blow my target power range on race day and spike the watts, I will wreck the last part of my bike and my run!
I drove the IMWI course in my car (took notes) and then road the course on my bike, only doing one “loop.” My impression when driving the course is that it is very hilly, very curvy, and would be difficult for me to ride. However, during my actual ride, the hills were much more manageable, understanding that I used all of the gears and going 8 MPH up a hill was not unusual. I enjoyed the ride and the scenery. I have a compact crank and a 11-28 cassette – and needed it.
Turns. The IMWI website lists 70 turns for the directions, but since there are two loops, you have to add about another 30 turns, for a total of about 100 turns. Those 100 turns don’t include 90 degree “bends” in the road, so there are actually even more “turns,” you just don’t change roads. I always hear that IMWI bike course is “technical.” Now that I have ridden it, I think “technical” means that there are a lot of turns and a lot of gear changes, but it doesn’t mean “hard” unless you bonk yourself by going out faster than you can sustain.
Hills. These aren’t mountains, they are hills. When I drove the course, the hills seemed steeper than when I was on the bike. However, it is a rolling course and the hills just keep coming. I used every gear, and 8 MPH going up a few of the hills was not unusual for me. Old Sauk Pass and Timber Lane are both good climbs, and I was in my lowest gear. MapMyRide show that I completed 3 sub-routes that are rated as hill climbs (each listed in MapMyRide as a “Category 5” climb): (1) a 1.04 mile climb with 108 feet of gain with a 2% grade; (2) a .43 mile climb with 82 feet of gain with a 3.6% grade; and (3) a 1.80 mile climb with 180 feet of gain with a 1.9% grade. MapMyRide shows that about 40 people have completed the same sub-routes and my time for each was slightly faster than middle of the pack. It is interesting to compare the times of other riders on the same sub-routes, and the times posted by the riders for each sub-route for the most part vary by only a few seconds (i.e, on the long hill, the “fast” people average around 13 miles per hour and the “MOP” people average 12 miles per hour). I tried to follow the EN method of climbing hills at IMWI by closely watching my powermeter and trying to keep the power under control, and then pedaling downhill until I hit 32 MPH (and then coasting). The EN course talk on IMWI is excellent and I thought it was spot on.
Course Condition. I found the course roads to be in good condition, suitable for an IM race, other than 2 miles of road that was badly deteriorated and in need of repair.
The Stick. The first 15 or so miles of the course is the “stick” which leads out to a 40 mile loop that is repeated twice during the race. Miles 1-5 of the stick are in town and relatively flat. Miles 5-10 feature some easy rollers, single lane roads, and no or very small shoulders. Miles 10-15 has rollers with one major hill. Nothing about the stick seemed very difficult.
The Loop. I was expecting more roads with shoulders, but you don’t really see many of those other than about a 5 mile stretch of Highway 92 leading into Mt. Horeb. Most of the roads are what I would call “small country lanes” with no shoulders, but also not much car traffic. Mile 15-20 has some very nice roads to ride and then some “major” hills. Some of the descents on the Loop are very fast. There is a ½ mile climb approaching mile 30. Miles 30-35 (and 70-75 during the IM) are full of up and down rollers. Witte Road and Garfoot Road are roller coasters. Garfoot Road after mile 35 has a very fast decent and I had to brake (and I would brake on race day). In fact, since I was unsure of the course and whether there would be loose gravel, I braked on a couple of the descents. I hit 40 MPH on a couple of descents, and would have been going faster without braking. I am definitely not a skilled enough or brave enough rider to ride this course without braking on 2-3 of the descents.
Racing this Bike Course. Knowledge of this course is important if you want to go fast, especially the length of the hills and the speed of the descents. If I wanted to race this bike course faster, I would practice the course some more and/or attend the EN IMWI bike camp. Some more practice on this course would give me the confidence on a couple of the descents to “let her fly” a bit more. Make sure your shifting is smooth and your gears are tuned – practice shifting from the big ring to the little ring -- a lot.
Comments
Were there many descents that you had to basically stop, or lose all momentum, before a turn at the bottom of the hill? Keeping mo is huge on these types of courses.
Thx again!
I've seen ambulances at both of these spots on the same day during practice rides - one of them again on a second day.
Remember that the fastest route from point a to point b on a bike is rubber side down. :-)
Great report and notes. Now you know why we consider IMWI to be the most challenging IM bike course in the US, as it's constantly forcing you to make decisions.
At least three sketchy, gotta be careful turns on the course:
TONS and TONS of little tricks out there where you can find seconds that add up to minutes if you know the course very well. It's a blast to ride, especially on a training ride on a road bike
Here is a useful old link showing the whole IMWI Bike Course, driven by car (at accelerated speed) and narrated. You get the whole bike course on here. It is a good complement to the EN Coaches' IMWI course preview video
http://simplystu.com/simply_stu_44_ironman_wisconsin_bike_preview_video
The three hills Coach Rich mentions are at these times on this video:
(a) First Right on Garfoot downhill is at 17:59
(b) Second hard right on Garfoot downhill is at 18:15
(c) That 90 degree left at bottom of Timberlane is at 24:34 (note how if you can conserve some speed here it would carry you right over the next rollers.. I typically brake too hard here then waste effort on the roller.. This is a perfect example of how knowing the course well can get you "free speed" and save effort
Congrats on your recon Robert and thanks for writing it up!! I'll be out there cheering for you in September!!
Thanks for the video link, Bill!
I know it is hard to get a feel for the course based on a sped-up car video, but that didn't looks too horrible. I keep having flash backs to the climbs at IM-CdA (the old course) and that nasty-nasty climb at IM-StG that showed up after a few hours of a 2-percent grade on rough chip-seal. This seems like a lot more fun.
I'm sure the EN-Rally in a few weeks will serve as a wake-up call, but as of now: I'm feeling better.
What am I missing?!
- dhj
I road the loop twice today in absolutely perfect weather. Here are notes on the road conditions from what I can remember.
-Sugar River road is super sketchy right now. There is gravel/sand/rocks all over the place. Some small potholes on the right side of the road in the shadows which makes it harder to see. It looked like there were markings on the road for segments that might be repaved....one can only hope
-At the end of Marsh View rd (just before cty G) there was sand/gravel crossing the entire road. easily passable probably no more than 3-4 feet in length, it is on a downhill so mind your speed so as not to spin out.
-Stage coach rd is as bad as I remember it from several years ago. guaranteed to loosen any bolts on your bike that are not tightened properly
-Old sauk pass was recently pea-gravelled. The signs are still up indicating loose gravel. Going uphill didn't seem to have much impact, some small areas where i could feel the gravel hadn't quite stuck, mostly it was fine now, and will be even better later in summer.
-left turn at start of midtown climb had stones/gravel across intersection.
-no haybales on the sketchy turns on garfoot that rich mentioned above...check your speed, it is really easy to get going fast
most everything else seemed just fine. 92 is amazingly smooth.
ride safely.
Thank you for your recon notes!
I too just reconned the race course this weekend as part of the WiBA (Wisconsin Brick Adventure) to see if I *really* want to sign up for 2014 as well as to support my friend who is attempting IMWI for a 2nd time after DNFing in 2011 due to being pulled from the bike.
In reality the hills alone, singularly, are really not terribly daunting. It is the hill after hill after turn after roller after hill after turn after knat attack after turn after cow pie after turn after roller that I see could [absolutely will] wear away at me.
I only did 1 loop of the course , and found the course to be pretty well marked (orange arrows from another training group that trains there regularly) and that combined with the cue sheets that I had with hills marked, made for a really good training day at touring speed.
Even with all of this I still found myself always wondering what was over the next stretch of ondulating road. So glad that I got a preview! If you are on the fence about the EN Camp... SIGN UP! And if you cannot make it work, try to get out there if possible and preview a loop of the course for yourself so you know what that course will mean for you.
I see right away in my own experience, as well as confirmed in the above comments that I need to work on 2 things:
1) confidence in down hill speeds -at one point was going 25+ MPH with rear brake darn near fully engaged, 40+ MPH was not out of the ordinary on other decents... with the cost of 6-8MPH up hills of course!
2) SHIFTING NON STOP [without dropping the chain or jamming my gears].
My goodness, I swear that I was never in 1 gear longer than a few meters in some areas. Huge contrast to my 2012 IM in FL. I am not used to working chain-rings so much (never have used the small ring on this bike before) and on the first not-even-hill dropped my chain. I see personal growth here already as prior to EN I would have just powered my way through the hills (Me strong! Me have quads! Me go KABOOM!) This weekend I just spun up them the best that I could.
I am so excited to be cheering you all on in September!