I have gone and am really glad I did it. However you need to go in with the right expectations.
If you want to truly race it and play fair, good luck with that. That said you can still have a good race and even set a PR (as the course is so fast) and not cheat.
When you have 1000+ athletes who could probably each ride 2:30 on their own and you put them all on the same long flat rode at the same time you get a big mess. The bike has a total of 3 climbs, which are all short and nothing to worry about. Other than that there is a very long straight section on a closed highway which is really fast. Nothing else to really think about other than the massive draft packs. If you start in an early wave, I would go hard as long as you can to stay in front of the packs. If you start in the middle or the end of the waves, you just have to sit up and let them go by. The part that sucked is that the packs can be so huge that you litterally sit up and coast for minutes at a time to let them go by. .
I actually liked the run course a lot. The double out and back (for the most part) lets you watch the race develop in front of you and makes it so there is good crowd support most of the way.
It is a world championship and has a lot of the hype like Kona, which is very cool to be part of. Such as a better expo, more SWAG, media everywhere, pros everywhere, etc.
Did it last year...wanted to qualify once before it moved...knew early on it would only be a 5 year run here. It's a very fast bike route and although there was a lot of drafting, you can go super fast w/o cheating. People look at the times and assume everyone is drafting...not so! Besides being flat, a major reason for the high speed is the long segments North and South on McMullen Booth road. This is mostly a 6 lane urban hwy and the bike route is in lane 1 (inside fast lane) with cars moving in lanes 2 and 3. So you are riding to the right side of lane 1 while cars are blowing past you in lanes 2 and 3 getting a strong and legal draft pull from the heavy vehicle traffic in those lanes. I started only 2 waves after the pro's so it was a good while before the packs caught and passed me. However, on the last 6 miles in, it was simply too bunched up and a major draft fest ensued. That was due to the TT start when they moved the race into the bay and got the entire field off in 20+mins LESS time than if they had followed normal waves in the gulf. WTC shot their own foot off last year, by pushing the swim start too fast that way.
Probably similar to IMFL since it's one week later. Tampa Bay is about 76 this morning. We are having an early fall so it's dropping quicker than usual. I took a speedsuit and shorty wetsuit to OWS last Wed and wore the speedsuit. I'll do the same tomorrow. For Worlds, expect water between 68 to 72. It really depends on the weather we're having but it will be wetsuit legal.
Comments
I have gone and am really glad I did it. However you need to go in with the right expectations.
If you want to truly race it and play fair, good luck with that. That said you can still have a good race and even set a PR (as the course is so fast) and not cheat.
When you have 1000+ athletes who could probably each ride 2:30 on their own and you put them all on the same long flat rode at the same time you get a big mess. The bike has a total of 3 climbs, which are all short and nothing to worry about. Other than that there is a very long straight section on a closed highway which is really fast. Nothing else to really think about other than the massive draft packs. If you start in an early wave, I would go hard as long as you can to stay in front of the packs. If you start in the middle or the end of the waves, you just have to sit up and let them go by. The part that sucked is that the packs can be so huge that you litterally sit up and coast for minutes at a time to let them go by. .
I actually liked the run course a lot. The double out and back (for the most part) lets you watch the race develop in front of you and makes it so there is good crowd support most of the way.
It is a world championship and has a lot of the hype like Kona, which is very cool to be part of. Such as a better expo, more SWAG, media everywhere, pros everywhere, etc.
What's the water like this time of year ? Is it likely wetsuit legal ? Similar to IMFL ?
Thanks,
Bill