Its fine, just please follow rules of the road. Traffic is always a little heavy on 193 for the first few miles but after that you shouldn't have any issues. Enjoy, its a fun course. Brian

I concur with Brian. I have ridden the course about 10 times. It is my preference to ride Chattanooga Valley Rd instead of 193 leaving town. They run parallel and intersect. The only difficult spots are coming out of chickamauga there is no shoulder and cars can get backed up. And then 193 coming back to town has rumble strips and large, fast moving trucks.

I'd also advise bringing extra water. There are places to stop in the first 20 miles then only 2 places on the backside of the course.

 

Great thanks for the feedback.


I am only doing the loop, so I will be starting after the busy sections I hope. I'll park in Chckamauga so each loop I can refill. Thanks for the info.

The earlier the better. Traffic gets pretty heavy on 193 late morning. Its a great bike course, especially once you get to Cove Road and Hog Jowl.

Isn't there a full training camp in Chattanooga this weekend for this race? I have no idea about details/logistics but my assumption is the ride may be supported and lots of riders

Any idea who might be running it?

Found it.

OW swim for Saturday is cool. Can't ride Sunday due to family commitments. But good to know the FB site.

https://www.facebook.com/...ts/1560393420859011/

Thanks for the feedback before the weekend. It turned out to be a great weekend to train on the course. I joined the open water swim practice in the lake with the training camp group. Unfortunately, the supported rides were Friday and Sunday and my only free day was Saturday.

I did see a number of riders on the front side getting in some miles. I did the loop twice on Saturday and have the following comments:

Traffic was light for the majority of the ride from ~9:00 am - 2:00 pm
There are hardly any flat spots on the loops. All rollers that are back to back to back to back to back.
All but one car/truck gave me plenty of room to ride. The one car was close but not too close.
I don't know how the avg Bike time for 2014 Choo (6:13:14) was faster than the avg bike time for 2014 TX (6:18:13), or 2015 TX (6:20:23) IM TX bike is so much easier and 3+ miles shorter.

Cheers

Hey folks,

I am looking for a partner to ride the IM Chattanooga course on Saturday, July 30 (or possibly the 31st). Saw this thread from last year with good tips, so I thought I would just add my post to it.

I dunno about pace…maybe 19+ mph avg (without knowing anything about the course...)? Any takers? Know of any groups or others you could put me in touch with?

-Adam

Anyone have any suggestions on where to park to ride the course? I'd be driving up likely the morning of from Atlanta.


Thanks

Best place to park is the Food City near the St Elmo neighborhood. It's on Tennessee Avenue, I believe. From there, one loop is 60-61 miles. I'd start early as there are not many shaded areas and it's been hot/humid.

As far as water is concerned, there is a c-store on the way out (probably 15 miles from Food City) and the Pigeon Mountain Grill (about 8-10 miles once you make the Hog Jowl climb/turn). The folks at this grill are very nice and very accommodating to us cyclists. If you go in to use their restroom, try to buy something. They have bottled water but they also have great mid ride snacks. Their brownies and banana pudding are fabulous.

Anybody riding the course Sat (7/30)?

Awesome, really appreciate the reply and info eye3md.

there's a group of people riding sunday morning from the bilo at 7am if anyone is interested. I'll be there. Would like to do around 20mph.

https://www.facebook.com/events/142782079479925/