Bumping this to see if anybody has info.

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New Training/Racing Log - http://www.earthdaykid.com/blog --- Old Training/Racing Log - http://colinlaughery.blogspot.com

Nope, usual shitty roads.

Still about the same. Looks like some minor revisions to bike were posted recently.

Miles 35-38ish no longer on Kraut Rd at all

Miles 43-45 not on Nicholson anymore

Will still be bumpy on Main Street at the beginning and end.



http://www.ironman.com/...e.aspx#axzz3fKWkIfxb

Taking out kraut is a good move. That road is horrible.

North Main St is brutal as ever but course revisions and paving have improved the corse overall. Do secure your bottles. There's a small bridge on Hwy K that claims dozens of bottles every year.

What? I rode the course on Thursday and all but 7.1 miles of it were , in a word, Shitty! In the pre race meeting the guy said there was " lots of good roads out there" He was clearly laboring to say that and my wife pointed out it was about the only time he wasn't looking at the audience. How in the world does somebody stand in front of hundreds of people and lie. I need a job where lying is acceptable. Where deceiving my customer wins me points.

The race site says flat....really, my devices (yes, I'm a dork and have 2) both registered over 1400 ft of elevation change. WTC, what's up with you and your business practices?

56 miles and around 1,400 feet? That's what my Garmin had for Muncie. Which I thought was pretty flat... I guess "flat" is a relative term.

I had 1125ft last year. Over 56 miles that is flat unless you live in FL or TX.

I guess it depends n what you're used to but if you think Racine is hilly please don't ever sign up for Madison.

As far as the road conditions they are pretty standard for the Midwest.

 
Wife won this race back a few years ago the roads were fucking shit back then, like blocks of concrete 10m x 14 m just dropped onto the earth, for 90km. Don't know if it's changed since but like riding on a rail road.

Best of luck.

I come from a place where I can ride flat (less than 300ft) or 6000+ ft for 100 miles leaving from my house but if something is advertised as flat then it should be flat. 1200 to 1500 ft is not flat in any book and the course in Racine looks to be a pretty fair representation of the topography of the area.
The roads sucked and no doubt are the worst roads I have raced on in 13 years, worse than 70.3 Puerto Rico which were advertised as smooth and as it turned out were the worse roads I had been on until Racine. There was probably about 40 miles of horrible, 10 miles of poor/fair and about 6 miles of some that were pretty good....oh, and 2 miles of new pavement. With good pavement this could have been a very fast and fun course but as it turned out this was the slowest bike split I have had since my first 70.3 but I was still 6th in my AG. As long as this race has been held you would think that some of the tax money collected from hundreds of thousands of people over the years traveling to the race would have been used to improve the roads a bit.

not that it matters but the run through the zoo was an instant softie. We saw one exhibit which had 2 owls and the maintenance barn. Hey WTC, What is the problem with advertising the truth ?

The swim was enjoyable. water was clear and cool
Run course may have been one of the better ones I have raced on. Lots of supporters and in places quite scenic

I will not be back to this race unless there are significant improvements made to the roads

Agree completely. I've done this race 3 times over the years and this year will be my last. The bike course roads absolutely suck so badly that they completely negate the nice swim and run courses. Never again. Up to Door County next year for the Sat. sprint/Sunday half weekend of racing.

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tinman

The course was certainly not pristine but I don't think it was quite as terrible as everyone made it out to seem. I came in hearing everyone's experiences and expected to be racing on cobble stones. Sure there were some bad roads, but the race directors did a great job of marking up all the major holes with paint.

Maybe I'm used to riding on rough country roads, which I made sure to do as prep.

I also pressured down the tires, which seemed to be the ticket. What psi was everyone else riding that caused so many issues? Go look up Omega Pharma Quickstep at Paris-Roubaix and you'll see some very surprisingly low pressure numbers.

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Alex Arman

Strava

How low a PSI did you go? I was in the 90's and the roads just killed me. I'm used to riding bad winter roads, but the unrelenting cracks and freeze strips at Racine were horrible. My first and last time to race that.

I was kind of funny, about 15 miles in I thought "this isn't so bad, what's the big deal". 40 miles of unrelenting bumps and I was coming down Main Street thinking "God, not more bumps!".

Rode when I was home a few days later and my right cleat came loose- I'd lost 3 of 4 screws at Racine.

Edit: forgot to mention, while on the run I looked over and saw a woman riding in carrying her aerobars, that had evidently completely rattled off the bike!

"1200 to 1500 ft is not flat in any book"

It is in my book...that's 20'/mile.

Forget riding a disc! That's practically Al d'huez!

"40 miles of unrelenting bumps". C'mon....

What pristine carpeted surfaces do some of you guys ride in? Racine is not that bad. The biggest issue is the stretch out of and back into town. Unfortunately, the worst sections are when you are coming back in (and it is pretty rough). So that is what sticks in your memory

A few bad sections (but I understand they took out Kraut road this year, thank god...that was bad last year), but for the most part, the roads are in good shape and typical of No. IL / So. WI roads.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

22mm/24mm Attack-Force clinchers, latex tubes, 148lb rider....

I pumped them to 90/85 at 6:30 am. Knowing that I was going to be on the bike from around 9-11 am, it gave some time for a bit to leak out.

I really expected to get jarred around being a smaller rider as you hear about in the professional classics races, but I was able to hold my own.

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Alex Arman

Strava

Just read through this thread...Racine was my 2nd half ironman. I raced Steelhead last year and the roads were much better there.

I'm from Northern Indiana, so I'm used to some minor freeze/thaw gaps/rough stuff. But I'd have to say this course is a rough one comparatively...I was ready for Main street headed out and coming in...I wasn't ready for the major freeze/thaw gaps that you endure every 20 meters or so from mile 5 to mile 50...There was about 2 miles of nice smooth pavement around mile 35 that I was loving, but other than that my back took a beating...

I'd agree with other posters though...swim was cold, but beautiful...run was scenic. For me, watching sailboats on the horizon for a few miles on the run was a great distraction...

Any more updates on the road conditions or race overall? thinking of doing this in 2016.

Wait a few months to find out what the winter conditions did to the roads that are used for the race.

I would think no significant changes. It is bumpy in places, not so much that I would skip the race because of though.

They took out some of the super bumpy parts on Kraut road over the past couple years.

Main Street coming home the last couple miles is always painful. As much because you are hot and tired as from the bumps.

There's races I won't do anymore because of bad roads and this is one of them. It makes for a miserable ride and half the time I'm hoping I'm not going to damage my expensive aero wheels.

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"For those who understand, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't understand, no explanation is possible."

Closest one for me....that probably influences my decision. I'm not doing this year because I'll be out of town. Looking for other alternatives.

Probably back in 2017.