Tremblant is a good bit faster. First, the bike is 2 miles short and slightly less climbing. The roads in Tremblant are also a lot faster than Placid. Placid's roads aren't bad, just sort of feel slow while Tremblant is perfect. Would say the runs are comparable in difficulty. Lac Tremblant and Mirror Lake are both fantastic.

They are my two favorite IMs. Can't go wrong with either.

Luckily most of the LP roads have recently been repaved. The LP bike course is not easy. Tremblant has a really nice flat section on the highway whereas in LP I felt like I was either going up or down. Run course in LP is beautiful along River Road. LP is a VERY expensive Ironman as far as lodging. Both Tremblant and LP are just fabulous towns to visit.

The road surface is much better and no major climbs/descents at Tremblant.

The last ten or so miles on each lap in MT has some steep climbing. That higher grade stuff can really get you the second loop.

LP has a high speed descent that is outside the comfort zone for many.

LP run course is more difficult, with some steep climbing, especially in the last quarter of the race.

MT swim is less congested with a single loop vs LP’s double loop. Both are nice lake swims.

I like LP better as a town. Very authentic and loaded with 1980 history. MT is cool as a way to experience a bit of French Canada, but is really a manufactured off-season ski village.

Both are very good races, so people will disagree on which is better.

I would be one of those people. Both great races but I preferred IMMT.

I thought the run was the same, didn't find it different at all. The bike course is different but not in ways that make a huge impact on overall time. I was maybe 10-15 minutes faster on the IMMT bike course but this is somewhat condition dependent. The finish and the crowd was better at Placid (not that IMMT was bad but Placid is tops imo). Overall they're quite comparable.

My 2 cents. Folks will tell you the IMLP bike course was tough but I just don't see it. None of the climbing is steep and the last long climb back to town hardly feels like you're going up hill most of the way save for a few little bumps. None of the "bears" or "cherries" are hard at all and no where near something big enough to be called a "climb".

I did not like the run at Lake Placid. Most of the run is desolate of crowd support and not super visually appealing. It's one long ass out and back. Maybe I'm biased against it because I had a major nutritional issue and so my run was pure misery.

Swim in Mirror Lake is great of course although since I didn't want to fight the hoards on the cable I sat outside. Still didn't really need to sight because right breathers will be able to follow the athletes on the cable. It did result in like 300-400 extra over the distance though.

I did both IMMT snd LP70.3 this year.

Tremblant has the duplessis climbs that will sap your legs if you're not strong/properly geared.

LP, while hilly, is all smooth and gentle hills for the most part. There's a sustained descent into the valley that's fun as hell if you're a confident descender. If not, it might be a lot for someone without handling skills. There's no real climb out of the valley, as it's a gradual ascent back up - there's a few hills but nothing like at tremblant in terms of difficultly.

I've done both, and Tremblant is definitely the quicker of the two courses. As has been said, the elevation isn't that much different, but the road quality at IMMT is much better. I was 15 min quicker at IMMT (4:51 compared to 5:06) on very similar power #'s. The run at IMLP has a steeper climb back into town on each loop than the initial hills at IMMT. Overall, expect a 15-20 minute slower time at IMLP under similar conditions.

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Learned this the hard way, just booking my hotel for IMLP 2019. Flying from LA doesn't help matters either.....

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Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do.

Try an AirBNB instead.

Spent a lot of time in LP-shared an apartment there to train with friends, so maybe I'm overexposed to LP, but I think it's overrated...Tremblant is one of my favorite venues-

What probably irks me the most is the "event gouging" at LP, dumpy places charging multiples with 4 & 5 night mins...zero bid

For LP do an AirBnb and stay outside LP; Lake Seneca is a 10-15 minute drive into LP and there are plenty of Airbnb and hotel options.

What do you mean when you say the bike is 2 miles short? The course is not official distance?

It means what it says, course measures by most people seem to be about 110 miles. I haven't done it to personally confirm or deny (yet), but am doing MT as my first IM in 2019.

Is the race not official distance? You may not be aware of the enormous rabbit hole this question can create. It's been discussed at length in other threads. They give out kona slots and all finishers are ironmen and ironwomen at IMMT, that's pretty official to me.

The Mont Tremblant bike course is 110 miles

I have done both in varying levels of fitness (Placid 11x, Tremblant 3x). I found the bike at Tremblant 10 minutes or so faster at my CdA and watts per kilo (I'm more for a watts per kilo rider and if you're more efficient CdA wise, I think Tremblant is even more than 10 min faster). When I was running, I was a good hill runner and generally ran faster at Placid even though it had more hills. I don't like the elevation gain/loss at Tremblant on the bike path which is an old railway track that has a continuous up or downhill. I tended to be faster on the LP steeper stuff, followed by the flats/downhills. The course at LP is always changing. At Tremblant half the run course things never really change. Some people like that. I don't enjoy it. I liked the first and last quarter of each loop the best, where it is up and down most of the time.

Interesting thanks