bluesmachine wrote:
Is that race Draft Legal or are both the Olympic distance and sprint distance non-drafting.
The website remarkably says ZERO about what type of racing it is and I saw nothing about the course either.
Can you describe the bike and run? And the approximate fields? many people? good athletes?
very curious...
thank you.
The AG races are both NON-drafting. In fact, they play by Bermudan rules so the draft zone is 10 meters with 20 seconds to pass.
Last year there were around 500 athletes in total. There were as many relay teams as there were individual competitors. You should be able to Google the results to see the break-down. I don't have it on the top of my head.
Here's my Garmin file for the race. I know I can't swim :-).
The swim is in Hamilton harbor. It was borderline wetsuit legal. The Olympic is a squarish shape; the Sprint is out and back. It's an in-water start (the elites do a diving start from the dock area). It's a 1/4 mile, up Queen St to transition. They carpeted the road so it wasn't bad - just watch for the tape seams, they're slippery (don't ask me how I know).
The bike course is the same for both races. The Olympic does four laps; the Sprint does two. The bike course has two sections - East of transition and West of transition. You start by going back down Queen St and take a very sharp left onto Front St. Head east to the rotary, do a quick jaunt through a neighborhood and up (and down) Trimingham Rd. This is a shallow climb but by the fourth lap it's a pain. After coming back down Trimingham you go up Corkscrew Hill. It's relatively short but very narrow and steep. Once you hit the top, left onto Cavendish and scream back into transition (it's downhill-to-flat). The second part of the course is from the transition area and through a residential neighborhood. The roads are very, very narrow and windy with a couple of sharp turns.. The lap ends at the transition area where you repeat once or thrice.
The run starts at Transition and back down Queen street. The rest of the run is an out-and-back on Front street. It's dead flat for two or four loops.
It's a fun race. The town of Hamilton is essentially closed down for the race so there are a lot of spectators.
I had planned to go again this year but I am just now returning from an injury and I'll never be in any shape by April.
Hope this helps.