pabloarc wrote:
When you say riding on the road to south point, you are referring to Hawaii belt road (11)? I've never rode there, interested in trying this time. Staying in Keauhou, so I can just continue riding in Alii Drive until intersection with 11, and then continue on belt road.
Is that a better option than riding the course?
Well, the belt road goes all the way around the island, of course why it's called the belt road so it is very long. It takes about 1-1.5 hours to drive down to south point from Keauhou but it is well worth it, there are wide shoulders and very, VERY low trafficked off-shoot roads along the way where you can climb your heart out but it is also quite remote. I prefer the saddle road ride parking at Maunakea park and riding up to the access road turn-off and turning around. Or you can go epic and park at the bottom of saddle and ride up the climb, especially since the protests will make the access road area a bit interesting. That's my preferred ride as it avoids the heat the shoulder is wide enough to fit two cars. Only issues is it is never flat and usually windy so trying to do a race power interval may depend on whether you are going up hill or not.
There are many roads that are awesome to ride on the BI, remember while it has maybe 185k people and Maui has 145k, that the big island is big enough to fit all 7 other islands combined so there are many roads with little to no traffic to ride. Only issue with the east side is it is often rainy and wet but still warm and most of the BI's population is on the east side (I have no fucking clue why...) so those roads are more crowded.
808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo