Nice, I will also race (hope the race is not cancelled) ... see you there!
If you haven't seen it; you can find course info here:
https://www.ironman.com/im703-maastricht-limburg-course
Bike course will be fun I think, very nice environment (Amstel gold race territory); no major hills as far as I can see. just a couple short ones and a lot of false-flat.
If you're strong and this sort of profile suits you, this can be a relatively fast course; just be prepared that you will need to recalibrate your "rhytm" all the time. If you overdo it though and you end up with an empty tank, the wind and false-flats can become very hard and cost you a lot of time.

thank you for getting back to me so quickly! looking forward for the race and fingers crossed we are allowed to do it :D

thank you for the description and advice, the course looks really nice, and can't wait for the windmills along the way :) I wanted to check if we might have some cobblestone and if their are some short over 12% climbs as I don't see long hills on the graph but small spikes. want to make sure I have the right gearing.

good luck on your training :D

---

Tridad

hmm...not sure whether there will be any windmills ;-)
I'm not 100% certain however from what I see on the map I think the major obstacles will be Bemelenberg(2nd) and Slingerberg(3rd) and some other climb neer St Geertruid (Bukel??, the 1st one) .. if this is the case then I wouldn't worry too much wrt gearing as these are not too steep nor long (you might not even need your inner ring)
Also I don't think there will be any cobbled climbs, and if there would be, nothing to worry about.
Good luck with your training as well (although please take it easy if you're in my AG;-)

hahahaha. we'll keep the age group a surprise then :D

I don't have an inner chain ring that's why I need to know a bit more about the course. But thank you for the information, I really appreciate it and will go look at the hills you mention.

---

Tridad

Didn't check the bike course in detail. However based on quick look as it stands there are no real steep hills. that is reserved for Amstel Gold race or Sunday coffee rides;) Also no cobbles. Don't expect flat ride though.

The Amstel gold footage is what got me thinking, but good to hear that it's only for the cyclists :D

---

Tridad

The hills in the 70.3 course go up to about 10%, but never for too long. I cycle in that area quite often and must say I do use my small chainring, 52-25 is too tough to push through. I remember Philip Gilbert in his prime riding 53-17 up the Cauberg (up to 13%). Make of that what you want, but I would recommend a 39 inner ring for some of the climbs.

thank you for the local info, very valuable

---

Tridad

Some more info. I just looked up the data from the 5150 race last year (2nd in AG) which also featured one of the climbs that's in the 70.3 course. On that climb I averaged about 5W/kg for 2.5 min. My lowest speed there was 18.6 km/h.

Thank you that is really great info

---

Tridad