Only did (most of) it for a training ride. My concern for her would be to even get through the day. If she does 30 kph on a flat course, she is going to be spend a long time on this course, regardless of bike choice.

I would go with the best bike she has available and is comfortable on going fast downhill. It is not technical, but you can go very fast on a lot of sections.

Well Port Macquarie is not flat either, it has 1600m of climbing and some 17%
Nice is 800m more climbing and with longer steep bits.

It really depends on you. I rode a 50-34 with a 12-28 cassette. That was perfect for the climbs, but a 34-28 combo is all I need for the steepest climbs.

Other tips. I was one of the tiny few people who had a disc wheel. It was fine for me, but if you are sensitive to crosswind blasts, then ride regular wheels.

Also, I highly recommend a road bike with extensions. That is definitely the fastest combination on those climbs and descents. (I rode a TT bike and kinda regretted that choice.)

Just had her road bike and TT bike side by side and the positions with the seat jammed forward are pretty much the same but has the advantages of the hooks for descending.
I also wondered about swapping the road bars over to the TT bike just for descending confidence.
I can set her up with a compact crank and an 11-30 as well.

There were some info in this thread, that might help too:

If you are comfy on the TT bike on climbs, use that - there are plenty of kms that you can take advantage of being aero in the bars.
TBH, decending might be the harder part in Nice on a TT vs a road bike.

As I recall there is only ONE short climb after around 20 km, that is a bit steeper - maybe 10% but for like 200-300m. 34/28 should get most MOP+ athletes over that like a charm.

Adding on to what others have said - I have raced Nice in 2019 for 70.3 WC and 2023 IM WC.

1) The IM course is one that on paper looks tame, but the climbs are constant and long. I remember looking at the course profile, and thinking the second climb before the descent started wouldn't be that bad - spoiler, it was a lot longer than I thought it would be. I want to say it was around 10k long? Nothing is overly steep outside of a few punchy quick climbs in the first 20-30k. After the first long climb, there is a section that I was happy to be on a TT bike. It is fast and you can get into aero and find a good rhythm.

2) The descent is very technical - especially to those not from this area of the world. The Europeans that I rode around on the climb and flat/rolling part in the middle of the course after the first climb descended like they could do it in their sleep. This is a section that I wish I had a road bike for, but personally I am far more comfortable on my TT bike than a road bike for a day like that. It's worth noting that you do not gain speed/time back like you do in some races with longer descents that are non-technical (St. George, Lake Placid are the first ones that come to mind). A lot of switchbacks - I was glad to be a disc brake bike last year.

3) Think about ease and comfort of taking in hydration/nutrition. I swapped out the downtube bottle from an aero bottle, to a standard bottle cage so I could easily grab the bottle and swap out versus having to reach to the rear and potentially fumble with it. It was nice to be able to have water on the downtube to help keep the body temp down on the climb.


For reference I rode a P5 Disc w/ ENVE 7.8, and ENVE 5.6 up front. I would probably ride my Roval disc if I were to do the race again.

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IG: NCGregory8778

I'm mostly going to repeat what others have said.
I raced IM France last year and spectated the WC.
The climbs are doable on a TT bike. The truly steep bits are very short.
The rolling parts benefit from a tt bike.

The descents are long and fast. They don't have a lot of switchbacks. They do have a lot of wide turns, traffic furniture, turns that close towards the end. In general, confident descenders can gain a lot of time. On the contrary you can lose a lot of time if not confident.

Overall the TT bike would be faster for riders who are comfortable enough descending with it.
Otherwise, an optimised road bike with aerobars might be a good choice.

I've seen people with disc wheels at the WC but it wasn't many. Most of the pros had it though.
I'd make sure you don't suffer from any rubbing of the disc wheel with the rear derailleur on the easiest gears when climbing (or with the brake pads). I wouldn't use it for this reason.

I could be wrong, but I don't think in the USA you'll find many roads that are even remotely similar to these descents.

There is a video on YouTube of the final descent.

By the way, the course isn't 100% completely closed to cars. More like half closed. You can actually get cars going in the same direction as you. And some areas are too populated to be 100.00% sure a car hasn't sneaked in somewhere.

There are WPros considering this issue and some interesting developments. Watch this space, without holding breath: 144 days to go.