used a road bike at Lausanne 2006. Bike course was 4 laps of going straight up and then down the hills of Lausanne, including a few stretches of cobbles. There was about a mile in each lap where it was feasible to ride in aerobars, for the rest of the course the aerobars were either irrelevant (up hills) or turned into suicide bars (downhills with sharp turns, cobbles).
Locally the Lookout Mountain tri had a similar course except for the cobbles, rode the tri bike one year and planned to ride road the next but never did do it again. The Evergreen tri was similar.

My first ever triathlon race was HelveticMan: a middle distance with 90km bike course with 3400m of altitude gain. Another one would be Challenge Davos. Another one would be Alpe d'Huez Triathlon. I don't personally know many more, but certainly there're a few.

The classic 18 mile Escape from Alcatraz probably comes down to preference. About 1800’ of climbing, including some steep hills, as well as technical descents. I always did it on my tri bike though.

Kat Matthews won the pro race at IM UK on a road bike a couple of years ago. I suspect she would also have won on a TT bike but a road bike isn’t a bad shout for the course - hilly, poor road surface, often terrible weather.

Yeah, having done Alcatraz as an age grouper, if I were to do it again I would absolutely use a road bike.

I can see the pros using tri bikes, but with the volume of people out there in the age group race, the climbing, etc. The time spent in aero was pretty minimal to be honest.

You had to keep your head on a swivel and even the descents have turns at the bottom so you tend not to be able to bomb down those.....and the road conditions weren't great, although that might have improved.

This question comes up often here, and the answer is no. This is not a course where a road bike will be faster than a Tri bike.

Now I make this statement with the caveat that a "road bike" is just that, a bike you would see ridden in the TDF peloton. If you throw aero bars onto a road bike, then it is a modified Tri bike, and a different animal all together.

Gustav did Nice 70.3 on a road bike (+small aero bars) in 2019 and had the best time. That course has a monster climb & fairly technical descents.

Agree on Lookout Mtn too. I used my tri bike because it had a 55t ring instead of a 53t, which helped with speed on the big descent. But the heavier TT bike on the way back up was a slog.

maybe Embrunman with 5000m of climbing over 188km, but I suspect a TT bike is probably still better there.

https://www.embrunman.com/en/long-distance/

If the course goes back down after it goes up, unless it is all very very technical on the descent, the TT bike is going to be faster.

I passed someone who was on a road bike while going down Lefthand Canyon the other day. A 3500 ft descent that averages 4% or so for most of it with the sharper turns recommended at 20mph for cars. I am not a particularly skilled or brave descender and I can do almost the whole thing in TT position without touching the brakes. I stopped to wait for a friend and the road biker caught up and stopped and marveled at my skill to handle a TT bike on the descent. I told him that TT bikes handle a lot better than most people give them credit for and it is actually a much faster bike on lefthand than a road bike. He seemed skeptical.

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I just completed a sprint and took 4th overall on the bike using my Salsa Warbird gravel bike. I put 34c slicks on her and aerobars. Was not very comfy in aero. LOL. It was a hilly course and also strong headwind. Exactly the stuff a gravel bike is used too.

I sold my tri bike back in 2020 when prices were really high. I thought I was done with triathlons. Then I lost 30 pounds and setting PRs in all my SBR workouts. Now I'm thinking of returning, but I don't really want to invest in the sport like I did in the past. So your questions about road bike is very relevant to me right now. I've done 200+ mile races on my Warbird. So maybe I just use that.

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Alcatraz has been mentioned, and I'll 2nd that. It's possible that a TT bike might be still a hair faster, but it will be wayyy more sketchy. In Alcatraz, for like 80% of the time spent on the course, you're going steeply up and then steeply down - fast enough on the down that you don't want to be on your aerobars due to turns and road humps. I brought my road bike to that one and was really glad I did, even though my TT bike is much faster on the flats.

Savage man!!!!!!!! RIP.

Certain courses are will be faster with a road bike.............but........ That's because a rider would be more comfortable on the bike. Be it descending or climbing or just a generally a more technical course. Whatever you are more comfortable on is what you will be faster on. And some bikes say a felt AR with aero bars can be the best of both worlds on those courses

I did IM whistler, and all of my training races leading up to it, on a road bike with no aero gear in 2014. It was awesome on all the climbs. I was passed by pretty much everyone on the long, straight flats of the Pemberton valley.

I just didn't have the budget to spend thousands of dollars to gain a few minutes.

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Long Chile was a silly place.

The bike elevation stated on the Embrunman's website is incorrect. It's around 3500 m. Although I took the safe approach and used my road bike (with clip-ons) when I raced it, there are many parts of the course where the use of a tri bike is justified. The 2023 race took place yesterday and the winner (Arthur Horseau, who made the headlines here after the Lanzarotegate earlier this year) broke the course (and race) record aboard his TT bike, in 5h30 and change.
If you want a 5000 m of elevation bike course in France, you have to go to the Altriman, in the Pyrenees. It's constantly up and down, technical, on average to bad roads, I can't picture myself using a tri bike there and I doubt a pro would use it either. I should ask Sam Laidlow, who is a local to the course.

Sebi just used a modified Scott Road bike for Norseman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZM0JWOkCow

I did Savageman many times always on a TT bike and would always make that choice. The last 10k was all aero bar riding along with parts of the descent down to Westernport

The Swissman https://suixtri.com/en/

This one on La Palma, Canary Islands:

https://www.kosxtremetri.com/

No.

Alpe d’Huez

I used a road bike (no aerobars) for one of the Alcatraz races (not Escape). The course had about 150m of flat each lap and the rest was steep up/down . My logic was that on the descents, my max speed was limited by my ability/guts vs. aerodynamics, so a more aero bike gained me nothing.

I’ve used a tri bike for every other race before and since, including hilly courses like Wildflower.

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Maybe the races in Mallorca

Definitely. FXT (Formosa Xtreme Triathlon) in Taiwan has almost 4700m (15,400ft) of elevation gain on the 180km bike. Also, Norseman has a very hilly bike course.

For those two I'd use a road bike myself.

Always used TT except hilly American Zofingen course on roadie with clip-ons. Accept I lose time but Just don’t have the cojones for hairy descents on aerobars and I’m cool with that.

Yes and No.

The first 25km and the middle section after La Morte to the base of Col D'ornon are much faster with at least aerobars.
Loads of people on TT bikes at that race.