Its not that hilly, i'd say the steepest it gets is 2-3% for short periods. Barely slowed me down on a Citibike when i was there

Was just commenting yesterday how much more hilly the zwift version feels. Real CP is pretty darn flat. The elevated roads make it even more exaggerated.

can't comment on that as I haven't yet tried the zwift course, but I noticed a friend of mine who rode the course and his mapped tracked twice through the reservoir in the middle so, i'd say quite a bit off from real life :)

Seriously though, if they made it exactly true to life, I imagine it would be quite boring of a zwift course since cat and harlem hill hardly count as actual hills, as others have noted, neither exceeds 3%... It's certainly exciting in real life since you can hammer them without fear of cars.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

The hilliest sections are: Harlem hill (the part from 110th and 7th to the West Side) and Cat's Paw (300m ish section on the East Side starting right past 72nd Traverse). Harlem Hill is 0.3 mile at 5%; Cat's Paw 0.2 mile at 4.5%. A few other smaller false flats throughout, but the place is by no means flat


more like without fear of squirrels, raccoons, and tourists

I always rode at 5-6am so no tourists... but right about the f*ing raccoons. Fair point, sir.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

There's a big chunk of it that's very intentionally far from real life. It's set in a future fantasy version of NY and there's a large portion of elevated roadways to cycle on. One of these traverses the reservoir.

Until Zwift allows us to choose any course on any day (not talking modifying the Zwift config file) they need to at least have some hills on every course otherwise I think people would be a little displeased.

I wonder why they don’t let you cross the GWB do a short section of 9W and then be automatically at the base of Bear Mountain for an awesome climb?

 


i could never get up that early :)


exactly what I was thinking, though you gotta admit that 9W to Piermont is pretty damn boring. Now, a "portal" to Bear Mountain and beyond would be nice. Hell, they could include Harriman State Park and Storm King while they are at it. They essentially shortened the distance from the Mall to Box Hill, no reason the same couldn't be done for NYC

My sentiments exactly, i just did it yesterday and i was thinking are there really 14% gradient hills
I have ran round central park a few times and don;t remember being out of breath because i had to climb steep hills

I don't find the first 10 miles from GWB to Piermont boring if you take the road down by the river. Though most triathletes I know tend to stay away because it has a hill. After that then yes I agree. But they could easily chain a few roads together to make it enjoyable.

GWB -> river road -> tweed -> magically skip haverstraw crap -> bear/harriman/etc

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Strava

We should petition them to include Bear Mt. Perhaps a bunch of us from slowtwitch can sign a letter. After all, isn't zwfit started by a slowtwitcher?

BTW, I know most people stay on 9W but if you drop down into havestraw and ride along the Hudson until stony point and then pop back up to 9W it's much better.