probbly doing IM Nice next year, currently reading Macca’s book where he basically states about the course, “these are no hills, they are mountains”.
just how bad is the bike course???
It depends on the region.
IM Madison(Wisconsin) isn’t that bad. Many number of hills but they are not mountains that you see on le tour de France. 
With a proper training it should be okay.
I would tend to say it’s reasonably comparable to Canada actually. Not that I’ve ridden that course, but I drove it while crewing ultraman a few weeks ago. There’s more climbing in Nice, but not drastically so. The main difference is technical descending. There’s none in canada, and there’s a decent bit in France.
The climbing isn’t hard at all and will not require any special mountain gearing. Full aero is fine, aside maybe from a disc, but that’s debatable.
The downhills aren’t very technical by European standards (for Euros used to riding mountain roads). They are VERY technical coming
from most places in North America. I’d say the climbing is harder than IM Canada. Steeper and longer, at least for Col de Vence… Took these in August
last year.
Top of Col de Vence:
View on the right when coming down Col de Vence:
Ah…you’re climbing up there (village called Gourdon) too:
Two weeks before I did Nice I was chatting with a lad who won the Tour de France three times. When I told him I was headed to Nice, he told me, “Be careful coming off the Col de Vence, it is the most dangerous descent I’ve ever done.”
The climbs are tough- primarily there were two big climbs in the Nice Triathlon and I believe one of those remains on the Ironman France course, if not both. The descents, however, were tight, steep, technical and unforgiving. If you went too fast around a corner you would hit a guardrail and likely be falling a ways.
It was heavy.
By the time I got to the bottom of the Col de Vence my hands were sore from grabbing the brakes.
Me at the summit of the Col de Vence, Nice Triathlon:
I have raced both (IM Canada 2007 - IM France 2011). In my view the IM France course is markedly tougher. Aside from the climbs the IM France course is less “open” so there was not a lot of breeze or relief from the sun and heat. Don’t underestimate it for sure. Agree on the technical descents in Nice.
I did it this year. For me it was the most technical IM bike course that I have done of all my 28 IMs. There is a lot of climbing, but I was prepared for that. The descents were down right terrifying. I almost bought the farm twice. My hands were sore for two weeks after the race, from braking on the downhills. It was also the most beautiful IM bike that I have done. There were LOTS of people whizzing by me in the tuck position absolutely flying down the descents, curves, etc. I estimate I lost 20 minutes on the DOWN HILLS!!! If you decide to do it, do what you can to prepare for switch back descents, it was a very humbling experience for me.
Either Greg was trying to scare you or his memory was way off…There are a lot of downhills in France that are a LOT more dangerous than that of Col de Vence.
Try any downhills in Embrun for instance.
My buddy did France with me, and has done Canada prior. France is WAY harder climbing - like double or triple the elevation gain. His comment was it was like doing Richter but for the length of Yellow lake, twice. And then more climbing! Worse, because the downhill is all switchbacks you don’t get the same benefit as Canada where you can just tuck and fly. But the scenery is unbelievable. Course, there are spots where if you blow a tire you’re going over a cliff with no barrier 2000 ft to your death.
sounds lovely…
I have raced both (IM Canada 2007 - IM France 2011). In my view the IM France course is markedly tougher. Aside from the climbs the IM France course is less “open” so there was not a lot of breeze or relief from the sun and heat. Don’t underestimate it for sure. Agree on the technical descents in Nice.
It’s basically 15K of flats, 160K of mountains, 15K of flats. It really is a mountain riding course. IMC is not even comparable. Get used to long climbing and long techincal descending. Contrary to what some here on ST will say because everyone is always pushing aero tri gear, for most of us including the LAST 6 winners, the course is probably better on a road bike with clip on bars, not because the road bike climbs better, but it descends waaaaaay faster on the technical stuff. Tri bikes just are not that great in descents.
Don’t overheat your brake pads and blow your clinchers off the rims or melt your glue off the tubular rims…yes, it can be that type of a coarse if you ride the brakes and it is possible to ride them for 60 minutes straight.
Dev
PS. Done IMC 6x and IMFrance once. I’d never do IMC again after having done France. France is just such a superior race to IMC, and that’s not putting IMC down…France is just waaaay more of race on all fronts if you appreciate the travel aspects. I prefer IM France over Kona. I do speak French so perhaps, this helps.
hmmm… so def my road bike? I got a litespeed with clip on bars and clinchers with aluminum breaking surface?
I did Canada in 2010 and France this year and agree that the two are not comparable. I opted to use a road bike with Ksyrium SL’s in France as I was only prepared to bring one set of wheels and didn’t want to risk riding carbon wheels in the event of rain on race day. Of course, it was super hot on the big day so I gave up a bit of time.
To say that the course is stunning is simply an understatement. It is definitely much more technical than Canada but it’s not as daunting as I thought it would be if you train enough in the hills during your race prep. The descents are technical at a few points but are generally well marked.
Definitely a race that I will do again but next time I will opt for a tri bike. While a passed a number of people on the climbs, I was quickly reeled back in on the descents by those in full tuck. Just be sure that you’re comfortable at getting onto the bullhorns to navigate the corners. I would also opt for deepish wheels but leave the aero helmet at home as it’s generally pretty warm.
The point I would like to make is that you can climb equally fast on tri or road bike. Where the road bike wins is in the technical part of the descents. The tri bike is useless because you have to bleed off more speed through braking before a tight turn than you’d have to bleed off on a road bike, simply because you can carry more speed safely through a turn with a road bike, meaning you exit each turn faster than the guy on the tri bike.
While I passed probably >200 people on the descents in 2010, I think I’d have passed more on a road bike. There is only 30K in IM France where the tri bike is of much benefit. I’d have preferred the safety and the rock solid cornering of a road bike.
Finally here is the largest benefit of the road bike. You’re on the Cote d’Azur and before or after the race you’re gonna want to ride the Col d’Eze, or Col de Madone or Bonnet Restefond (single largest continuous climb in Europe from sea level to 9K feet if I have it correct). If you have your road bike your entire vacation will be much more enjoyable taking every other technical descent that the place is littered with beyond the IM France course…on race day the course is marked and if I recall, largely car free. When you head out to ride on your own, you have to deal wtih real world of cars and intersections and unmarked laneways etc…road bike is nice for that.
If I were to recommend, I’d say get the most aero road bike and lighten it up as much as you can. Now you are golden.
Finally here is the largest benefit of the road bike. You’re on the Cote d’Azur and before or after the race you’re gonna want to ride the Col d’Eze, or Col de Madone or Bonnet Restefond (single largest continuous climb in Europe from sea level to 9K feet if I have it correct). If you have your road bike your entire vacation will be much more enjoyable taking every other technical descent that the place is littered with beyond the IM France course…on race day
Dev, I couldn’t agree with this more. I was in Nice with my family recently and every morning from 6-10 or so was cycling time for me.
Eze is a fantastic ride, Col de Madone great too.
Another suggestion is take the train to Ventimiglia across the border in Italy, ride to San Remo, do the Poggio and then ride back to Nice.
Some pics here:
http://epicfrance2011.blogspot.com/
And these are from the Col de la Madone
I don’t know Dev. I crushed people on the descents. They were mostly on road bikes (or strange bastard setups–there were a lot of bastard bikes out there), and I was on a transition. Especially the first descent I was in aero 80% of the time (and most of the times I got out it was for other riders not corners), and that was huge. I firmly believe it is a tri bike course.
Of course I descend highway 84/kings mountain road 2-3x per week on my tri bike (but not in aero–that’d be stupid and I’m only crazy), so I’m a more practised descender than most.
I think that descent in the top photo may be the gnarly one I was mentioning.
Not wanting top hijack the thread - but
How does the IM France bike course compare to the Alpe D’Huez Long course bike leg ?
I did Alpe D’huez long Course last month (very slowly) and am thinking about IM France next year - trying to get a feel for how tough the bike course is
My uncle lives in Mougins and we went to visit him last year. I wanted to do some riding but didn’t take a bike. I think most Americans would be pretty freaked out by the climbing in the South of France.
We are going back next summer for 1 month and we will be taking our bikes this time.
Steve
I rode a tri bike this year and passed a ton of people on the downhills also. Partly because of the bike, but probably more because most people hammered up the climbs then sat up and cruised down the descents. The early descents especially were not very technical, and you could really fly down. The later descents looked more like the pictures above, but weren’t a huge part of the course. I did notice that many people riding road bikes mitigated their aero disadvantage on flat parts of the course by blatantly drafting, which got worse as the race went on. On the final leg back to Nice, there were lots of people riding in paceline formation.
Probably best to ride whatever you’re most comfortable on. I don’t think there’s a big advantage to be had one way or the other. I agree that lots of practice descending makes a huge difference on this course.