From what I see:
- the swim course is the same
- the bike course is 98% the same
- the run course is the same
From what I see:
- the swim course is the same
- the bike course is 98% the same
- the run course is the same
https://www.ironman.com/im-world-championship-nice-course
https://www.ironman.com/im-france-course
Swim from water but the same, bike very hilly but not the same same, run the same
.
I only see a few suble differences on the WC Nice Course versus IM Nice (specific to the bike). The main one is around 80-90 km where there is an out and back on the WC course. What else am I missing?
I’d say this is the only noticeable difference.
That run course was crazy crowded for 2 loops at 70.3 Worlds. It’s going to be insane for this.
I am really liking the super tough bike courses for Championship races. I mean Kona is no piece of cake but it’s no St. George or Nice. The harder bike courses make for much more exciting racing. Especially in Nice with the "Tour de France - like technical elements.
I never really thought about it until now.
So… someone who qualifies at IM Nice, races almost the exact same course a couple of months later?
I guess to some people that’s cool.
Agreed, the bike course is tough and with the early ascents, it will shake things up, hopefully reducing the cheating. It is also a course that requires one to be a decent or better bike handler (as opposed to the endless straight roads of kona).
I really am looking forward to this race and hope it becomes a fixture location.
Descenders will excel and podium in Nice. Contrary to popular opinion, the descending is far more favorable there. Having done both, I’d not say it’s harder than Kona. It favors the European athletes handing ability and descending skills, so no comparison between Kona and Nice.
I am really liking the super tough bike courses for Championship races. I mean Kona is no piece of cake but it’s no St. George or Nice. The harder bike courses make for much more exciting racing. Especially in Nice with the "Tour de France - like technical elements.
Maybe some day triathlon will progress to the point where the champs races will have tough swim courses also, i.e. say a 10K swim. That would stretch the pack out quite a bit. 
I am really liking the super tough bike courses for Championship races. I mean Kona is no piece of cake but it’s no St. George or Nice. The harder bike courses make for much more exciting racing. Especially in Nice with the "Tour de France - like technical elements.
Maybe some day triathlon will progress to the point where the champs races will have tough swim courses also, i.e. say a 10K swim. That would stretch the pack out quite a bit.
Already there. The Ultraman Champs!
Does anybody have a reliable GPX of the new course?
I got super excited when I saw the course yesterday, it just looks epic and for both pro and age grouper it definitely favours a different kind of athlete than Kona. I can’t wait I think it’ll be a really good move for the sport.
The fact that its 99% the same as the existing Nice course just means that it’s more likely to run smoothly without a hitch as they’ll already have so much experience with the infrastructure etc. Perhaps the run will get a little crowded but I can see the time gaps being quite large across the full gamut of age groupers after a hard bike course like that. It would be fairly simple to model the distribution of athletes based on previous WC’s and you’d assume they’d have done that before committing to a 4 lap run.
I am really liking the super tough bike courses for Championship races. I mean Kona is no piece of cake but it’s no St. George or Nice. The harder bike courses make for much more exciting racing. Especially in Nice with the "Tour de France - like technical elements.
Maybe some day triathlon will progress to the point where the champs races will have tough swim courses also, i.e. say a 10K swim. That would stretch the pack out quite a bit.
Already there. The Ultraman Champs!
You’re not quite understanding my point, which is that the swim should be proportional to the B and R. Most exer phys textbooks say that 1 mi swim = 4 mi run; therefore, a 26.2 mi run implies a 6.55 mi swim or about 10.55 K. Of course, this will never happen b/c most tri-guys hate to swim and hence the few equilateral triathlons that have been put on over the years have never gotten very many entries.
I am really liking the super tough bike courses for Championship races. I mean Kona is no piece of cake but it’s no St. George or Nice. The harder bike courses make for much more exciting racing. Especially in Nice with the "Tour de France - like technical elements.
Maybe some day triathlon will progress to the point where the champs races will have tough swim courses also, i.e. say a 10K swim. That would stretch the pack out quite a bit.
Already there. The Ultraman Champs!
You’re not quite understanding my point, which is that the swim should be proportional to the B and R. Most exer phys textbooks say that 1 mi swim = 4 mi run; therefore, a 26.2 mi run implies a 6.55 mi swim or about 10.55 K. Of course, this will never happen b/c most tri-guys hate to swim and hence the few equilateral triathlons that have been put on over the years have never gotten very many entries.
I think you took my comment a bit too seriously. I understand the age-old argument about the swim not being equivalent to the effort/time of the other two sports. As you stated, the only people who want this are people that come to the sport from a pure swimming background and in the AG ranks that is a tiny fraction of people.
You’re not quite understanding my point, which is that the swim should be proportional to the B and R. Most exer phys textbooks say that 1 mi swim = 4 mi run; therefore, a 26.2 mi run implies a 6.55 mi swim or about 10.55 K. Of course, this will never happen b/c most tri-guys hate to swim and hence the few equilateral triathlons that have been put on over the years have never gotten very many entries.
I guess the Olympic / International distance of 1.5/40/10 gives you the most “fair” distribution, according to your preferences at least. I’ve never seen anything that would favour the swimming part more. Not only AGs wouldn’t generally like it (myself included), but it’d also be more logistically challenging. Swim is the most risk-heavy part of the race.
But again, anyone with the bike GPX file for the new course?
Thinking back on previous editions, the descending has caused some real challenges with riders going over the edge needing to be rescued. We talked about on here a 2 or 3 years ago.
Thinking back on previous editions, the descending has caused some real challenges with riders going over the edge needing to be rescued. We talked about on here a 2 or 3 years ago.
Unfortunately I think there will be numerous severe accidents on the bike course. There’s just going to be lots of athletes that have little to no experience with descents like these.
So where do we really get this experience in the US? I live in Washington and have no shortage of climbs, but the descents look nothing like the tight switchbacks we’ll have in France.
What climbs and descents in the US really look like the French Alps?
we actually have some great options in Southern California. I’ll be spending the weekends riding Mt. Palomar (San Diego County) and Mt. Baldy (aka GMR) in LA County. Lots of great options in the Santa Monica Mountains too.
I have seen other posts about the ‘dangerous’ course, and that’s something that the individuals will need to be responsible for risk management. Although, occurrences like tire blowouts with little or no runoff areas does increase the risk profile of the course in Nice.
Overall, if we look back at how many AGers and pros have been severely injured while pre-riding the busy roads around Kona, we can see that each event has its own unique set of dangers.