I am looking for some feedback on the bike course comparison of Lou vrs Mad. Is there someone who has done both that can give me some feedback. For those of you thinking about signing up for IMMoo, it was the best race experience i have had…great course, volunteers and spectators. Thanks
BUMP
I am curious of people opinions.
I’ve done both, IM WI in 06 and IM LOU in 07. I’m a strong cyclist, so take this comparison with a grain of salt if you are a slower cyclist.
Louisville is definitely more scenic, and has much better road surfaces. Both courses have about the same amount of hills, except that Wisconsin has a couple of steeper climbs and most of the Louisville climbs are longer and gradual. If I had a choice, I would definitely prefer the Louisville course because of the scenic views and the good road surface.
Comparing times, I would say that LOU is 2-4 minutes faster for a sub-5 hour cyclist, mostly due to the smoother road. Climing seems fairly similar
Hope this helps.
Perfect…
That bodes well since a lot of Cycling companions just got done with Kentucky. I went 2:18 at Steelhead this year so I am expecting to go under 5:30 at Wisconsin.
Appreciate the input.
Yes, 2:18 at Steelhead should easily get you below 5:30 in Wisconsin.
Best of Luck!
Thanks for the reply. I did just under 5:30 at madison of 02. I just started training again this past year, my bike was bad. I have much work to do this next 12 months. I just signed on for IMLou so there is no excuses now.
Any good biking tips for the winter…or any good cross training for over all improvements with the Tri training. I am 39 so a lot of the harder power workouts tear up my knee’s.
I would say IM Lou is much easier than Wisconsin. I remember a constant rolling for most of the course whereas Louisville has a flat 10.5 mile section at the beginning and end of the course. Nothing like that at Wisconsin. Also agree with the degree of climbs. The Wisconsin climbs (there are 3 main climbs) are steeper for sure and you have to do them twice!!! The main climbs for Louisville are early in the ride at mile 18-22 and you only do them once. They are 1.1 miles long and you go down one and then up to a turn around and feed station and head back down and back up the same way you came.
CDA is more comparable to Louisville to me. Both have long flat sections combined with hilly loops.
to many turn in wisconsin. hills are bigger.
imlou course is fair…flats,rollers and hills plus a nice way to finish being flat.
i vote imlou over imwisc…
Similar, but different courses.
Moo is more twisty, technical and basically annoying with all the little turns and corners. I remember my 1st time at Moo training wondering who put together the course. But, I like it. Lots of distractions and trouble areas. The short steepish hills are annoying and really drain folks after pushing their power too high, too many times. Very easy to get lost and lonely.
Lou is a bit more straight forward. No horse-hockey technical sections or turning onto absure roads. Perhaps more “rolling terrain” than Moo, but my guess is slightly less elevation gain. Very easy to spin up the hills w/o losing too much time to the folks trying to hammer. MUCH easier to understand where you are on the course.
I’d say Moo is more challenging, but Lou is more fun to ride (for me).
Lou is faster by 10 minutes or so (in similar conditions)
But…don’t delay on signing up!
I have done both and loved them both. Both of them have some really great things and not so great aspects but either one would be a great race. First the swim at IMWI is nice because I liked being able to look up at Monona Terrace while I was swimming but despite my reluctance about swimming in the Ohio, I actually liked IMLou better - I liked the time trial start, it is cool to be swimming back to Louisville and seeing the city, swimming under the bridges was kind of cool, and I thought the whole aspect of swimming in the river was new to me and not really as big of a deal as I thought. FWIW, don’t plan on having any visibility in the water for either race and despite people railing on the water quality of the Ohio river, Lake Monona isn’t exactly a pristine lake and I know more than a few people from the area who won’t swim in it…
As far as the bike, both have pluses and minuses:
IMLOU: both have hills but IMLou has hills more closely placed together so you can use the momentum of the downhills to get up the other side. I found the course easier than IMWI because there are quite a few areas to recover…especially in the last 30 miles. My biggest complaint is that at IMLou some of the road had far more traffic than I expected or had seen at any other IM race. Nevertheless, the police did a great job and had a much larger presence on the road than I had ever seen at an IM but still it was obvious that some sections were higher traffic areas and the only way to cut down on it was to close the road completely.
IMWI: More technical, steeper hills but I think that overall the road quality was better at IMWI…IMLou roads are mostly really good but the there are a few sections that kind of suck…but not enough to really make a difference to me.
Both were pretty and at times look very similar but although i loved IMlou, I think the scenery is a little better at IMWI.
Run: The run at IMLou is easier but a little boring but IMWI is kind of lame because as Record put it once on ST: its like they just start meandering around as if they are just trying to fill up the 26.2 miles.
Crowds: This one is hard because they were pretty comparable…people and volunteers in Louisville were GREAT and going through La Grange had a very similar feel as you get at Verona loop but I would say La Grange was actually much cooler - people always talk about the “Tour de France” moment they seemed to have in Verona but I would say that crowds at La Grange were insane and much more impressive. The finish at IMWI is cool because you have the capitol building in the background but finishing at 4th Street is the closest I will ever get to feeling like a rock star! It was loud and bright and I think it would be pretty hard to out do the finish line in Louisville. The run at IMWI is cool because you have people cheering for you on State Street but Louisville is a little better because you probably have more people watching throughout the entire route and there were people that I saw sitting in their front yards even when the runners thinned and although my “run” was more of a walk, they seemed really dedicated to watching everyone…even the straglers like myself and that really made a huge difference in what was a hard event for me.
Practical stuff:
Hotels: I booked early and easily got a great hotel downtown 'for less than a hundred dollars and was able to walk to the race…hotels near the race site are generally cheaper and better availability than at IMWI.
Also, at IMWI, IMUSA, and IMCDA it sucks because I think a lot of the hotels are blocked out by Ironman. I remember at IMWI I had to specifically say I was with IMWI and while I got the “special fee”, that really meant I paid more for my room. Also, some of the hotels had some pretty severe cancellation fees (at CDA the hotel made me pay in full and after a certain point wouldn’t give a refund - even though it was months away from the event! )whereas I didn’t get that with IMLou at all. Since there is more variety of hotels most of them didn’t seem to care less that IM was in town (which was good for prices and if I cancelled). Either way, if you go to IMLou - get a hotel as early as possible for the best deal.
Travel: Depends where you are but for me it is just a few hours so IMLou wins hands down.
Summary: Both are awesome and you can’t go wrong. I don’t know if I could definitively say which is better - IMUSA is my favorite but between IMWI and IMLou they are pretty much equal.
Thanks, holy cow can you type a reply. I am sold, i singed on for IMLou yesterday. I hope to come in just under 11 hours…gotta go…time to train. be safe.
any other feedback on bike course comparisons?
I would say that IM Lou is hillier, but IM Moo is more difficult. I personally prefer the rolling hils of Louisville, so I liked that course more than Wisconsin. The hills in IM Moo can really drain you, especially if you are not prepared and go balls out on the first loop and don’t save anything for the second. And on the way back after the second loop, there is a gradual climb that I always curse (in Wisconsin). So, I vote that Wisconsin is more difficult, but I like Louisville more. Hope this helps…
I am trying to get a feel for the KY course. I am terrible at the uphills at WI. I excel at a flatter course and FL is not an option due to my job. I just did moo and thought I was in much better bike shape than I showed. But the course really favors someone that can get up the hills easily…and that is not me!
Where did you stay at IMLou? Thanks for your great post.
We stayed at the Residence Inn on Market which was actually really nice. We got our room for $99 a night but I noticed that as the rooms filled they raised the prices significantly. Some people said they paid $150 a night and another couple made their reservations late and had to pay $200 a night - so book early. The only draw back is that you aren’t at the host hotel and after the race is a good 1/2 mile walk. The best part is that race morning you are actually closer than any of the other hotels to the transition.
Word to the Wise: One aspect of IM Lou that makes things shitty after the race is that the finish is at fourth street live and the transition is at the Great Lawn…so unless you have someone picking up your bike and transition bags, you will then need to go back to the Great Lawn, 1/2 Mile, and then go back to your hotel, another 1/4 to 1/2 mile depending where you are staying. My fiancee took care of this so after the race I was able to just go back but I felt bad for anyone who had to scurry around getting their stuff after having done 140.6 miles. This was probably the lamest part of the event but I can definitely see why they did it that way when considering the 4th street finish site.
bump for any further feedback!
Lou was my first IM so I can’t give you a comparison to Moo. I did ride much of the new CdA course with my girlfriend who raced in Idaho this year. I thought that Lou was a bit more challenging, but not incredibly so.
We stayed at the Residence Inn for $129/night. No complaints.
Another poster talked about smooth road surfaces - our group chatted with a few local radies who loved IM coming to town because the city/county repaved 60-70 miles of their favorite roads. I noticed one largepothole on the out and back on a Friday recon ride that workers repaired by race day. With one or two minor exceptions, the road surfaces were very good.
Also echoing another poster, the crowds were awesome