I’ll be racing Austria in July and was wondering if anyone has raced there before. From what I can gather the bike course is quick. The profile of the course suggests that their is one nice climb at about 32km mark it rises about 300m over 4 kms. Having said that the other side is all down hill (315m) over appx 25kms. Currently I’m running a 53/39 and 12/21 and have my previous bike splits at IM are around 5hr20’. I’m thinking i’d like to put a 54/55/56 on the front to avoid running out of gears. Any suggestions? Should I go with the smallest, biggest or just go in between (55).
If you really need big gears to go fast, go for the big ring. Personally I always spin with a high cadence, and don’t need higher gearing than 53-12 in IM Austria. (Don’t think it would make any difference if I only had 53-13, there are no really steep dowhills) But I would select a lower gearing in the climb. It’s not a problem using 39-21 in the biggest climb, but I used 39-23 to avoid using too much power in the uphill, saving my legs to the run. (Had a 5.01 bike and 3.16 run split). IM Austria is a very nice race, wonderful area (mountains and lakes), clean water, usually nice and warm weather, spectators… If you have a chance, spend some extra days in the area just for holiday.