Tougher? Easier? How about that punisher when you turn onto Brittania? I’m also curious what the fella from Georgia thought about it, who said by looking at the average speeds that the course looked flat.
I thought it was fun, eventhough I suffered on it, and I probably would have done better, relatively, on the older course.
I thought Brittania was going to worse, and if there was a maximum gradient of 15%, it didn’t last for long.
This was my fourth year racing Muskoka. In the previous 3 years on the old out and back route with fairly smooth pavement, my times were about 1 to 2 KMH faster than this year. The 25 KM or so on the new route definitely slowed times down overall due to the steep short climbs, new pavement, multiple bumps, twists and turns. I would have liked to have seen the bumps better marked but it’s understandable as the pavement was just put down 4 days earlier and hadn’t settled. I’m sure without the new pavement it would have been much worse road conditions.
It was interesting to see all the various bottles, gels, pumps, etc all over the back roads of the new part of the route due to cyclists hitting unseen bumps and losing some of their nutrition.
Overall, my preference was for the old out and back, rolling hills route but the new route certainly has character. I will be better prepared next year.
I thought it rocked. It kicked my ass and I thanked it for it. I really like the idea of hard courses vs easy fast courses. They are character building and get peoples noses out of the numbers. You learn to run and ride while listening to your body vs starring at some screen. I hope organisers bring on more challenging courses. If we want the fastest times we should rent an airport and do the races on dead flat boring courses. Heavens for bid you even needed brakes, the ability to change gears and corner.
My 2 cents.
edit
easy=not technical, few turns few deceisions other than setting the throttle at threshold
hard=technical, braking, cornering, sometimes “forced” above threshold to save time and recover below elsewhere.
First of all, I never understand why people think a hilly course is harder than a flat course. When you are at redline, it does not matter if it is hilly or flat…you can’t go any faster. In fact, a hilly course becomes a bit easier as you have downhills to rest on. if you race with a powermeter, you’ll know what I am talking about 
Myself, I prefer the old course, as it suits my “rouler” TT skills better than short spikes of 500W+. The old course also provided a fairer race in that there were always clean lines to pass and be passed. As I said, this can be alleviated by better sequencing and spacing of the waves. I say, keep the new course and work the waves a bit better. The nice thing about the new course is that it softened up the legs for the run. The bad thing about the new course is that you could not see where you stood vis a vis the competition in yours and other age groups.
I think the new course actually helps the larger cyclist with big peak power more than the smaller cyclist…if you look at the top women’s bike splits, they were hurt more this year than last year, resulting in a closing of the chase “spread” earlier. Of course, this will be fixed for next year as this year’s spread will form the baseline for the chase start.
Dev
“With Ironman slots on the line, the competition is fierce drawing some of the best athletes from Canada and the US North East.”
Is this the only event that offers Ironman slots and why do they do this?
Muskoka has 40 spots for Canada, 20 for Lake Placid and 20 for Florida, to be divided among men and women (basically 1 spot (2 for Canada) for each 5yr age group).
On the women’s side, all the spots for IMLP were taken, but there were unclaimed Canada and Florida spots that rolled over to the guys. I thought for sure more women would have taken Canada spots, but it’s different every year. All of the spots that went to the guys got taken.
The new course was tough. I wasn’t prepared for the steepness of the hills. Like Dev, I don’t think I excel on short steep climbs like those. The pavement certainly could have been better also. I fumbled a water bottle over one of the bumps, but luckily had enough fluids to get by. I think the course is better for drafting and for softening up the running legs like Dev said.
Having never done the race before I was worried about the new course being tougher…it was tough but I had prepared for it so that was fine.
The road was a bit rough but it is a really nice ride with so much variation, there are not that many races in Ontario with that kind elevation change.
I was able to pace myself right on target so I can’t complain much at all, the race is really a great event.
I think the new course actually helps the larger cyclist with big peak power more than the smaller cyclist…
I thought that W:kg was more important on this course vs. absolute Watts.
My girlfriend puts out more W:kg at FTP than I do and at Muskoka she was much closer to me than she was at Rockman which was definitely suited to a rouleur. I’m not saying that Muskoka was a hill climb, it wasn’t…I’m just sayin’.
I think the new course actually helps the larger cyclist with big peak power more than the smaller cyclist…
I’m not so sure about that. I spent the day out on the bike course and noticed that the females and smaller guys were doing a lot of passing going up the hills, while the big guys suffered. Sure they got it back on the flats, but I would think that in typical Muskoka weather (this year was relatively cool) the big guys would suffer even more.
I also got a good grasp of riding style by looking at all the mechanicals out there…lots of guys walking it in with broken chains (do they not carry quicklinks???), about 5 crank arms that had come off, lot’s of noisy and poorly adjusted drivetrains, and tons of launched bottles.
I would think that the major adjustment people make next year is in gearing…going easier. Lot’s of guys fighting 11-23’s out there.
It was challenging and it taught me a few lessons. First, it is very beneficial to know the course or at least had it checked out before the race which I hadn’t I would have used a 25 or 27 instead of my 11-23 cassette . Second, those hills in my areas are jokes I better start climbing them in my big chainring if I want to be competent. Third Some of the downhills were scary, I need to work on my handling skills.
It was crazy going from 12km/h to 70km/h in a few seconds…I was holding on hoping I could see any problems in the road soon enough!
You guys are talking about lame big guys who have lame peak power and lame sustained power. I’m talking about bigger guys who have huge peak power…guys with real riding ability…not big tourists…the ones with big peak power can just stomp over those hills and keep their momentum most of the way up. As Eric and I discussed, this course favoured those that do a lot of big chainring huge power uphill sprints, that you’d typically do if you do a lot of riding with roadies vs pure TT training.
Glad you clarified. I thought your question was more general, but it seems you’re only interested in how the really good riders, like yourself of course, found the course.
Just out of curiosity, where do you draw the line on lame tourists? Anyone below 35kph avg? Or do we all need powermeters to exchange information with you?
My wife averaged about 33kph on that course, among the top females…does that make her a “lame tourist” or a “bigger guy with huge peak power?” She’s a small female. Either way, she had a good ride and on the way up those hills she also passed a lot of thoe top-10 men’s age group ‘big guy, peak power’ types.
I watched the whole field…the majority of the field slowed down on the big hills. The exceptions were the light, strong riders…somehow they dance up the hills.
I agree with Dev, (except the part about “big tourists”) the new course definately favours a larger, more powerful rider who tends to stomp over those hills in the big ring and carry that momentum from one hill to the other.
Sam McGlone was out at our clubs weekly TT the Thursday following the race and said that the course absolutley favoured the men over the women. Male pros I spoke with agreed.
I appreciate most things that you say on here Dev but that comment about “big tourists” is a bit out of line. Of the 700+ that raced Muskoka, how many would you consider lame vs not lame. You have to remember that us “lame” riders are a big part of the reason the sport survives as much as it does…we all have to start somewhere.