Looking for your feedback. I’ve heard the bike course has a ton of climbing and if so, should I consider my road bike rather than a tri bike? I’d love to hear your thoughts - especially from anyone familiar with the course.
I’ve not done the course, but I am racing in May and a friend of mine did the full there a couple of years ago.
The elevation profile is on the 70.3 St George website (here).
The TT bike will be faster. If you’re not comfortable handling the TT bike on hills then now is the time to start practicing! That’d be the only reason to use the road bike. It might be hilly for a 70.3 bike leg, but it’s not mountainous by any means.
Of course, if you’re in M35-39, bring the road bike (with gatorskins, I hear there’s a lot of chipseal) and make sure you do all your training on the flat.
TT this is not that hilly of course, not florida or anything like that but its not bad at all.
I raced this as a full loved it have ridden this new course and should be fun .
I did the full version twice and both times went full aero (except in '12 I did not use as deep a front wheel due to the crazy winds). Wind would be the only thing that would change my set up.
Jack
Tri bike. I scouted part of the bike course in December. The climbs are not that bad, I was debating to change gearing but after scouting the course I will leave them as is. Some descents can get pretty fast though. Just take it easy if your not comfortable hitting 40+mph speeds. Coast down the hills and budget your stamina for the climbs and the run.
I did the full course on a tri bike with a 404 and a disc and would do the same again. I did borrow my neighbors
404 to go with my own 808 and decided on low profile up front with the winds (which picked up in the afternoon (2nd) loop).
Lots of chipseal so going a size up in rubber could also be a good call.
I saw a few road bikes last year in the full distance race. There is a lot of climbing but I just ended up changing my gearing on my TT bike about 2-3 months before and did all my hill training on that. There are enough long stretches where areo is a huge benefit so I would stick with the tri bike.
The course has changed they dont have the big loop with the wall or valcano climbs let alone doing them twice. It lost the big climbs, wind is always the factor down in southern utah. I jave coasted down that canyon at 40 plus you can hall on that drop to town on closed roads.
Definitely TT all the way. Just watch the depth of your front wheel and don’t use a disc. The winds for the full in 2012 were nuts and I hit 49.8 mph on the fastest downhill (I’m not light and we had a tail wind at this point). It is hilly in terms of total elevation change, but not at all like IM France with crazy switchbacks that require hero handling and hard braking mid descent. That would be the real determining factor for me. If you’re clamping down hard on the binders mid descent and holding on for dear life in turns, road bike all the way. You don’t need it for St George. And if the winds are anything like last year, you’ll curse yourself if you’re climbing a long slow grade into a walll of wind on a road bike.
Oh, and I should add that I had a 39X27 ‘sissy gear’ on my TT bike for IMSG in 2012, and BOY was I glad! I’m doing Tahoe in Sept and will have a wide range 28-11 cog with a 53-39 crank for that one.
I’m also doing IMFL this year and will probably run the tightest cogs I can find with an 11 gear. So the headline would be, unless you’re a mountain goat, just watch the gearing if using a TT. I would not show up with 39X23 as your shortest gear.