So , dor those of you that just did the race, a simple question, should I ride a disc or a hed 3 rear wheel? how hilly is the ride? what about chalk hill?
Hilly is in the eye of the beholder. Where are you from? From parts of Florida or the flatlands, I’ve heard VM described as hilly. Here, it’s a bunch of rollers and one 0.7 mile long hill.
clm
sounds like a mystery wrapped in an enigma! I live in santa clarita and used to bike the hills there and came from florida / houston and first england. Its not the hill that I am so worried about but the benefit of riding a disc on a rolling hills course where I will probably be going 20 mph? average? How is the course compaired to wildflower?
after riding the 1/2 course yesterday i’d say go with a disc. it’s easy compared to wildflower. for example…
wildflower olympic: 257 watts average, 33.5 kph average speed
vineman half: 238 watts average, 36.9 kph average speed
that isn’t to prove you should ride a disc, just that it is faster.
I used a disc yesterday and can’t think of a reason to use a H3.
Ron Johnson
The H3 is better than the disc when there are hills on the bike. I did ralphs with a disc and the hills in the middle were a pain to climb, now that wasnt the discs fault, but I did the wildflower a week later with the H3’s and the climb was great, it felt better. I just would hate to pay the same deficit by using a disc over a H3, is the course mostly flat, sort of like disney?
While Vineman isn’t flat like Disney it also doesn’t have any sustained climbs. I had my GPS with me on Sunday so below is the ride profile so you can judge for yourself. As I said earlier, If it was me I would use a disc in anything but an uphill time trial. As you will notice the distance is off a bit because it took a mile or so for the unit to find the satellites and then the Motion Based software also has a small error interpolating the data.
Hey Ron
That thing must be super accurate since I don’t even see much flat line for the section of Hwy 128 from Geyserville to Chalk Hill which seems pretty flat to me. Perhaps the minimal level of scale makes it seem more dramatic that it is really is. Is the first big spike Canyon Road?
The H3 is better than the disc when there are hills on the bike
I really have to disagree. What kind of disc do you have, is it extremely heavy? Or is this just personal preference? Even with long climbs such as IMLP or IMC, or lots of shorter climbs such as IMWIS, I think a disc will still be faster. But if you prefer climbing with a H3, then that will certainly be faster for you.
-C
The first big spike is Canyon Rd. The unit is accurate as long as it can see the satellites. On the 1/2 Vineman course you pass under tree cover often and that reduces the accuracy for that section of road. That said when you “Map it” the GPS track perfectly lines up with the roads that we were on.
Ron
What was the vertical gain in feet that Motionbased calculated? I am just about ready to re-enter for the Full Vineman.
Congratulations on your race.
Conrad
Ride the disk.
I rode a disk at Auburn International and I doubt Vineman will come close to being as hilly as that. And I don’t recall anyone passing me going uphill. You won’t notice the difference.
Mike
Wow, this information is great, thanks its just what I really need, its perfect. The HED 3 just feels better for climbing, the disc is a HED disc so its not all that heavy but it sure does feel worse at climbing than the HED 3 but this is probably mental more than anything. So the disc it is!!! Thanks everyone for helping, your advice is very gratefully recieved, see any of you at vineman, I will be there, P3SL, HED 3 front and disc rear!
Conrad … vertical feet for the full is under 4000ft (3800’ish)
Glad to hear you are healthy and coming back!
Best Regards …
Thanks for the info Dave.
Tomorrow is day three of my “test”. One hour open water followed by 20 mile bike.
Today did 81 mile bike with 4100’ climb then 2 mile t-run at 8:45 pace. Yesterday was 18 mile run plus 20 mile bike and 2500 pool freestyle (12x200, 1x100). Getting better with each day, but of course do have issues with nerve pain. Can deal with it.
Will let you know how it goes. It’s been to the day, 6 weeks since I broke my collarbone clean through. The ortho was amazed at the progress of healing. He almost seamed dissapointed. No surgery! No massive insurance $. Am just gratefull, no matter what. Will carry on to the end.
Conrad