70.3 World Championships - Triathlon

This bike course was flat out dangerous. We knew about the climb, although the race materials said a 12% grade and it was actually 14.5% according to the road signs. This makes a significant difference. People were falling over and trying to unclip to walk. There were lots of crashes on that segment. Then the downhill which was not in the materials at all, was a series of very steep switchbacks, AKA, the Tour de France. Just terrifying on a triathlon bike. This needed to be public info prior to arriving at the race as people would have been riding different wheels and different brakes. Who knows what the plan was in the case of rain -- most people I spoke to said they wouldn't have raced in the rain on that course -- too dangerous. Personally, my brakes overheated and I blew my back tire and crashed -- like many other people. I walked down the hill to race support and got a new wheel and was able to finish the race. I spoke to many people after the race and the next day -- only one person I spoke to thought the race was enjoyable. Most people were terrified going down the mountain and the rest of the bike course was turn, turn and more turns. The run was only marginally better. And people's legs were so wrecked they had trouble running. The Australian contingent especially pissed -- one guy said he was so annoyed at having traveled across the globe to do the slowest race of his career. Very disappointing and this will put me off doing another WC event with IM. I hadn't done one since the last debacle at Clearwater. I should have just signed up for Savageman. The town of Zell am See was lovely and the people were so amazing -- the whole town was overrun with A type triathletes and they didn't mind one bit -- so that part of it was fantastic.