Danskin Women's Tri - Bike Course Questions

jessm - 2009-06-22 2:26 PM

A link to the bike course map:
http://www.danskinwomenstri.com/media_center/documents/Philadelphia_Bike_Map.pdf

So, this is a two loop course where (it appears, at least) bikers crossing the bridge from the Kelly Drive side to the West River (MLK) Drive side will be crossing the path of bikers who are passing the bridge to do the upper portion of the West River (MLK) loop.  And this happens twice.

This will be my second race (but the first is on 7/12, so I haven't raced at all yet), so I'm no expert....but do I need to be worried about getting hit (or hitting someone else) when going through that intersection?  It just seems really dangerous to have the bike loop cross itself...with each biker going through that intersection six times, three crossings of bike traffic on each loop. 

Especially when they could have taken the course from T1 out West River (MLK) Drive, right on the bridge, do the Kelly Drive side of the course, come back over the bridge making a right back onto West River (MLK) Drive, turning around, and coming back down the entire stretch of West River (MLK).  That way, there would be no crossing of bike traffic anywhere.

Is this map wrong?  Is this "intersection" on the bike course one of those things that I should not be worrying about?

Anyway, I'm hoping the map is just wrong.  Any input from previous years?