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Monaco 70.3
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 2009-08-08 7:58 AM |
New user 24 Horsham, UK |  Subject: Monaco 70.3Hi guys, Anyone out there heading over to the do Monaco 70.3 in September or has anyone on the forum previously done the Monaco 70.3 that can offer any advice or guidance on the course? With 4 weeks to go I'm starting to get a bit stressed that my bike leg is going to hurt - a lot. According to the bike profile, after exiting T1, you head straight into a hill lasting about 25km's with an average gradient of 6.5% - something I'm not looking forward to. During the rest of the bike leg, there are 2 other hills each between 5 & 10km's with an average gradient of around 5.5%. The 1 good thing about the bike course is that the last 10 km's are downhill back into T2 - so at least my legs will have a bit of a short break before. The run course is no better with some hills as you run part of the F1 grand prix circuit. I'm doing this race more the the fun of doing it, rather than trying to set any sort of PB. |
| 2009-08-11 6:50 AM in reply to: #2335531 |
Member 51 | Subject: RE: Monaco 70.3 You're not alone, I'm doing it and I'm a little concerned about the bike too. Everything I've read about it suggests it's one of the hardest bike courses out there. For example, in the after-action reports on another website for the Rev3 tri someone commented that the bike course at Rev3 was "insane" to which the response was "oh no, it was merely hard, if you want insane go to Monaco"! Troubling, since it took me 3 hours to finish the Rev3 course!  Most who've done it advise changing your cassette and/or using a road bike, since you'll never get on the aerobars. Also, I hear that the descents are technical with lots of hair-pin turns, so you can't make up the time you lost on the uphills. I'm going for the yachts, the casino, the vistas and the experience and if you're not going for a PR then you're going correct! |
| 2009-08-12 4:30 PM in reply to: #2335531 |
| New user 24 Horsham, UK | Subject: RE: Monaco 70.3 woohooo - someone else to share my pain! Feel free to give me a shout closer to the time if you want to catch up for a pre/post race chat. I ditched the idea of using my tri bike a while back, and have changed my road bike to a 52/39 on the front & 12/27 rear cassette. |
| 2009-08-12 11:06 PM in reply to: #2335531 |
Master 1651   Breckenridge, CO | Subject: RE: Monaco 70.3 mpk - 2009-08-08 6:58 AM According to the bike profile, after exiting T1, you head straight into a hill lasting about 25km's with an average gradient of 6.5% - something I'm not looking forward to. During the rest of the bike leg, there are 2 other hills each between 5 & 10km's with an average gradient of around 5.5%. The course you describe would have 8,020 feet of climbing over 56 miles which is a tremendous amount of climbing (and very unlikely to be accurate). According to mapmyride: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/monaco/monaco/640821163 The course is actually 4,738 feet of climbing over 52.6 miles. That is similar to my regular training route in the Colorado mountains. It is a lot of climbing for a triathlon course. For those who don't ride significant hills regularly, it's going to hurt pretty bad and result in a very slow bike split, probably at least 4 mph slower than on a normal 70.3 bike course. ETA: If the mapmyride course is correct, the fastest pro bike split in 2008 was 22.5 mph which is very slow. In my AG (M45) the fastest split was 18.6 mph. For comparison, the fastest bike split in M4549 at my last HIM, the Boulder Colorado 5430, which is not a flat course was 24.4 mph. Edited by breckview 2009-08-12 11:20 PM |
| 2009-08-13 4:29 AM in reply to: #2335531 |
Expert 1068 , District of Columbia | Subject: RE: Monaco 70.3 How are you taking your bike over? Flying with it? Shipping it in advance? |
| 2009-08-13 7:21 AM in reply to: #2335531 |
Master 1327 Ann Arbor, Michigan | Subject: RE: Monaco 70.3 http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2442533;search_string=monaco;guest=69323793&t=search_engine#2442533 I only post this because I thought some of the response were good -- esp the one from "Sto," whom I met while doing Boise 70.3. She was very helpful to this first timer newbie. Good luck! I loved the area -- but only was there as a tourist. eating and drinking, not tri'ing  |
| 2009-08-13 7:51 AM in reply to: #2345547 |
| Member 51 | Subject: RE: Monaco 70.3 prof40 - 2009-08-13 5:29 AM How are you taking your bike over? Flying with it? Shipping it in advance? I'm shipping it over in advance. I'd fly with it, but I'm going on to Venice & Rome and don't fancy dragging a bike box behind me for a couple of weeks! Picked up an old shipping box from my LBS yesterday, will wrap it up this weekend and send it sometime next week. |
| 2009-08-17 8:42 AM in reply to: #2335531 |
| New user 24 Horsham, UK | Subject: RE: Monaco 70.3 thanks for the link - was an interesting read. Well the not so good news is that I've done my knee in while trying to get some decent hill climbing practice in...  I'm trying to take it easy but am really frustrated. I've done 3 months of training specifically for this race and it looks like I'm already going downhill...., but hey, I wasn't going for a major time anyway, so maybe this way I'll have less pressure and will enjoy it more ? As for shipping - I'm only in Monaco for 4 days, so I'm flying my bike over with me as luggage. I've got a bike box that I use for my tri bike, so I'll probably just use this, but my road bike is nothing special so I was even considering just wrapping up the key bits in bubble wrap & wheeling it into the airport checkin as is?? |
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