Originally Posted by
ArgoMan
I've never been in an event with any sort of hill. Maybe some up and down grades, but no hills. But, I'm aware of several that had hills. I showed up for an event with my backup bike, which has a 1x9 drive train and some of the competitors thought I was nuts. The issue was that I was doing a sprint, which was all flat, whilst the Oly took riders through some steep hills. I imagine many of them had to ride the horns on parts of the hills.
Ironman Lake Placid is hilly, especially back up past Whiteface from Wilmington, 1100 ft climb. Tinman in Tupper Lake also has 2300 ft or so in its 55 miles. I used to do a team TRI in Oyster Bay, L.I., had a pissy little climb called Moores Hill, you were not on the aero bar.