Originally Posted by Rutnick;7338261[COLOR="Silver"
]but what is your point? The olympic course was what? 4.4km done 8 times so that's about 21 miles. The winning time was just sub 2hour. The pros at the 11 mile course that I listed earlier do it in around 48 minutes so that's 22 miles in about 96 minutes. [/COLOR]
While the course might not look all that challenging, the constant up and down of the course for 4.4k with 8 loops leaves little room to really build speed in the flats which means you are constantly up and down with no rest.
Sometimes...you have to look at a course hard. We might ride it and think...well that wasn't tough. Try to ride it fast...multiply by 8, add passing and the heat of a 3pm start time.
Some course that I ride are a freaking breeze when I ride them. They become more challenging when you try to make places to go faster.
As technical, no....hard...probably. slower...yes.
That's right. That's what struck me as I watched the entire race on the internet. There was very, very little in the way of 'rest'. I've done plenty of regional races and 24 hour events, and all have some pretty easy sections where you could recuperate. This race was pretty much flat out hammer time the entire way.