A taste of IM Canada course

This Saturday the forecast again wasn't ride friendly. A few days before I emailed the gank to ask them what they think. I was hoping that Susan would want to ride indoor at Cadence. I was very curious about the climbs. I needed to decide soon whether I wanted to change the crank from standard to compact. Susan jumped on the idea. She had a cold this week so she would prefer ride indoor. I got up on Saturday morning and the first thing that I did was checking the weather. It was actually really nice, now the chance of rain was just 10%. Sarah and Eric rode outside. We arrived at Cadence at 9AM and started rolling around 9.15AM.

Computrainer was so cool. It looked like just like a normal trainer. I didn't remember tightening the wheel to the roller, so I assume it adjusted automatically. Susan and I set up our bikes side by side. In front of us was a giant projector that was playing some old stages of Tour de France. To the right, there was a flat screen TV that showed the IM Canada course and our statistics. Current speed, average speed, output in watts, average output, how far behind you were from the leader, the grade of the course and so on. That's what was so cool about Computrainer. Lots of data... even some that I don't know what they meant.

The course looked very deceiving since it was so stretched out in length, but not in width. John came in to the room and made a comment about how flat the course was... I thought Canada was hilly. Hold on! This is when you put a disclaimer, the objects on the flat screen may appear (a lot) flatter than they are. 2 hours and 20 minutes were on the schedule that day. I thought about applying the 15% rule meaning the required time spent on the trainer was 15% less than the time spent on the road. But this was the actual course, it should feel like riding outside, so we stuck with 2:20.

If I can dissect the course, there were 5 parts. First from Penticton to the base of Richter Pass, around 40 miles. It's relatively flat but there was one hill with 9.8 grade. Still quite steep. Second, Richter Pass, the first big climb. Third, the seven rollers or sisters. Hilly but not quite as challenging as Richter Pass. Third, Yellow Lake, the second big climb. Fourth, back to town. It was a nice descent, getting the legs ready for the marathon.

IM Canada Bike Elevation Chart

 We rode the first part (see red circle on the chart). It was weird since you couldn't see what was coming up, you couldn't really shift gradually. Some inclines and declines took you by surprise. The spin room was quite dark so I couldn't see my cadence without pressing the light button on my Garmin. We had different visitors coming in to the spin room. There were two TNTers that Susan knew from past events. They stayed and chatted with us a little bit. Then, towards the end of the ride, Mary showed up. Sarah told her that we would be riding at Cadence. It was great. It took my mind off the trainer since my butt started to hurt and I started getting a headache. I knew she was looking for a new tri bike. She wanted to see what bikes Cadence had.

I was glad that I got to taste the course a little bit. My conclusion is I need a compact crank. I'm going to call Curtis on Monday. I looked at my options. I think I want to go with FSA Energy. It's a step up from the one that I have now. It's around $175 including the bottom bracket.