IM Louisville Bike Course



Thanks to the AthenaDiaries blog, the bike course doesn't look quite as intimidating as the IM website would like you to believe. This is her quote on the course...."As you can see, the profile is similar to others in intent: Scaring the hell out of each and every one of the participants. This is done quite handily by making the vertical axis to represent vertical feet, while the horizontal axis represent horizontal miles.
Now, 1 mile has 5280 feet in it. The net result is that you appear to be climbing vertical cliffs.
So in order to make the graph correct, you'd have to have the same amount of space for 1000 feet allotted both on the vertical and horizontal axis. Which would make the graph about 10 feet long ...It looks like the first 40 miles or so is a low-grade climb up out of the river valley, with a few rollers, and then it's about 50 miles of more-or-less flat rollers, and then about 20 miles of slow descent into the valley again..."
Riding 112 miles is tough no matter what. But at least this graph makes it appear more likely Jan and others can ride their bikes, not walk up mountains. Click on the graph to see it in full size with comments.



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