Part 2 – The Bike

Although we had a chance to preview some of the bike course on Friday it was still a challenging 18 miler.  It started out with a mile or so stretch of flat along the waterfront then a hard left with a 250ft climb to the main road over about a mile and a half.  This first climb did a nice job of getting the heart rate up then gave a nice break with a fast downhill down into the Sea Cliff neighborhood.  That is one swanky area, but you only spend about 2 minutes in it before your next climb into Lincoln Park and up to the Legion of Honor.  This uphill stretch is about 200 feet in a little over a half mile.  Most of the time here you have the Pacific Ocean out on your right, so the views were fantastic.  When I peaked out up at the top you could start to hear the helicopter and soon the pros were passing us coming back in.  Those guys were really huffing it up the hill form the other side of the Legion of Honor as we all flew down past them.  This downhill has a hard right turn at the bottom and then a steep climb up Clement Street towards the beach.  I didn’t get into gear fast enough and ended up dropping my chain here. Thankfully I was able to get off, reengage the chain and get back on with about a minute lost.  That climb setup the fastest section of the course as you dropped back down at Seal Rock and The Cliff House to ride directly on The Great Highway with the Pacific Ocean right next to us.

 

  This downhill and flat allowed some good 30+ mph riding and led us into the Golden Gate Park section of the course.  This area had most of the traditional aero position riding with a few rollers, but still allowed you to get some mph average back up, as well as rest the legs for the biggest climb back up at cliff house & seal rock.  As you exit Golden Gate park you hang a right and start retracing the ride out.  The pacific is over on your left and allows you to let the mind wander before the tough climb back up to the top of Clement Street at the VA Hospital.  This climb is a little less than a mile and gains about 300 feet in elevation.  Hard to replicate that here in Atlanta.  After you reach the top you plummet back down and hang a hard left to climb once more to the Legion of Honor.  I peaked my speed here of 44 mph.  After topping out at the Legion of Honor we flew back down thru the Seal Cliff neighborhood and had one more small climb back up to the Presidio.  We passed the pros on the run here as they were dropping down onto the beach for the sand ladder.  The helicopter was hovering but nobody came up the ladder when I passed it.

From there on in it was all downhill then flat into the transition for T2.  I was hoping for a sub 1:05:00 bike time and a good transition to stay on pace, and ended up with a 1:04:50 bike split and a 2:06 T2.  I was pleased and in good shape, especially losing a minute with the chain issue.  The bike was a lot more technical with the turns climbs and drops than I am used to here in the south, but it is hard to imagine a better short ride in America than this one.