Ultramax Triathlon Bike Course
The forty metro area athletes with Ultramax on their September calendar have 112
miles of Ozark country awaiting their bike legs. This sounds intimidating,
so I thought I'd check out the course first hand and report my impressions, a
little reconnaissance, if you will.
Not being familiar with the course, I printed a course map hardcopy from the Ultramax website to carry along on the ride course info. The bike leg actually starts at the resort (on map, small orange box-top left), but I recommend you park at the intersection of 54 and KK and set out from there. This shaves a few shoulderless miles from the ride but you'll be glad you did. From that point, the short stint south on Hwy 54 can be unnerving as at times you dance along the white line of death. Very soon though, a turn east via the exit ramp takes you out of the mainstream and then it gets fun. ( for larger, legible map, click on link).
I opted for my standard 700c road bike with no aerobars over my 650c time-trial set-up. Strange choice you may think, but I like the higher comfort level it provides. That decision came back to haunt me a bit as I couldn't tuck as efficiently into the headwind. The ride is predominantly north-south. On this day the warm air flowed northward. Who knows which way it will blow on race day?
The ride proper begins here and remains very consistent. The roads offers smooth surfaced, easy rolling contact. In fact, I was surprised at just how far that condition extended. The reverie gets interrupted at the southernmost tip of the course. Between the towns of Sleeper and Stoutland, the ride gets sketchy. The road here is so pitted, that for a few miles it's very jarring. Weighing this small section against the rest of the ride, it's still worth the price of admission.
The ride's other constancy is the hills. However, they may not be what you expect. Most envision Ozark monster climbs. The truth of the matter is that an endless series of rollers await you. Let me emphasize endless. I should have counted them, but at a ratio of 5 per mile, that's roughly 500 and probably a conservative estimate at that. I found very little flat terrain, if any. You go vertical most all of the time.
The good news is that virtually all of these rollers can be taken on your big chain ring. I didn't leave my 55 tooth ring at all, only to be able to say so, but some may want to spin more efficiently up the few steeper ones on their smaller ring. I wasn't planning on running 26 afterwards.
The scenery is typical mid-Missouri. An occasional rise will offer a scenic vista of the surrounding lay of the land. Farmland, wooded acreage, and few cars await you. This was probably St Charles County of three decades ago. While the panoramas offer a fleeting diversion, your focus will most likely be on that next rolling hill ahead.
A glance at the map above reveals a loop at the southern-most end of the course. This is a loop you do twice. I stayed on the outer perimeter without doing the Hwy H cutback, then headed back north and retraced my path. I reached the car and skipped the jaunt up 54 to the yellow box area at the top of the map. I deemed it too dangerous yet I still managed to complete 80 miles of the course, right on the button.
If you make this excursion, give consideration to your hydration needs. I brought my Camelbak along but at the last second chose to forego it's weight and find water along the course. Two large bottles were adequate. A church, quick mart, gun shop, and bar graciously kept me in H20. Pockets full of CarbBoom gels and Powerbars supplied the calories.
If you can't make the two and a half hour drive for a trial run, I suggest you find somewhere you can do hill repeats, and lots of them. It's not a brutal course, rather, its challenge wears on you slowly, subtly, and continuously. Mark and John did a very credible job of laying out the course. I enjoyed it and urge you to check it out before your final taper.