Tuesday, August 11, 2009

the (almost) half world championship

Alright, y'all. I've been a' thinking...

** UPDATED 9/23 **

The UCI World Championships are being held this year in Mendrisio, Switzerland, September 23-27. (World Championship events are single-day events, but the larger event is held over many days because there are several categories--TT & RR for Elite Men and Women, and the U23 TT & RR.) This year, the road race course is held over a 8.5 mile circuit with 800 ft of elevation gain per lap. The elite men do 19 laps (163 miles and 15,300 ft of climbing).

One month after the UCI World Championships (we do things a little slow here in south-central) we will host our own, (almost) half world championship. Saturday, October 24.

I've mapped out an 8.8 mile circuit with 740 ft of climbing per lap (as close as I could find to the length and elevation profile of the Mendrisio course--and, frankly, it's pretty darn close).


Since the elite men in Switzerland will do 19 laps for 163 miles, we'll do 9 laps for 79 miles (almost half). The elite men in Switzerland will have climbed 15,300 feet, we'll do 6,700 (almost half).

And so it's The (Almost) Half World Championship!

You can see the map and elevation profile above. Course will run counter-clockwise, which means some left-hand turns and a few straight-through stop signs, but traffic will be low, and after a few times up Horse Killer you'll be too tired to care anyway. The start/finish will be at about where the little red dot is in the picture above.

So anyway...don't stop training. You won't want to miss this one.

You. Could. Be. The (Almost) Half Champion of the World!

(And if you want come come play, but 79 miles with 6,700 ft of climbing sounds a bit much, we might could crown an (almost) quarter world champion as well (5 laps, 44 miles). But one quarter of a crown is going to have a hard time staying on your head...)

2 comments:

The Wiser Weiser said...

Horse Killer climb is rougher tarmac ----Horse Killer is paved all the way up to High Mountain now! :)

Chop said...

I like it! This could prove to be most exciting. Count me in.