Mark Allen, the six-time Kona king with a perfect 10/10 record in Nice, has given us his detailed breakdown of the course the pros will face at the first ever IRONMAN World Championship to be held in the French coastal city this Sunday.
But a four-figure number of age groupers will also be battling for titles of their own on the same day and on the same roads.
So does the triathlon legend, who is now a well-respected coach, have any additional advice for them?
Going the distance
He told us: “I think one of the key things for everybody, including the age groupers, is going to be how well people manage their body.
“So you might see on the map, okay, these two aid stations are 15k apart or whatever. And so you’re gauging your effort based on riding 15k. Well, it’s very different riding 15k on your flat pace as opposed to riding 15k uphill.
“You might actually be on your bike twice as long and have twice as many heartbeats and use twice as many calories between one set of aid stations as you do another so it’s really going to be important for people to manage their nutrition.
“And the other thing, which probably people might not even think a lot about, is that you’re just going to be on your bike a lot longer than you are normally in an Ironman event.
“So if your ride is 20 minutes longer or 30 minutes longer than normal, you’re using that many more calories, which then could set you up for a deficit going into the marathon if you’re not careful, if you haven’t thought that all out.”
‘The real deal’
Mark drove around the course the day before we spoke to him and that underlined exactly what he highlighted in terms of time on the bike.
He explained: “We stopped at the turnaround point yesterday, 94k into it, and a guy from Denmark pulled up and he was clearly a solid age-grouper.
“He was doing the course and we said, how long did it take you to get here? And he goes three and a half hours. And we followed him for a lot of the way back. He was a good cyclist. I’m thinking this course is a real deal.
The bike course is absolutely stunning and beautiful.
“I just wish that everybody doing the race you could give them time for scenic view stops – like, okay, you can take a minute break here and just take a selfie with the chateau and the village in the background on the other side of the valley or whatever it is!
“Anybody who says – pro or age-grouper – ‘I don’t know if I want to go to Nice because Kona’s amazing’, they’re missing out, I have to say.”
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