Ironman Louisville Bike Course Recon

I headed up to Louisville with three athletes training for Ironman Louisville, Conn Jackson, Dwight Keith and Scott Mackall, pulling out right after lunch on Friday since it's almost a 7 hr drive from Atlanta. We got up Saturday and headed down to Waterfront Park in time to start at approx. race time coming out of T1. Transition is beautifully situated in "The Great Lawn" in the park; a really great location for the central spot of the Ironman. Easy to get to and impressive, matching the event itself.

You head out on the bike following the river heading east out of the city, but before we go through a "segment by segment" breakdown of the course I'd like to share some general comments.

GENERAL COMMENTS

The IML bike course is harder than you might expect; I guess a lot of athletes were surprised the first year when there wasn't a history yet, a "reputation". I know many of the folks I talked to doing it that first year had heard rumors the course was a lot like our Bud Plant ride here in Georgia. "Ruh Roh," as Scooby Do would say, that's simply not the case. I would compare it to a double loop of the Macon RockNRollMan half iron course, and at times and for moments it's harder. It does have some very fast sections and could be considered a fast course overall especially by seasoned riders. But for the average triathlete it needs to be an exercise in control or that run will quickly turn into a hot walk. Lots of short rollers, often somewhat steep, that make it a fun ride it you don't have a marathon run after. Resist that urge to attack the short hills... there's enough of them to add up to a whopping 5000 feet of climbing with no really long climbing stretches.

It's a remarkably beautiful ride and race day will benefit from traffic control, traffic being the one down side to our training ride. Manicured horse pastures, farms and many nicely shaded areas are out there as well as long stretches with lots of sun in August. Pavement is often smooth and good but when it's bad it's rough. Stay cautious, especially leaving Louisville on River Rd.

COURSE SPECIFICS

It's a lollipop course with two loops around the square/rectangular "pop". There's a nice out and back turning off the lollipop stick, but only on the way out; you pass by the turnoff for this 10 mile "adder" on the way back. I would characterize this course as having three types of riding.

You encounter the first type on the way out for 8 miles and back for the last 8. It follows the river with only the river's grade showing up most of the time on my Garmin. FAST. Pavement is sketchy at times.

There's a short climb immediately when you turn off River Road, aptly named for us Georgians as "Wolfpen Rd". Don't worry it's a lot shorter than ours. Then you get into the second type of riding. If you look at the map below you'll see sections running roughly parallel to the river and interstate, US42 and SR146. These roads are pretty fast with mainly gentle rollers and modest grades. Then there are stretches that run perpendicular to 42 and 146: the out and back section and the ends of the rectangular "pop". This is where the hard stuff lives. Hard tough rollers that go up and down and up and down with surprising grades and a couple of climbs, not "gap" climbs but more that just rollers. The grades usually hit 6-8% in these areas, over and over.

Check the map (click on image for full view):

Check the elevation profile:

Click here to interactively view in mapmyride click on the 3d flyover option to actually view the ride using the google satellite view.

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DETAILS OF THE RIDE

Heading out of T1 you rather quickly leave the city riding with the river on your left. At 8 miles you'll bear to the right onto "Wolfpen Branch Rd" and you're immediately climbing. The climb is short, less than a mile, but ultimately a small ring climb and you'd better spin up this one 'cause it's going to be a long day!

The climb ends at an intersection with US42 where you turn left onto a multi-lane highway (it narrows down after a couple of miles) and descend around 40mph to a bridge and then climb back to roughly the same elevation. Count that as climb #2 not a roller (see the elevation profile). You continue on this rather busy road through the suburb of Prospect and a couple of other small towns until roughly mile 18 where a right turn puts you on CR1694 for the out and back 10 mile (total) stretch which includes your two most substantial climbs.

On CR1694 you head down a rather fast descent to a small river bridge and then climb back to the turnaround point. Now it's a descent down your previous climb and a climb back up that prior fast descent. Refer to the elevation chart and you can see the extent of the climbs. The rest of the approximate 5000' of elevation gain is divided between almost 50 rollers, many in the 6-8% grade level.

After the out and back section you return to US42 for 3 miles until you turn right on SR393 at mile 31. Remember US42 is one of your faster opportunity sections while SR393 is littered with rollers, several bordering on climbs. 5 miles later you turn left onto SR146 which takes you into LaGrange at a fast clip.

A long downhill grade takes you out of LaGrange to a left onto a really fun tempting 6 mile stretch, Ballard School Rd., Old Sligo Rd. and LeSprit Parkway. These beautiful horse farm rural roads will tempt many to pop out of the saddle... watch out! You've got to see this section again when you do your second loop. A left on SR153 takes you to Sligo and a left onto US42 at mile 51.

You're back on your opportunity for time gain, 11 miles of the fast US42 section until you see SR393 again where a left turn puts you on the second loop at mile 62. This time you know what's coming.

After the second loop you'll pass by SR393 where you took that left turn before and continue back toward T2 also passing by CR1694 where you did the out and back earlier.

Just after mile 103 in Prospect you'll encounter the other "real" climb on the multi-lane section of US42 taking you back to "Wolfpen Branch Rd." A right on Wolfpen descends back to River Rd. for the fast ride to your run.