Where Will the Men’s IRONMAN World Champs Be Won (or Lost)?

The much-anticipated bike course for the Men’s IRONMAN World Championships in Nice, which takes place this coming Sunday, is likely to be where the race is determined – at least, according to a few course previews produced by Leon Chevalier.

Chevalier, who’ll face off against the likes of 3-time World Champ Jan Frodeno, 2-time winner Patrick Lange and fellow young guns Sam Laidlow and Magnus Ditlev, said, “There’s been a lot of chat about this bike course in Nice. It’s super different to what we have in Kona, we’ve got a lot of hills, some super technical descents, it’s a real biker’s course. So, it was really important for me to ride it myself to see it first hand.”

Having ridden the course twice on a recent trip to the French Riviera, the IRONMAN South Africa Champion summed it up by saying “This whole course is hard.”

The multiple time IRONMAN champion, who has been training at altitude in his native France to prepare for the event, said that he expects “everyone to have the legs to follow on the first climb” once the race gets out of town and into the hills.

Everyone’s talking about the famous and picturesque ‘Les Clues de Gréolières’, but Leon suggested that the short Col Bas descent before the out and back on the D2, is also a moment to watch out for, with two particularly tricky corners. “I rode it 3 times to get a good look as it’s quite technical.”

Leon had a 360° GoPro strapped to his handlebars during this and two other key descents, capturing some stunning footage of the Alpes-Maritimes region as well as useful info on the critical kilometers of the 112 mile course.

Col Bas descent:

You don’t get much more scenic than the canyon road down from Gréolières, which is famous for being a backdrop in various movies and ads. Indeed, Leon said “you really need to keep your eyes on the road because there are some very tricky corners and it’s pretty fast. If you get it wrong, you’ll very quickly be 600 meters further down!”

After that descent, there’s a 9km or so climb up to Coursegoules, which Leon suggested could be where groups are broken. “On the profile, it doesn’t look like much, but it’s another 9km or so of steady climbing, a decent way into what has already been a tough day”.

Of the long final descent into T2, Chevalier commented “You do have to push the pedals a few times on the last descent, but for sure you shouldn’t push them too hard in certain parts as it does get very technical and narrow. Just make sure your bike’s in working order!”

It's sure to be a challenging course, and one that will bring plenty of excitement for both the professional and amateur fields come Sunday morning.