TIPS ON THE BIKE COURSE

• Course is technical - lots of ups and downs, meaning good shifting skills will help you a lot
• Tight corners are really unsafe at high speeds - better to be safe and slow down a bit around the corners than to risk taking a spill and ending your race.
• Yes there are a couple of areas of the course where you can use your aerobars; don't bother taking them off for such a short race, 'cause it ain't going to make a difference!
• Preview the course even if you do it in a car the day before the race.
• Spin at a higher cadence than normal on the first leg of the bike through the flats of Chrissy Field. Your legs will warm up faster and you'll be ready to climb when you hit the first hill.
• Ride the course A LOT beforehand. Be careful -- it's HAIRY! GO FAST -- it's short.
• Don't hammer the uphills, keep a smooth and steady pace - there are many hills and you need to keep something in the tank for the last set of hills (and the run course).
• Try to spin in your easier gears keeping cadence around 90. Save your legs for the run.
• Ride the course sometime before the race. Don't go all out on the hills. Save strength to go fast on the flats. The climb from Baker Beach to the Legion of Honor isn't the steepest hill, but it's long, and I think it's the hardest climb on the course. Watch for potholes at the bottom of the Cliff House hill on the Great Hwy.
• Pack one water bottle on your bike and skip the aid stations where people tend to bunch up.
• Keep spinning high cadence... your legs will thank you on the sand ladder. Watch out for the sharp turn at the end of Seal Rock.
• Watch the turns by the Cliff House. They are canted away from the direction of the turn, making you feel unstable on the turn.
• Nobody knows the Alcatraz bike course like Phil Casanta. One of the best things I did for this race was take his bike clinic. Aside from riding the course, he breaks the course down, section by section, to include strategies for attacking each part of the course.
• Beg/borrow/buy and ride a road bike; why carry the weight of your MTB up those hills.
• Have your bike inspected pre-race by a COMPETENT mechanic.
• Unlike Wildflower, this is not a course that you build as you go. To do well, you must attack the early climbs and allow yourself to recover on the descends. Most importantly, however is to keep your head up and anticipate any hazards as this is a potentially dangerous ride.

The beautiful Alcatraz bike leg is an exciting eighteen miles of climbs, high-speed curving descents, hairpin and 45 degree turns, sand, potholes and metal posts. Riding the course prior to racing will increase your safety and decrease your time. T1 (or 1-and-a-half) is at Marina Green. The bike exit is at the Western end, by Scott and Marina. (You must walk your bike in the transition area.)

• Mile 0: Make a right on Marina. You'll want to be in aero on this flat straightaway into a headwind. It continues through the entrance to Crissy Field (turns into Mason St) and stays straight until
• Mile 1, an S turn (careful if in aero) and then it's straight and flat again until
• Mile 1.5 as you veer left on Mason and then right on Crissy Field Ave. This short climb plateaus as you make a right on Lincoln, and then you climb again, until it plateaus again briefly at
• Mile 2 as you go through the tunnel. Then you climb another quarter mile, and it flattens out for a quarter mile and then at
• Mile 2.5 enjoy an exhilarating rest as you descend Lincoln (paralleling Baker Beach to your right). Be careful of fellow riders, ill-placed cones, and guard rails as you go like hell around the two turns. Go aero and be in a big gear as the road straightens (stay outta the crappy pavement on the right of the road). The downhill then flattens out, curves, and you will downshift to ascend the small rise that brings you to
• Mile 3.5 at the intersection of 25th and El Camino del Mar into Seacliff. Look for local fan Robin Williams. This is flat until it curves left, and then it will increase in steepness as you reach
• Mile 4 at the intersection of Lake and you continuing climbing up and up to
• Mile 4.5 at the Legion of Honor and then enjoy a thrilling downhill (you can reach 35 mph easily without pedaling) until you must make a 45 degree turn by banging a HARD right at
• Mile 5 going up Clement St -- you may want to have already shifted into a lower gear BEFORE making this turn. (This turn will have a horrified volunteer screaming at you to slow down. Be nice, they can DQ you) Work this climb because you have another long exciting rest ahead of you at
• Mile 5.18 as Clement flattens and descends, turning into Seal Rock, then drops very steeply into a HAIRPIN TURN as you make a left on El Camino del Mar and then a right on Point Lobos. You are pulling Gs as you fly by the Cliff House and may choose to be in the left lane to avoid tourist traffic and buses. The downhill will spit you out onto the Great Highway (stay left, the road's crappy on the right) and your momentum may end at
• Mile 6.5 at the intersection of Balboa or Fulton. WATCH FOR SAND as you go aero on this flat (if you hit it, keep the wheel straight and power through it). Enjoy the Ocean Beach wind as it pushes you sideways as you finish this straightaway and go left through the light onto Lincoln at
• Mile 7 and then make a quick left into the park onto Martin Luther King Jr Drive. You will now climb the slight incline until the flat at
• Mile 7.5 at the intersection of 41st Avenue and will then take your next left at
• Mile 8, climbing onto Middle Drive West (there's no sign - it's the entrance to Polo Field Parking) and you will then continue to bear left at the intersection (sign says No Through Traffic) and the road will flatten out and you will be going fast but LOOK OUT
• Mile 8.5 has TWO sets of posts you may have to bike right through (beware the sand on the right - if you think this is bad you should try it at 5am going to swim practice in the dark) and then you will go left at
• Mile 9 onto Crossover Drive for a tiny roller (HALFWAY THERE!) and then go left at
• Mile 9.2 and take JFK Drive ALL THE WAY down past
• Mile 10 Spreckels Lake at 36th Ave and down some more past the Bison Paddock and down to
• Mile 11 where you pass the Windmill and go right on the Great Highway and begin to come back exactly the way you came, following the flat for a half mile until you begin an exciting climb up past the Cliff House (traffic worries make you go fast) and painfully up some more until you get to
• Mile 12 where you make that quick left on El Camino del Mar. This is a short flat - you will want to shortly be in a very low gear because you will now encounter your steepest hill as you go right on Seal Rock (and stand) until it flattens out again in just a quarter mile and prepare for another exciting rest as you fly down Clement, braking to make a HARD 45 degree left past the screaming volunteers at
• Mile 13 as you climb up 34th Ave to the Legion of Honor. The view is nice from the top but you'll want to now navigate the scorching downhill that brings you back to Seacliff. You will want to run all the stop signs at high speed, but do be careful (do not look for Robin Williams) and remember the misfortune our friend David Alyea suffered there. You will also want to be careful of the FAIRLY LARGE HOLE in the middle of the road just before you very quickly reach
• Mile 14 (at the intersection of McClaren). You will speedily snake through the rest of Seacliff and will have a strong momentum going to begin to take you back up THE LAST UPHILL up past the sand ladder and up to
• Mile 15.4 at the top of Baker Beach. Enjoy another long rest as you rip down, through the tunnel, and whip around the right bend until you bang a sharp left back down Crissy Field Avenue (this is one-way the other way but they open it up for the course - if training, take the next left after that). You are now on
• Mile 16.5 with the wind behind you (as I remember it I was hitting 30mph here) as you fly straight back on the flat to
• Mile 18 where more volunteers will yell at you to slow down.