Six Gap Century vs. Ironman Lanzarote Bike Course

There I was, looking at the Ironman Lanzarote bike course profile, completely unable to make intuitive sense of it. So I decided to compare it to North Georgia's Six Gap Century. I screenshotted the Lanzarote profile and pulled up my own altitude record from this year's Six Gap Century. I had to scale them so that I could really compare the relative sizes of the hills. A quick conversion told me that 600 meters (from the Lanzarote profile) equals 1968 feet (from the Six Gap profile). So I scaled the images in photoshop. Then I put then on top of one another for the full effect.

After a quick inspection I see that the Six Gap is a harder ride. But this may be an illusion. Six Gap spends more time at a higher altitude, giving the impression that it's bigger. But Six Gap doesn't drop all the way back to zero as much as Lanzarote does. Time to check the digits. My record shows Six Gap at 9620 feet of climbing. Lanzarote is listed as 2551 meters, or 8369 feet. So, Six Gap does about 1300 more feet of climbing. Which is a bit less than I would have expected just looking at the chart the first time. Lanzarote ain't no sissy.

Total climbing isn't the only metric, however... we also have to see how that climbing is broken up. Six Gap has, as its name implies, six big climbs. Lanzarote has either five or six big climbs, depending on whether or not you count the bump at 77km... it's about as big as the last climb of the Six Gap. Overall the distribution of climbs looks similar for both rides.

A true comparison would include the intensity of climbing but the grade/steepness is impossible to determine at this resolution. Lanzarote has a big long climb at the end while Six Gap has two steeper ones. Aside from that it's tough to tell.

Only way to know for sure is to get out there and ride Ironman Lanzarote.

• 

  gaps lanzarote