The Lausanne Triathlon World Championships course is challenging to say the least. With a hilly and technical bike leg, and some stairs, hills and multiple turns and u-turns on the run course, it is going to be a course for choosing when to go and when to back off and reserve your energy.
The average weather for Lausanne in September is 17-20degC max and 9-10degC overnight lows with high chance of rainfall and a slim chance of sunshine.
If you are a part of a Melbourne triathlon club, then Davey Black Triathlon will be running specific World Championship bike and run sessions over the next 3 months, so please feel free to contact us for more details of where and when these will be held.
Swim Course
The swim is in the fresh water of Lake Geneva. With September average water temps of approx. 20degC, it should be a pleasant wetsuit swim.
Being fresh water, you can expect it to be slightly slower than your salt water swims.
If you belong to a Melbourne triathlon club, you should be quite used to these water temps. If you have been swimming in the bay lately with the Davey Black Triathlon squad, then you will be more than ready for the conditions.
Please note that the swim start line and finish line are ~350m away from each other so allow enough time to get from transition to the swim start on the morning.
SPRINT Swim. 1 lap 750m rectangle
275m SW then 90deg left turn for 200m SE then 90deg left turn for 275m NE to finish.
STANDARD Swim. 1 lap 1500m ‘L’ shape
275m SW then 90deg left turn for 800m SE then 90deg left turn for 75m NE then 90deg turn for 200m NW then tighter than 90deg final right turn for 150m NE to finish.
BIKE COURSE
The bike course is hilly and technical, but the road surfaces are smooth and fast and the scenery is amazing. Both the Sprint and the Standard distance courses are the same up to the 7km mark. Here, the Standard distance course continues to climb up, whereas the Sprint course does a small loop and returns. The Sprint course finish is italicised below and the Standard course description continues after that.
Note that the Sprint bike course looks like it might be slightly shorter than 20km. Strava calculations suggest ~18km total.
Out of T1 you travel a relatively flat 700m before a left-hand turn takes you up the aptly named Avenue d’Ouchy for 500m. With an average gradient of only 4%, there is a small ~100m section that kicks up to 15-20%. (For those of you from a Melbourne triathlon club, you can head out to Yarra Blvd and test out Yarra Street/Stawell St for a similar pinch climb).
At 1.2km’s you’ll turn right onto Avenue de l’Elysee and complete 600m of slight up and down before a fast 600m decent (avg 4% with ~100m of 22-23%). There is a fast and wide right-hand turn at 2.4km before rolling down another 100m into a u-turn for the climb back up.
Climbing 100m turning left and climbing a further 600m back up the hill, you then ride 1.5km of rollers past Avenue d’Ouchy to a left-hand turn where you descend a very steep 10-20% decent for 300m that takes you into a sharp right-hand turn at the 5.1km mark. If you are from a Melbourne triathlon club, there is an ideal replication of this turn that the Davey Black Triathlon squad will be training on, so please join us and get used to handling your bike on the fast turn.
After the fast right-hander you continue 800m of slight downhill before a left-hand turn takes you down a narrow leafy bike track that starts your 1.2km climb up 5-6% to a T-intersection where you will turn right and continue the climb for another 400m to the first u-turn at the 8km mark…
SPRINT COURSE DIFFERENCE: At the 5.1km mark you have 800m of slight downhill before a left-hand turn takes you down a narrow leafy bike track that starts your 600m climb up 5-6%. Here you turn right and head uphill for 200m before turning left back onto the narrow bike path that you came up.
At ~7km you follow the narrow leafy bike track for 600m with a sharp left-hand turn at then another 300m to a sharp right then the final 1km downhill to the roundabout u-turn to start lap 2, or veering right into the car park for T2 after your second lap.
…The 8km mark u-turn then has you descending down 4-6% for 2.8km before 3km of rollers to the western most u-turn at the 13.8km mark.
At 13.8km you’ll u-turn and head back to town through the 3km of rollers.
At the 16.9km mark there is a fast and wide downhill sweeping right-hand turn back onto a narrow leafy bike track.
At 18.5km you take a sharp left-hand turn then a sharp right at 19kms.
It’s then the final 1km downhill to the roundabout and u-turn to start lap 2, or veering right into the car park for T2 after your second lap.
RUN COURSE
The run course is very technical. There are, 26 turns, some stairs, two winding downhill technical descents and two small 10-16% climbs. The run is the same 5km loop for both the Sprint and Standard distance, but the Standard distance completes 2 laps. If you are a member of a Melbourne triathlon club, the Davey Black Triathlon squad run an excellent loop at the Tan that replicates parts of this run course, so please feel free to join us.
Heading out of T2 you run 100m before a right-hand turn, and then 1.1km flat along Avenue de Rhodaine before the first detour into Parc Olympique.
It’s here you hit the stairs that climb up ~100m before a right-hand turn that takes you almost 200m downhill in an ‘M’ shape before descending a short set of stairs back onto the road.
At the 1.8km mark you turn left into Parc du Denantou. The first 200m pincher kicks up to 16%, then there is 300m of steep descent with a right then left turn before the second 200m pincher. This also kicks up to 16%, and you have a sharp left and right turn on the way up.
You then head downhill for 300m, past the ‘Pavillion Thailandis’ with 2 sharp right-hand turns. At the 2.8km mark along Quai d’Ouchy in front of Parc du Denantou, you run 300m then u-turn, 100m then sharp right and left, 200m to the next u-turn, 200m back to another left and right turn, then 800m of flat.
At 4.4km you then turn left into the Port and run downhill 300m to a right-hand turn and the final 300m to the u-turn for lap 2 of the Standard distance or the finish line for the Sprint distance.
TRANSITION SET UP
There is ~150m run from the swim finish up to the car park for transition.
There will be ~200m of running with your bike from T1 out to the road and ~50m or less from the dismount to T2. These distances are largely dependent on where your bike is racked of course.
GENERAL NOTES
If you are a member of any Melbourne triathlon club, or any club in Australia or Ireland, please note that in Switzerland they drive on the right-hand side of the road. I would recommend that you very carefully practice riding around the streets several times to get used to the idea of keeping right on race day.
Also note that on race day you will have to KEEP RIGHT and OVERTAKE ON THE LEFT which is the opposite to what you are used to.
If you have any specific questions relating to your race or the course, please call or email;
Performance Coach Steve Davis
0432 207 033
steve@daveyblackfitness.com