Ewan wrote:Call me boring, but I just don't find these fast courses exciting... I far prefer 'fair' courses or courses towards the SPOCO end of the spectrum.
Still... that is silly fast however you look at it.
I concur. With this one. With the ski-slope start. However, I find riding the V718 a bit different. It's not so much that it feels like "cheating", it's just that it's not slow. The elevation profile isn't that bad (just the on-ramp from the start down onto the motorway, it is never really flat, just undulating. But the tarmac is good. And there probably is an effect from traffic - but you don't really feel like you are being pulled along. It is relatively sheltered though.
So you don't feel like the course is speeding you up, just not slowing you down.
It doesn't feel dangerous either - the traffic is light enough that (apart from one exception, i.e. an idiot) they will over take and pass you in the outside lane - so you never feel like you are being passed closely. I've had worse experiences on single carriageway with double-white lines...