First semi-final of the ZRL playoffs on March 7th will be City and the Sgurr, 45 minutes “see how far you can get” hill repeats with FAL and FTS segment points. It looks like gravel bike is the way to go and in C, we’ll probably manage around 3-3.5 laps, which will be 7-8 segments. There will be no finish points, but you’ll get 1 point for every 100m ridden. So a sprint finish won’t be worth much compared to a long breakaway. A 20-point FTS would be worth a 2km lead. So it’ll be a balancing game. I think the best points will go to those who can spend the whole race at the front and take multiple FALs. Almost everyone will get ~200 points for doing 20+km. The strongest riders can probably add another 50-100 in segment points.
Here’s a video of one lap of the course (as a TT – it’s currently event-only)…
In the Time Trial the lead-in took me 6:15 and the lap was 11:25, so at that pace and under those conditions, 3 laps would be 34:15 + 6:15 = 40:30. With drafting, in a fast race it looks possible that 3.5 laps could be done in 45 minutes, which would be ~8 segments.
3.8-4.2 w/kg up the 1.6km gravel climb should be about 4 minutes and about 2 minutes up the shorter paved side.
I raced this course as part of Race Scotland a couple of times too…