The indieVelo "Flat Eight" Route-7.7km (4.7 mi), elevation 73m (239 ft)-a flat route 94 percent of the time, but that 6 percent has 15%!
Route Description
One of the eighteen original Beta routes rolled out on The Island in 2023, the Flat Eight route is, as its title suggests, a flat route most of the time. 94% of the time, exactly. Three leg-searing pitches share the other 6%.
The route winds through most of the northeast portion of the Island and includes a 3.3km lead-in with one of the three difficulties of the route, starting at km 1.9 for 500m at a 4.5% average gradient, with spikes up to 10%.
The second climb begins at km 4.9 and is 200m long at an 8% average gradient, with pitches to 15%. You read correctly: FIFTEEN PERCENT. The last is a tiny bump of 150m at 4%, starting at km 10.2 and less than one km before the banner.
The route is 7.7km long from the second lap, including only the last two leg snappers, starting at km 1.6 and 6.9, respectively.
The hills spread across the route, so if you had the wrong idea to breakaway in one of them, the flats in between are usually long enough to allow bigger packs to swallow back fugitives.
There is a 1.8km flat segment between the first and the second hill and a 4.5km flat segment between the second and the third hill. Multi-laps events in Flat Eights quickly become torture, where some people drop and die in each of them.
In conclusion, whoever had the genius idea to call the route Flat Eight is definitely:
1) an utterly optimistic person, seeing the half-full glass by default and forgetting about those three climbs.
2) someone who was up to prank all of us, misleading the unwitting crowd into an alleged flat still highly lactic productive route.
Not to point fingers, but that person’s name starts with a G and finishes with an E.
Thanks Luciano!
Courtesy of Beta-tester Roman Edelhelfer!
Route Profile
Route details and description courtesy of Beta-tester Andras Beck!
Check out the indieVelo-Route Descriptions page for more useful recon information.
Semi-retired as owner and director of his private Orthopedic Physical Therapy practice after over 20 years, Chris is blessed with the freedom to pursue his passion for virtual cycling and writing. On a continual quest to give back to his bike for all the rewarding experiences and relationships it has provided him, he created a non-profit. Chris is committed to helping others with his bike through its work and the pages of his site.
In the summer of 2022, he rode 3,900 miles from San Francisco to New York to support the charity he founded, TheDIRTDadFund. His “Gain Cave” resides on the North Fork of Long Island, where he lives with his beautiful wife and is proud of his two independent children.
You will read him promoting his passion on the pages of Cycling Weekly, Cycling News, road.cc, Zwift Insider, Endurance.biz, and Bicycling. Chris is co-host of The Virtual Velo Podcast, too!
