The indieVelo "Loop the Loop" Route-27.2km (16.9 mi), elevation 189m (620 ft)-five short hills will do the trick!
Route Description
One of the eighteen original Beta routes rolled out on The Island in 2023, Loop the Loop is a 27.2km (16.9 miles) long 189m elevation route, interrupted by five short hills distributed across the circuit that is sure to destroy your legs little by little.
The experience of racing Loop the Loop is comparable to those nights when a mosquito randomly flies near your ear. Again and again. It’s bugging you enough to make you uncomfortable but not enough to upset you.
Those five small hills are precisely that, minor bumps in the road that are just enough to keep you uncomfortable and turned on all the time.
The first comes only 5.6km after the start. It is a short 500m hill at a 4% gradient average which typically anticipates how hostile the race will be. The descent is followed by a 1.7km flat where very little should occur.
If you are lucky enough and the strongest in the pack are in a Love and Peace mood, you may reach the second hill, a 200m at a 5.5% gradient average bump, with most of your physical integrity. But it is quite probable that you will start depleting your resilience reservoir on that one.
Riders frequently attempt to break away on this second hill, but be aware that there is a 6km flat section afterward where the pack swallows most fugitives back.
Courtesy of Beta-tester Roman Edelhelfer!
Route Profile
So be aware and in front of the pack if you don’t want to get dropped. To be more precise, the next selection point comes at km 15.6, a succession of small bumps at 5% over 4km. They will have your legs itching at first and burning at last. It is where most of the pack will ask for a truce, and many will lose their last bit of dignity.
A flat segment of 1km, and a fourth difficulty arises. At km 21, a false flat of 1.6km at a 1% average would be nothing only if we did not have the accumulation of lactate consequence of the three previous.
Last segment of 2km flat before the grand finale.
Route details and description courtesy of Beta-tester Andras Beck!
To return to our mosquito metaphor, it is now four times the mosquito came and flew away. Your degree of frustration is higher than ever. As the mosquito returns, you candidly try to catch him with your bare hands (if someone can explain why, generation after generation, all human beings still try to catch bugs with their bare hands while the probability of success tends to be zero). All night long, you believe you will manage to avoid it, but nope, you always get bit. That bite is the last climb leading you to the Velodrome.
It starts at km 25.6 and is a 1km long climb at 2.5% average to give it all, or at least what is left, which, if you have been competing until now, should not be that much.At the top of the hill, the entrance to the Forest Velodrome should feel like a relief, but most of the time, your entire race will come down to your capacity to sprint those last 250 meters before the banner.
Very important to note that some other routes require 1.5 laps of the Velodrome on arrival (for example, Parry Vlo-Bae), in which you must cross the banner twice. Not in the case of Loop the Loop, with only a half lap, you will cross the finish line only once. Hopefully, with arms raised!
Thanks Luciano!
Check out the indieVelo-Route Descriptions page for more useful recon information.
Semi-retired after more than 20 years as the owner and director of a private Orthopedic Physical Therapy practice, Chris now enjoys the freedom to dedicate himself to his passions—virtual cycling and writing.
Driven to give back to the sport that has enriched his life with countless experiences and relationships, he founded a non-profit organization, TheDIRTDadFund. In the summer of 2022, he rode 3,900 miles from San Francisco to his “Gain Cave” on Long Island, New York, raising support for his charity.
His passion for cycling shines through in his writing, which has been featured in prominent publications like Cycling Weekly, Cycling News, road.cc, Zwift Insider, Endurance.biz, and Bicycling. In 2024, he was on-site in Abu Dhabi, covering the first live, in-person UCI Cycling Esports World Championship.
His contributions to cycling esports have not gone unnoticed, with his work cited in multiple research papers exploring this evolving discipline. He sits alongside esteemed esports scientists as a member of the Virtual Sports Research Network and contributes to groundbreaking research exploring the new frontier of virtual physical sport. Chris co-hosts The Virtual Velo Podcast, too.
