Well last night I sat down and took a closer look at the Monaco 70.3 bike profile. Not terribly pretty reading. The aid stations are at distances:

• 18km (distance to station 18km)
• 46km (distance to station 28km)
• 67km (distance to station 21km)
• 76km (distance to station 9km)

Looking at the small profile graphic my analysis indicates roughly the following:

• 0-18km (18km): 18km climbing
• 14-46km (28km): 5km climbing, 5km decsent, 12km flat and 6km climbing
• 46-67km (21km): 3km decsent, 17km flat
• 67-76km (9km): 9km climbing
• 76-90km (14km): 1km climbing, 13km descent

Based on this my plan is:

• Start the bike with 1.5 bottles of fluid (1.5 RIDE).
• At aid station 1 I will pickup two bottles (1 RIDE and 1 water) and possibly dump any remaining water at the start of the climb.
• At station 2 I will pickup two bottles (2 RIDE or 1 RIDE and 1 water if the race mixed RIDE is not to taste)
• At station 3 I will pickup one bottle (1 RIDE)
• At station 4 I will pickup two bottles (1 RIDE and 1 water) and drink about half the ride and switch to water

If the day is warm or hot and I am enjoying the RIDE drink I may pickup an additional RIDE rather than water. Since I typically eat gels on the bike too, I don’t want too many calories in my tummy on the climbs and hence consume some water – but in the heat I may opt for liquid calories rather than gels.

As for time estimates (13km/h climb and 30km/h flat/descent):

• 0-18km (18km): 18km climbing (1h23)
• 14-46km (28km): 5km climbing, 5km decsent, 12km flat and 6km climbing (0h23 + 0h10 + 0h24 + 0h28=1h25)
• 46-67km (21km): 3km decsent, 17km flat (0h40)
• 67-76km (9km): 9km climbing (0h42)
• 76-90km (14km): 1km climbing, 13km descent (0h05 + 0h26 = 0h31)

So total predicted time of 281min = 4h41. Hmm, not great at all….

edit: 5km MORE climbing after the first aid station that I had not included first time round.