- The transition isn't just a means
of going from one discipline to the next,
it's part of the race.
And having a quick transition
could improve your performance further.
So, we have pulled a few tips from some
of the elite and professional triathletes for T1,
going from the swim to the bike.
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So, to start off with getting your wetsuit off
after the swim, once it's wet
and once you've run all the way to your bike,
can be quite hard.
So, quick and easy solution is to use
a little bit of baby oil on your lower legs
and forearms before you put your wetsuit on.
Now, you really don't want this stuff
all over your hands before you go swimming,
so I suggest using a bag
or even get a friend to apply it for you.
Essentially, the oil acts a little like a lubricant,
meaning that you can get your wetsuit off nice and quickly.
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Rather than placing your helmet on the floor,
consider placing it on handlebars,
or even hanging from one of the straps.
That way, it's quick and easy to grab from waist height.
And by laying the straps out to side,
will hopefully prevent the straps
from getting caught or tangled
when you go to place the helmet onto you head.
Another thing to consider is the side
that you place your helmet on.
So, think about which side you're going to remove
and place your wetsuit and how you're going
to grab your bike and run out of transition.
So, the elites will put the helmet
on the same side so they don't have
to lean over their bike to grab the helmet.
I know it only seems like a minute saving,
but all these little things help.
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Granted, not everyone is doing a flying mount
from T1 onto their bike, but if you are,
then using elastics could help you massively.
Without the elastics your shoes could end up scraping,
bouncing, or even getting caught upside-down on the floor.
But the real bonus to using elastics is
that it holds the shoes in place,
ready for you place your feet onto
or even straight into your bike shoes.
Now, how you attach these elastics
is entirely up to you, but the most popular method
is to attach or loop an elastic
from the right shoe to the front mech,
and the left shoe to the rear quick release.
But the other way round is absolutely fine.
So, just attach it to anything solid
or strong on the bike.
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It's important that you consider the gear
that you leave your bike in, in T1.
Now leaving it in the wrong gear
could make the bike mount quite tricky.
Generally, you want a relatively easy gear
so that you can build your momentum up
from a slow speed.
Obviously, check for any gradients after the mount line too.
For instance, if there's a hill immediately
after the mount line, you may want to opt
for an easier gear, you may even want
to drop it into the small ring.
The last thing you want is to be stuck
in too hard a gear, trying to build your momentum up.
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You won't see a whole lot on the floor
in an elite transition.
To keep things slick, they'll try
to attach everything they can to the bike.
That means gels, sunnies, and even warm weather gear.
The idea being that they'll put on
any gear whilst they're on the bike,
making their transition much quicker
and making sure that they make any packs out of T1.
Now there are different methods to attaching
your gels and nutrition to your bike.
You can use elastics or you can even use tape.
Now I definitely used to prefer using
something like electrical tape.
And I'd just attach the gel to the top tube,
along the tear line of the gel.
So, I'd wrap the tape around,
and that meant that when I grabbed the gel
it would open at the same time.
And another method is to attach
around the main body of the gel.
And you can do that, again, to the top tube,
and then just fold back the tape at the ends,
creating a little tab, so it's quick and easy to remove.
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So, there's a handful of tips
from the elite triathletes on how to do a quick T1.
But if you have any other great suggestions,
please drop them in the comments below.
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just click here.