- See, when I started out in triathlon,
I got myself a pair of triathlon shoes.
And then it wasn't until a few years later
that I got myself a pair of road cycling specific shoes
and I couldn't believe what I'd been missing out on.
Nowadays, I do all my cycling training in my road shoes,
and then I do my long-distance triathlons in my road shoes,
but then I do short-distance triathlons
and draft-legal triathlons in my tri shoes.
Those are just my options, my preferences.
There are so many pros and cons to each of the shoes.
So I think it's time we put them head to head
in a triathlon shoe verses road shoe.
[Pulsing whoosh]
Now some of you may be watching this now
scratching your heads and thinking,
"Triathlon shoes for triathlons.
"That's what they're designed for, surely.
"You wouldn't see the Brownlee Brothers
"wearing road shoes for draft-legal triathlons."
True, but in the same score,
we quite often see the likes of Jan Frodeno,
Ben Hoffman,
and Sebastian Kienle wearing road shoes.
But before we get stuck into all of that,
I think we should quickly run through
the two different styles of shoes.
First of all, the pure road-cycling shoe.
They're built for comfort
and they're designed to keep the food secure in the shoe
and for me, when I first switched to road shoes
it was the support within the shoes
that I really noticed.
It just felt like it held my foot better,
particularly through the arch.
And I've actually heard athletes reporting that
it's helped to minimise injuries
and also get rid of injuries all together for them.
Whereas, with a pair of triathlon shoes,
they're designed to get your feet
in and out of them quickly,
so they tend to have a couple of Velcro straps
across the top to help that,
but that does also mean they don't always hold the feet
quite as securely as a pair of road shoes.
And then you will often find
a little loop on the back of triathlon shoes
and that's to help with getting the shoe on quickly
and you can actually use that loop
for attaching elastic bands to
if you're doing a flying mount out of T1.
And then another really noticeable difference
is with the materials used.
So, obviously, you're coming out of the swim with wet feet,
so they use materials that are slightly more breathable
to reduce the moisture within the shoe
and then you will actually find on some of the shoes,
a small hole in the sole of the shoe
and that is to drain out any water.
And then finally, the materials used within the shoes
are there for comfort,
particularly for those that are opting
to race without socks.
The obvious difference with these shoes
comes down to the transitions.
And this is where the triathlon shoes are in their element.
So whether you're doing a flying mount
or you're putting your bike shoes on
and then running out of your bike,
they're quick and easy to get into.
And in draft-legal racing,
where every second counts through transition,
to make those bike packs,
you pretty much only see triathlon-specific shoes.
They're relatively short races compared to
an Ironman, for example.
So whether you're doing a draft-legal race or not,
if you're only on the bike for
a relatively short amount of time,
you might welcome a few saved seconds through transition.
And for long-distance races,
transitions are still important
and time is still precious for many athletes,
but the odd second lost getting your feet
into some road shoes isn't quite so obvious.
In fact, for fans of road shoes,
they would argue that those few seconds lost
getting your feet into, and fastened into some road shoes
is far outweighed by the performance benefit
and the time made up over a long bike course.
But you know what?
I think we should just go and see
how much time someone might be losing
through transitions getting their feet
into some road shoes verses some triathlon shoes.
Right, we're gonna start the clock
when I grab my bike from here.
I'm going to run up to the mount line up here
which I've drawn out.
[Beep]
[Rock Scratching Pavement]
[Beep]
Obviously, mount after the mount line
and then, we're gonna stop the clock
once I've got my feet into the bike shoes
and fastened into the bike shoes.
First up, the tri-shoes.
Alright, ready, go.
[Light Music]
Okay, next up, the road shoes.
Ready, let's go.
[Light Music]
Alright, that was really fun.
We saw a seven second difference in time,
obviously, the triathlon shoes were quicker
than the road shoes.
No surprises there.
But I do understand not everyone is doing a flying mount
out of transition.
[Beep]
So, let's do something slightly different here.
We're going to do the same again,
but I'm going to put the bike shoes on
before I grab the bike,
run to the mount line
and then I'm just going to step over my bike and clip in.
Compare the two, first up, tri-shoes.
Alright, clock starts as soon as I grab the shoes.
Ready, let's go!
[Upbeat Music]
And finally, the road shoes.
Ready, let's go!
[Upbeat Music]
Ah, interesting.
Interesting.
Okay, so there wasn't actually quite as much difference
between the final two transitions as I expected.
And they also weren't that much slower
than the flying mounts, either, so
I think that it comes down to
quite a short run through transition
and I'll make the excuse of a new bike, too. Why not?
Either way, the triathlon shoes worked clearly quicker
for the transitions,
however, it would be hard to argue against
the road cycling shoes being better for cycling.
I mean, otherwise, we'd see pro cyclists
wearing triathlon shoes.
They don't do that.
Either way, I think they've got their place for triathlon.
But the main importance, I think, comes down to
being comfortable.
The more comfortable we are, the better you're going to
maximise your performance when you're cycling.
It's worth remembering that we all have different
size and shape feet
and also our bio-mechanics are very different.
So, my biggest recommendation would be to try
a number of different bike shoes
in a similar way to when you're picking
a new saddle for your bike.
If you pop into a local bike shop,
I'm sure they'd be very happy to help,
and you can weigh out that comfort
over the distance that you're planning on racing.
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