Part 4: The Bike
Reading, September 2016 9:23 am
I started the bike ride actually feeling strong – my legs pounding up and down like pistons and my breathing slowly stabilising as I settled in to the course. I was quickly gaining on the rider in front, and I had a lot of motivation to keep going – I was being chased. Over many years (although admittedly not very recently) I’d racked up a lot of miles on a bike and considered myself a strong and confident rider with decent bike handling skills.
Stu, Barney and I had done a recce ride around the course, so I knew what I was in for when it came to the few hills and was recognising key landmarks that were helping me to mentally track my progress. The training ride hadn’t gone that well; I’d spent most of it bleating that it was so cold (in August) that my legs weren’t warming up properly and that was affecting my ability to ride as quickly as I would like – at no point did it cross my mind that the total lack training might have had something to do with my struggles – but it had at least helped me identify some of those evil roads that through weird optical illusion look like they are going downhill but are actually gently rising. It’s the sort of thing that can drive you to despair as you can’t maintain the pace you expected to and there were a few in the first half of this ride.
I needed to maintain my positivity – Barney, although a terrible swimmer was a rocket on the bike. I knew I was likely to be out of the water a good three minutes ahead of him and was hoping to get at least ten minutes into what I expected to be a fifty something minute ride before he caught me. What I didn’t know at the time was he’d put in an astounding swim (clearly, he’d been sandbagging in training), exiting slightly less than 2 minutes behind me and had completed the first transition in exactly the same time as we both chose to stop for socks! He complains to this day that he only beat two swimmers out of the water, but we’re all proud of him because he exceeded everyone’s expectations for the swim.
I was flying along. I overhauled the rider in front decisively and was barely past as I heard a weird whining hum swiftly building behind me – with a final buzz a rider in a teardrop race helmet on one of those uncomfortable looking specialist bikes blurred past me like I was standing still. That doesn’t really convey the difference in speed as these guys are all in a totally different league – it felt like I’d inadvertently strayed onto the motorway in a milk float and was being overtaken by an angry banker in a Porsche. He was going at least twice as fast as I was – probably more, and this put me firmly back in my place. I was ok with that though – it wasn’t Barney passing me, not yet.
A fair few jet-propelled specialists shot past, and if I’m being completely honest a few more ordinary looking cyclists too as I started to slow after my initially too hot pace. My legs felt cold and heavy; I tried hard to pretend it was only the time triallists coming through, and every time someone closer to my pace went past I tried to hang on to their back wheel. This was complicated by the ‘No Drafting’ rule which meant each rider has to maintain a distance of several meters or risk being disqualified, but I knew I wasn’t going fast enough to get much aerodynamic benefit, and I was pretty sure the marshals weren’t going to penalise someone who was clearly not staying attached for very long – I just wanted to have a target to aim at as I struggled to keep the pedals turning over.
Almost exactly ten minutes in, Barney tore past with a growl of ‘You’re looking strong!’. I wasn’t. I knew I wasn’t, he knew I wasn’t, but it’s something you say it anyway – it’s the law (I first yelled ‘You’re looking strong!’ at my brother Matt as he dragged himself around a bike stage agonisingly slowly – with what we later found out were very flat tires; I then immediately turned to our mum and spent his next lap telling her exactly how awful he looked). I’d gone off far too fast and was now suffering; many more standard bike cyclists were passing me now.
I picked out a target in the distance that I was sure I was gaining on, and concentrated hard on reeling them in as we raced down a long straight section of road. It was confusing – as I got nearer I could hear singing. As I closed the gap, I suddenly realised it was the two lads from earlier on the tandem with the horse riding helmets. They had started in the wave ten minutes earlier and were merrily singing at the tops of their voices, only stopping as they were passed by each rider to read the name off their number and joyfully cheer them on. Their shout out to me gave me a huge lift as I went past smiling, knowing I’d made up ten minutes on at least someone. They were clearly having a whale of a time, not hurting anyone and I was very glad they’d managed to squeak a technical compliance with the rules and regulations in order to take part.
The last 5k of the ride has a significant and prolonged fast rolling downhill so for the last quarter I was able to regroup a bit and start pulling other riders back. My weight began to work for me and I was able to roll over the few ups using the momentum I gathered and kept from the downs. We were closing in on the end of the ride, but in the final couple of kilometres there were two very sharp left-hand corners and I wasn’t the only tired rider. As we approached the second blind bend, I was watching the guy in front of me fly in a lot faster than I felt was safe. I had just enough time to think ‘I hope there’s nothing coming the other way’ as the blue VW Golf appeared.
The rider had no chance at all to avoid a collision as physics and his own momentum threw him over the white line and onto the other side of the road, and he was incredibly lucky that he hit the driver’s door broadside as they passed each other. If the Golf had been two feet further back, he would have been under its wheels with a closing speed in excess of 50mph. The luckiest guy in the race bounced off, somehow staying upright and grunted that he was ok in response to my quick query as he turned around to share his details with the car driver. Adrenaline running at his close shave, I roared back into Transition having completed the ride in around 54 minutes.
Not sure how it would work, I had loaded both bottle cages on my bike with big bottles of water. Although it had turned into a warm day I wasn’t mentally prepared to slow down to take a drink and wound up dragging a couple of extra kilos for no real benefit as I brought the bottles back as full as when I started. I later found out that Barney had finished his ride over twelve minutes faster; I already knew I wasn’t going to see him again until the finish.
The Bike
The bike section (although probably the longest in duration for most people) is actually the simplest for most of us. There are a few rules, and a few things that are a good idea, but really it’s just a ride going wherever the nice people in the high viz jackets point to and can be taken at whatever pace we can individually maintain… However, having said all of that…
It’s a really good idea to have some practice rides on whatever bike you are planning to use on the day – for a couple of reasons depending on where you sit on the athletic spectrum. If you fancy yourself as an undiscovered cycling star, then it’s good to work out what gears work best where and to practice descending sharp hills (if any on the day) so you can roll through the corners at maximum velocity.
If you are less frustrated by your lack of recognition by the Tour de France pro teams, then the practice rides are equally important – just to minimise the sore bottom a bike seat will inflict on an unprepared and inexperienced soft posterior. You’re unlikely to worry about going too fast up or down hill! In either case, if you can ride (or at least drive) the route you will know what you have let yourself in for – it can be really helpful knowing that the monster hill you are currently grinding up is the last one before a fast roll for the rest of the course.
It really doesn’t matter what bike you are riding – however; if you care about doing the best time you can, then if at all possible it is worth trying to get hold of a bike – even a mountain bike – with road tires. Off road tires are great in the mud, but on tarmac you can literally hear them humming off the energy they are wasting as your speed climbs. In a worst-case scenario, you can find slick tires for a mountain bike for about £15 each – I would consider that this would be a worthwhile investment if it were me riding and it also gives you a chance to practice your tire changing skills – twice!
The other thing is to make sure what you are riding is safe, so make sure you check things over carefully tightening with an Allen key before you start. A mechanical failure can often mean your triathlon is over at that point. A good clean can help you spot issues (I’m the second worst in the world at looking after my bike – Matt is the worst – but we both recognise this and get a local mechanic to check the bikes over a couple of times a season) and chain lubrication, if needed, can make the world of difference to how smoothly you can transfer power from your legs to the road.
It’s also amazing how many people who don’t ride a bike regularly don’t realise how important fully inflated tires are. I’ve seen people check pressures by pushing the tire with their thumb – all this really tells you is if your wheel is flat or not. A road tire could be designed to be ridden at up to 130psi – at pressures of anything above 80 psi your thumb shouldn’t go in at all, so use a pressure gauge if you have one and borrow one if you don’t. I’ve mentioned my brother Matt having a tough ride earlier – he’d not used a gauge for a couple of months and when he squeezed the tire his thumb went in halfway; he’d shrugged and said ‘Seems good enough’.
It very much wasn’t, and he suffered badly on that ride despite setting PBs for his swim and run. Look carefully at the rim of your tires to find the recommended pressure range and make sure you are in that range. One other consequence of riding on underinflated tires is that you are orders of magnitude more likely to get what’s known as a pinch flat, where the inner tube is pinched between the rim and the tire (you can usually tell one of these by a distinctive ‘snakebite’ double puncture). We’ve all got mates who get a lot of punctures, often on the same ride. I wonder how many of them also don’t worry too much about their tire inflation, or have rushed a tire change and underinflated in an effort to get away quickly?
Some sort of bike computer to track your distance is definitely worthwhile – these start around £10 and although the cheaper ones can be a bit fiddly to set up they will serve two purposes; the first is to give you an indication of just how much distance you are ticking off – this can be really helpful, allowing you to break the ride down into smaller chunks and build and concentrate on your mental strength as you make progress but your physical capability starts to drain away due to fatigue.
The second use is possibly more important – some sprint triathlons may have you riding four or more laps; and as we mentioned, even if you 100% know you have completed three laps and are on the fourth you will still start doubting yourself. A cycle computer (accurately calibrated to your tire size) will remove any concerns here and allow you to focus on the riding. If you do have a complicated and expensive model with a GPS built in, take the time to download the ride course to it before the day of the race; although there are helpful people in hi viz jackets pointing which way to go (or at the very least signage)
Matt somehow manages to get lost at pretty much every event – we still don’t quite understand how, but it’s something to do with how invested he gets in the ride. To be fair to him, I have had moments on sportives (sort of big organised Bike not really races) where I’ve been so focused on following the riders in front of me that I’ve missed multiple signs at a route split and come within a hairsbreadth of accidentally adding an additional 30m to my planned ride that day. I have heard stories of inconvenienced locals interfering with signage although I’ve never seen it myself, and a GPS would prevent that as well.
Don’t assume that anyone on a bike in lycra is part of the same event and keep checking for the signage/marshals – if it’s a nice day there may be many riders out enjoying themselves, and many triathlons don’t take part on closed roads. I know one young lady who on her first ever triathlon latched onto a group of four riders and followed them for many miles before realising they weren’t part of her tri – by the time she was back on track she’d covered over double the usual distance. At this point I would have returned to the transition area and stormed off in disgust; not only did she complete the whole ride course, but then ran the run to the complete admiration of everyone competing.
Next, don’t worry too much if your bike handling skills are rudimentary. Any overtaking rider will be way more worried about you than you are of them. Having said that, if you can keep to the left when not overtaking you will make it much easier for elite athletes to break past safely; you should also make as much effort as you can to ride in a relatively consistent position on the road and under no circumstances should you dive for the right hand side of the road when cornering unless you know there is no one coming up behind you – although in this instance a cyclist will try to avoid you, you may leave them with nowhere to go except through you. This is especially important going downhill where some of the elite riders may comfortably exceed 50 mph.
Feeling confident? I’d strongly recommend practicing riding with one hand while reaching down to take a water bottle from any cage you have fitted – my 11-year-old still has to stop to take a drink, but we’re working on it! You will lose a lot of time stopping and coming back up to speed as well as the time stationary, drinking. I know I said earlier I wouldn’t normally worry about a bottle on a sprint, but it’s good to have the skill in the bag in case your day turns out to be unfeasibly warm.
On the day, you will be disqualified if you touch the bike before your helmet, mount your bike before the mount line or dismount after the dismount line. Bear in mind you will probably have a short run before you can get on the bike and remember at the end of the ride that you cannot just ride at speed into transition – especially if you have clipless pedals that you are relatively new to. I’ve seen many people topple over both on the way out and way in from transition because they mentally have only spotted the lines at the last second – it’s only ever the pride that’s hurt, but it’s worth watching closely if someone flies past you close to the dismount line – they may not be thinking far enough ahead and you want to be able to avoid them if they’ve got it wrong.
A lot of the triathletes around you will be riding with clipless pedals and shoes (which ironically ‘clip in’ to the pedal on the bike). These will theoretically allow you to apply more power more efficiently. If you are on a road bike and fancy giving these a go, by all means do so, but the triathlon itself is not the place to try these out. Everyone – and I mean everyone – who rides in these pedals has at least once stopped suddenly, not unclipped early enough and toppled slowly over. There’s never a great place to do this, although some are better than others (my preferred option would be a slow topple into a hedge on your left, assuming a convenient mattress is not available), but if you do this at a triathlon dismount line you do stand a reasonable chance of being walloped by the next rider coming in.
If you ever watch the pros, they rig their clipped in shoes to the bike frame with elastic bands so that they can run to the mount line, jump on the bike and start pedalling on top of the shoes (snapping the elastic bands) and only when up to speed worry about putting the shoes on. I would not recommend trying this until at least the second triathlon, and after some substantial practice. In reality, anyone not looking to qualify for Great Britain in their age group is probably unlikely to bother with this technique.
Try and stay alert and engaged – look as far ahead as you can for potholes and other road furniture that may cause you an issue, so you can safely avoid them without endangering yourself or other riders. You may find yourself on part of a bike course where a steady stream of cars are making their way past – these don’t tend to last long, and as a rule most car drivers will give you plenty of space; the ‘no drafting’ rule that is usually in place means that there are gaps for them to move into as they move up the line. Whatever you do, if it’s not a closed course don’t forget there may be traffic coming the other way and always try to keep yourself safe while riding – it is a race, but it’s better to lose a couple of seconds going around a corner than take a chance you can’t take back.
The ‘no drafting rule’ is important and basically means you need to maintain a gap of 7m (a big car length) between you and the rider in front. If someone passes you, you must drop back to maintain this distance. If passing, you should move through this gap in 15s. In reality at a non-elite level, providing you aren’t clearly hanging onto someone’s wheel it’s not going to be a major issue so don’t worry about it too much – I’ve had a few rides where I’ve been with someone closely matched but of a very different body geometry which has meant we’ve spent many miles swapping the lead as the road either goes up or down. Although this is technically drafting, sliding through the passing manoeuvres in less than 15s would have killed us both.
Finally, think hard about your clothing. I think most people actively recover on the bike; but the forced evaporation of all that water you’re still wearing after the swim can make you cold very quickly. If the weather is poor, you may want to stash a warm long-sleeved jersey in transition that you slip on before grabbing the bike; if it’s raining and cold you may need a wind/waterproof. For really early season triathlons you will see a lot of athletes wearing neoprene overshoes on the front of their bike shoes to keep the wind off the feet (which is where a lot of water is going to wind up), but these only work if you have cleated, or clipless shoes. Remember to strip some of the extra clothing off again before you begin your run.
Key Points:
– Practise on the bike you are going to ride and recce the route if possible
– Fit road tires if you can and make sure they are fully inflated
– Track distance/route with computer or GPS but keep an eye out for signs and marshals
– Helmet on before you touch the bike
– Keep left and plan ahead
– Maintain a 7m gap to the cyclist in front where possible.
– Plan clothing