Questions for 70.3 Port Mac 2011

David,

Thanks for your great reply! I'm hoping to do an event (Gold Coast??) before Port Mac so I'll get chance to try out your suggestions. I have three bidon cages on my bike (Felt B2), one on the seat tube and the double behind the seat so from what you have said should be set for fluids on the ride.

I had planned to use my run belt in the run but will take your advice and leave it behind, if nothing else it'll make be a kilo or so lighter for the run and that's always a good thing. :)

Question about the Shotz. Do you add water to them or just empty the gel straight into the bottle? I often use GU gels but I haven't emptied them into a flask before. I could put them into one of the bottles from my run belt but they look a fair bit larger (6oz) than the Shotz bottles I found on the internet.

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Lone Wolf,
Firstly please forgive my iPhone spelling reply yesterday I was sitting in Perth airport using my iPhone typing the response and the iPhone auto correct is a real pain. Anyway back to the conversation at hand.

With the Shotz Gels I use them direct (no water) I figure it is a waste of space/weight to add water to the gels before they are used, so I take them with/around water. I mean that on the bike I take them and then have water/electrolyte after, on the run I consume them as I approach an aid station. I use the Shotz Gel Flask and GU bottles.

I purchased one of the GU bike mounting bottles so that I could mount the 4 gels on the frame. This works most of he time however during the Asia Pacific 70.3 Championships race in Thailand the gel bottle fell off in the first 10kms and I had no backup (this was not great). A few weeks ago during the UCI World Cycling Tour 2011 - Perth Road Race I also found the gel flask was loose and about to fall from the bike. I managed to grab hold of this (mind you doing around 65km/hr going to one hand on the bars was a little scary). So I am not sure how I feel about this solution now but I will give it another go for Busselton next weekend and see if it stays on the bike.

I leave the second Shotz Gel Flask in transition and loaded with 4 gels and then put it in the pocket at the back of my tri suit for the run.

Just one more thing for you bike. I would recommend the aero bottle as it saves you a fair amount of time and effort in taking fluids on the bike as can take them on at any time without having to move much. It is amazing how much time is used in reaching down/behind to collect and return a bottle. I used to find I did not take enough fluid as I did not want to come off the bars to get the bottles. The only time you have to concentrate is when you need to refill the aero bottle which is once or twice for the whole race.

Good luck with your planning and keep asking the questions right here at TriathlonOz.
David