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New Olympic Triathlon event

Old 11-09-20, 04:10 PM
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_ForceD_
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New Olympic Triathlon event

I just read in the current issue of USATriathlon magazine that there’s going to be a new triathlon medal event in the upcoming summer games. It’s a mixed relay. But, it’s not a relay like you may have seen at your local tri...with a 3-person team, a different person doing each discipline/sport. This event will consist of 4-person teams...two men, two women. Each competitor will complete the course of 300m swim, 8km bike, 2km run in succession. That’s going take each competitor just +/- 22 minutes to complete, about 90 minutes for the team to finish. But, with a very short 8k (4.97 mile) bike...I’m wondering what the bikes they’ll be using are like...specifically the gearing, and other components. The article in the magazine didn’t say anything about that. And I can’t find anything online. With it being such a short course in general...will they spend time in transition changing shoes, or will the bikes have pedal cages and they’ll ride in their running shoes? I did find a map and elevation chart of the course. The bike is two laps on a 3.7k with few turns, and almost no elevation change. So, I’m wondering if, to save weight, they might use single-speed bikes. Anyone seen any info on that? I’m curious as to what the bikes they’ll use look like.


Dan
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Old 11-20-20, 06:25 PM
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Originally Posted by _ForceD_
I just read in the current issue of USATriathlon magazine that there’s going to be a new triathlon medal event in the upcoming summer games. It’s a mixed relay. But, it’s not a relay like you may have seen at your local tri...with a 3-person team, a different person doing each discipline/sport. This event will consist of 4-person teams...two men, two women. Each competitor will complete the course of 300m swim, 8km bike, 2km run in succession. That’s going take each competitor just +/- 22 minutes to complete, about 90 minutes for the team to finish. But, with a very short 8k (4.97 mile) bike...I’m wondering what the bikes they’ll be using are like...specifically the gearing, and other components. The article in the magazine didn’t say anything about that. And I can’t find anything online. With it being such a short course in general...will they spend time in transition changing shoes, or will the bikes have pedal cages and they’ll ride in their running shoes? I did find a map and elevation chart of the course. The bike is two laps on a 3.7k with few turns, and almost no elevation change. So, I’m wondering if, to save weight, they might use single-speed bikes. Anyone seen any info on that? I’m curious as to what the bikes they’ll use look like.


Dan
Your times might be optimistic except for the pointy end of the pros. A 20min is decent (not fast) 5k would put you at 8min for the run easily right off. The world record for the individual 4km pursuit, on a track, is just over 4:00. So 8k would be 8min at world record indoor track cycling pace. The 400m free world record is almost 4:00. You're up to 20min without transitions on just totaling up the world record paces for swim/bike leg individually. I didn't look up world record pace for 5k. I'd assume 12min or so. So 2k would be like 6min.

Me? I own a TT bike. I've done a local du on it, as a cyclist. Not as a runner. I finished about 5th overall and 4th in age group. Full disc/trispoke setup and I ran in my skinsuit. TT helmet. I lost podium to three guys who all ran two 5k's both under 16min. Ain't no amount of time a cyclist can make up on the bike leg running 23min 5k's to make up for that!

Right now my 4km pace on the bike is about 5:08 with a standing start, open road. I could probably do 8km in 10:15 or so since the power/duration curve drops off sharp from 8min.

But, serious folks use serious equipment for stuff like this. Not serious folks will just have FUN. They'll use a Walmart mountain bike if necessary. I've seen that plenty. Just for the fun to be out there!

Serious folks will NOT be using flats or cages for their feet. You know the "speed laces" that are elastic you use in run shoes for triathlon or duathlon? You can put them in laceup cycling shoes also. You won't be sprinting, so no worries on pulling up. Then transition is still super fast. Slip them on/off.

I own a spare pair of "lock" or "speed" elastic laces from an old pair of run shoes I kept just for this purpose......shorter local duathlons. I unlace my Giro SLX time trial shoes and put the elastic laces in. Still silly aero, great shoes, and they go on super fast.

The long course guys will cut the tongue out of the shoes and "re-stitch" the tongue somehow to the outside to make them more aero and able to get on with a flying mount "shoes already in the pedals" move. They do a cyclocross style flying mount and while rolling at like 10mph slip into the shoes. Idea is instead of sitting on your bum for 15 seconds going 0mph, you're going 10mph while slipping shoes on.

There you go!
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Old 11-21-20, 09:26 AM
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Originally Posted by burnthesheep
Your times might be optimistic except for the pointy end of the pros.
That time (+/- 22 min) in my OP is from the article, not something I came up with. But, I calculated the winner’s pace times from the recent sprint world championships. Using his pace, +/- 22 minutes is right there. The winners paces from that sprint would work out to a 3:21 for the 300m swim (not 400m), 11:04 for 8k bike, and 5:40 for the 2k run. Those times alone are at 20:05. Add in another minute and change for transition (also from the sprint worlds) and they’re at 21:05 (that’s for the men). So...that’s based on paces for a longer race. Certainly a race of less than half the distance of a sprint would likely have faster paces. So, the +/- 22 minutes referenced in the article might be an average of the two male, two female team, and certainly doable.

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