For the average triathlete there is no point in doing a flying mount in a non drafting race, if anything you will probably screw it up and take longer if you haven't practiced.

Though I would recommend it for a draft legal race. Did Superleague triathlon last year and came into T1 exactly the same time as the guy next to me. He did a flying mount and I didn't. I only lost a few seconds but it was enough to miss the group he got on the back off and fall behind quite quickly

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instagram.com/42pointtwo

Ooh boy this was posted today? I need to find a local triathlon to spectate this weekend and see all the hard failures of people trying to do these immediately!

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I use SPD pedals, I gave up road pedals about 15 years ago, I got tired of having different shoes for different bikes. I just do a cross mount leaving and a cross dismount coming back in. Some of the guys in the video need to do a little cross racing in the Fall to get their mount and dismounts down, although it is tougher barefoot on pavement.

lol good idea.

I don’t see that many attempting a flying mount but I see a lot of general difficulty mounting bikes

This video makes me feel much better about myself.

I was picking up trash while checking bikes out after a race the weekend before last... I couldn't believe the number of rubber bands I found. It makes me think that next time I need to hang out at bike out to watch all of these people and their flying mounts.

ditto. I'm not that hot at transitions but would smoke half these people. Not that it would matter overall...

I was surprised to see Lucy Charles just do the stop and leg over method.

and she nearly ate shit on the dismount...

bad luck for the guy who dropped a chain right before mounting. he hung in there and got it untangled. nothing like riding for the next few hours with chain wax/grease on the fingers.

Definitely felt bad for that guy. That’s got to be an awful feeling. And then the guy who just blew past the dismount line. lol

What's the rule if you ride past the line and come back to dismount in front of it? (Not directed at anyone in particular.)

Should be a time penalty. Doesn't matter if you come back

While mainly true for mid and full distance tris, this is an example why cyclists laugh at triathletes. I will say that the hand position on a tt bike doesn't do them any favors for the mount.

You want to see a bike mount fail then watch one of the best failing miserably in Roth 1996...Hahaha...Legend!

14:15 into the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqcG4F7VOA8

The mounts were worse than i expected! Some did the running/jumping mount some did the stop and leg over. But this also comforts me in that not having the shoes clipped in makes me lose a minimal amount of time.
For the dismount, i dont know what i just saw, so many bad dismounts, probably really badly marked dismount line too but they should rec the course beforehand. Not doing a running dismount but actually stopped seems insane even for me, such a waste of time.

If T1/T2 is that important to folks they should treat it that way.

It looks like amateur hour up in there. I'm also a non-believer in the shoes/rubber band style getup. Always seeing the majority of the people fail and flail in the videos trying to get their feet in. It's almost like one person had luck with it and the internet jumped on it as the thing to do.

While you are moving while getting them on, you're moving very slowly and perhaps dangerously. A person who spent 10 seconds in T1 to get them on first will be traversing that section of road you're farting around with your shoes on. Making it a wash.

Cyclocross rules you for mount/dismount:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAF1FkdVm9M

And the bike swaps:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2uBTCcnkJw

Then again, they do it dozens of times per workout instead of maybe 5x per year.

I feel like I'm the only one that just puts their shoes on in Transition and runs in them and gets on my bike. I've timed it and for me, it's the fastest and safest.

Even having my shoes clipped in and riding with my feet on top...I'm trying to fart around and get my feet in the shoes, get them strapped in. While soaking wet and trying to navigate the exit and start of the bike. I just want to get my shoes on and ride.

Every time I tried the rubber band trick, it either broke early, broke in transition.

I use LOOK cleats so maybe that's why I can run in my shoes?

Very interesting and IMO the pedaling on top of your shoes is a complex way to do a flying mount. Now you've mashed your shoes down and have to get your foot in there.. WHILE pedaling down the road.

I mount like they do in ITU... shoes wide open and banded tight with cranks horizontal to the ground. Feet go straight into my shoes, start pedaling and cinch them down at speed when I get away from the mount line.

The trick with leaving the shoes on the bike is to not put them on right away. Wait til you're up to speed and preferably on a slight downhill. Or, if you're really good, leave them wide open and put your feet straight into the shoes on mounting, don't put your feet on top first. It's not that hard.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Anyone ever done the shoes on pedals style and wound up running through some crap that got on the bottom of your feet before you mounted?

THAT would suck soooooo bad. Execute it perfectly and wind up with a stone or twig or some trash eating your foot up the entire bike leg. Or having to stop to fix it!

That seems like a legit risk also.

I mean, I walk barefoot from the house to the car to get stuff out and it's concrete the whole way and I almost always pickup something on my feet in that 20 ish feet. Much less 50 yards or so of transition running.

Not that I recall

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I really enjoyed this and it makes me feel better about forsaking the flying mount and rubber-banded shoes. A flying mount done well is pretty to watch, but if the pros are that bad I'm not going to master it without a lot of practice. Even then, it seems there is a lot of risk for the reward of a handful of seconds. I've always thought that for most of us, the most important aspect of the transition is simply resisting the urge to rest. Run fast between all points, ignore the urge to catch your breath, and stay concentrated.

Bryan Rodhes stubbed his toe and broke it at T1 IMC in 2003, came off the bike in the lead and didn’t realize it was broken until his first steps....out of the race.

On a side note having done several thousand hours of train switching you never thread the needle and dismount with your leading leg, always plant leg is trailing (this is actually a safety reg)

Bikes are a bit safer and lighter than trains, but dismount speeds are about the same.

I never do flying mounts on LC anymore, largely because you’re not allowed, but also because everyone around you *thinks* they can do a flying mount when in reality it’s about 10% who can pull it off correctly.

If it costs me an extra 10s to put my shoes on in T1 perfectly and not stub my toe or get sand or a small rock in my shoes then no biggie for me.

Fun video!
Maurice

Twice in the past 33 years I've injured my foot (stubbed toe that might have been broken, badly cut foot) but in both cases that was while exiting the water.

On the other hand, I found out the hard way in one race that sometimes asphalt can get really slick when wet, and plastic cleats don't offer much traction in those cases...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

The stuff stuck to the bottom of my feet is the other reason I don't do it. I can't stand having grass/rocks whatever stuck to my feet when I ride. I usally have a towel down in T1 that I can just steop on to before I toss my shoes on.

It's not perfectly clean but I had a 70.3 one time where somehow a fairly large piece of gravel got stuck to my foot. It dug a little hole in my arch the entire ride.

"Bryan Rodhes stubbed his toe and broke it at T1 IMC in 2003"

Anything can happen, I guess, but stubbing your toe can happen anywhere from the swim exit to the time you put your shoes on. It's true that a lot of people can't do it, and certain bike setups make it harder or impossible (e.g. BTS bottles). I'm reasonably good at them, not great, but I can ride a straight line while putting the shoes on. But I wouldn't do it on every course, only if there's a spot that I can easily get my shoes on inside the 1st km. and, of course, if allowed.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

It amazes me how many people don't practice this given it doesn't take that much time to practice. If you practice it every time you get on and off a bike in training, that's more than enough. Or if you just spend 5 minutes a few times a month before or after your ride in an open parking lot...that's plenty of practice. It doesn't even have to be a flying mount/dismount. If you choose to do a step over, you should at least be efficient at it and not have to look down at your feet while swerving all over the road.

But I guess I shouldn't be that surprised given that some cyclists still don't know how to properly change a punctured tube because they think they can figure it out when the time comes.

Then again, they do it dozens of times per workout instead of maybe 5x per year
——

This.

Thats kinda why I laugh when they go to a pro LC race and essentially try and “clown” the pros for their mounts and dismounts. It’s simply a skill that’s not so important that you spend weekly practice sessions dialing it in like you do with ITU athletes.

If your not going to work on the actual skill it’s better to just clippity clop in your bike shoes to the mount line than actually trying the flying mount w shoes on top etc. but If you can and do work on it to get proficient you’ll be quicker and don’t risk breaking your cleats in the process. But if you don’t practice it you risk more by crashing and or being slow at it.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I don't know that I'll ever try a flying mount. I feel like the bike mount area is already a cluster during an ironman. I just run past the mount like and try to find a clear area to stop and put my leg over to mount. I've thought about having shoes on bike and just stepping onto the left pedal to get on the bike a little quicker. Running in socks has to be easier than in cleats especially when IM transition areas are so big. But I'm not getting close to a podium in a IM or HIM so if I lose 30 seconds or a minute it's not the end of the world. of course I would like to have my mount and dismounts a little more fluid but no flying mount for me.

I get on the bike just like Anja Ippach. If I do fly mount in Sprint Tri, I can beat several people because competition is so intense.

That is a hall of shame moment

The problem with this skill is that’s its a repetitive skill in order to master it. Meaning it takes a weekly 30 min type or specific skill session, not just do it 2 times a few times a month post ride. Even doing it daily while getting on off can improve your comfort in getting in and out of the bike but it isn’t really going to let you master the skill. And that’s what it takes to doing it to nail the demands of competition. But at the same time as I said they go to a LC event to show how bad these skills are. I could have told you that even for professionals. It’s just a skill that isn’t a required demand of competition skill at that distance of racing.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Serious 'race' then I'm stop and carefully mount, but will take feet out of shoes on dismount, but still dismount fairly carefully. Partly as I'm using my s-works road shoes for comfort that preclude speedy put ons whilst moving.

End of season club fun sprint - it's all on with the old velcro close shimano TR-02s and full flying mount dismount. If I fall and crash, no worries other than looking a prize tit in front of all the locals, which to be fair I am comfortable with as a middle aged guy that races in a lycra onsie. And this year I got my first ever medal for 3rd place by 5 seconds over 4th.

Sadly one of my good friends crashed mounting at our A-race this year. He finished the bike, but had to pull out of the run because of the injury he picked up. Then made worse by the $1800 cost of replacement handlebars for his giant TT bike that were cracked in the fall. So no way the risk / reward works for me that focusses on long distance stuff. As the video shows, the difference between good and bad is at max 7 seconds. Only time I'd care about that is if aforementioned mate finishes 6 or less seconds ahead of me. Which does rely on him not face planting on the way out of transition again.

i have a friend who was an ITU pro (great athlete, Olympic reserve), and his home page used to have him doing a flying mount. He was about 30cm above the saddle! he used to say because he was scared of stubbing his toe (and clearly not crushing his plums!!!)

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'to give anything less than the best is to sacrifice the gift'...Pre

When I learned flying dismounts I just went up and down the road in my neighborhood for 20 minutes or so... picked some lines on the road as mount/dismount lines and had at it. Flying mounts are bit more involved with rubber bands... pretty much every time I ride my TT bike I band my shoes and flying mount and flying dismount when I get off after my ride. Last year I had someone that saw me dismount at USAT Olympic Nationals that I had the best dismount they saw all day... I practice them. I also put my feet directly into my shoes, none of that pedaling on top of my shoes business, which IMO is faster/better anyway especially with my wide "hobbit feet".

I hear you on the punctures... I bike tech sometimes and I can't tell you how many cyclist I've helped out that when I get there they have the new tube on the wheel with the tire completely off in their other hand... or are completely helpless.. which is fine, that's what I'm there for. I give them a quick how-to and off they go.

Same excuse for skipping swim workouts, etc...

Not picking on you specifically, but come on.....

"It's hard, therefore I'm not gonna bother, because I can't be good unless I put the work in to be good"

This is why WTC gets away with cancelling swims when there are 1' waves.

It's the same but not to the same degree. Learning and taking the time to actual perfect the skills of a proper and clean and safe flying mount/dismount for LC athletes is really ho hum. Is it ideal to do? Hell yeah it is, but on the priority of everything else they can do to excel in the sport? It's simply a low priority. Hella more low than actual swim/bike/run training.


Now if you are talking about shorter distance races or DL events where 2s can be the difference between making a group or riding solo...you damn right you better practice it.

But for LC athletes racing IM and even 70.3's? It's just very low on the priority list.


So it's kinda as you suggest, but also kinda not really. ETA: Is it being "lazy" to not work on it? Sure but from a "demands of competition" standpoint it's not a make or break component of LC racing. As I said the negative for running on your bike shoes is that if you break a cleat your race is over cus you wont be able to clip in or you can more *easily* fall and sprain a ankle while "running" on bike shoes. The negative to flying mounts and dismounts if not properly practice and just "winging it" is you can crash yourself and the bike. So again it's simply a skill that takes time to practice and perfect. You dont do it for 10 mins a month and have it down safely....It's just not that easy. So is it easier and likely less riskier to just run with shoes and hope you don't break a cleat vs doing a half assed mount that you havent practiced? Yes

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

I'm too old to be doing a flying leap with my leg over the saddle like Mikhail Baryshnikov. So I switched over to Speedplay Zero cleats for my Tri bike in the hope they will be marginally easier to run in compared to the Shimano's. I still need to work on my rolling dismount to see if there's any advantage in it. As an Aquabiker my race ends at T2 so I've been coming in much hotter than the folks preparing to run - not sure I want to stop doing that in order to fart around with my shoes.

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"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders

From my perspective just "what I do" not really what others should do....it is a time saver of 5-10 plus seconds depending on if you can do it efficiently, and length/surface of run out of T1.

For IM I really like my feet perfect for 5-6 hours, IE a quick dry and remove grass etc.

If I was a good USAT or Can short course athlete I would be practising this skill and going with shoes on. I still do a flying dismount no matter what though.

Maurice

I always do a flying dismount, but, for me, the mount depends on the type of race. Short course, I'm more likely to do a flying mount, but sometimes it depends on where I'm racked in transition. Far away from the bike out? I'm probably leaving my shoes clipped in and running barefoot. Close to the bike out? I'll just put my shoes on and do a pseudo-stop at the mount line. I don't race any DL but if I did I would definitely put more time into practicing the skill.

For 70.3 or 140.6 I don't think it matters nearly as much in the grand scheme. If I have a bottle BTS, then I'm less likely to do it as it's a lot harder for me to get my leg over that high! At larger races, the mount line can be chaos depending on when you come out of the swim, and honestly I'm usually more worried about someone else running into me or stopping abruptly in my path.

When I was first starting out in some local spint/olys a couple of years ago, I was leaving my shoes clipped in, and on several occasions had one of the fastest T1s, but then people passed me a few hundred meters up the road while I was fiddling with my shoes. It's only fast if you're fast at it.