Ironman Frankfurt 2012, it rained cats and dogs on the swim and all the way on the bike. There were crashes and flats left/right/center and I myself hit the tarmac twice.

Around km 175, I had a flat on a REALLY well glued rear tubular. Fought what seemed like forever getting the wet rubber off the rim. Finally fixed all and got going - only to look up and realize I am only around 500m from T2 :( Bummer, but got through all the way

Roth 2016, 2 lap, right before the Solarer Hill I got a chainsuck cause of shifting to the small ring to spin up there.
After I pulled the chain back I was looking at a serious twisted chain and to top that I couldn’t get some links out with the breaker I had.
Went to that guy at the timing mat I just passed and he didn’t had any tools but got told to find a mechanic right in the middle of the hill.
With a 2nd hex wrench he had we could untwist the chain to make it driveable.
He recommended maybe not to grind standing cause of the manipulation but I pushed what I had left to get something back from the 20 minutes lost.
I was an blink of an eye away from calling it a day right there, cause I thought I’m kinda prepared for everything but, even I have experiencing a few chain sucks before, this one was like the cherry on the cake.

So there is some unfinished business at Roth but unfortunately they changed the (run) course the year after to compare numbers.

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-shoki

the last biiiig race i did was the inferno tri - swim, road bike, mountain bike, run. i had mechanicals on BOTH bikes.

first out on the road bike i was moving really well when about halfway through the ride one of my aerobar extensions came loose. of course, the one with my computer on it! i tried to jimmy a gel wrapper into the clamp to sort of shim it into place, but no joy. finally i rode past a bike shop in a village on course, and it was just opening! i ran inside, grabbed an allen, and fixed it on the spot. all good rest of the ride!

then on the MTB, my saddle rattled loose from the seatpost head on the long, fast descent, twice! i hopped off and fixed it quickly enough. then, finally, on the one sort of technical section, my (carbon) seatpost snapped. tougher to fix. i took a long look at it, said 'screw it,' and then just pushed it further down into the frame past the fracture and rode clown-bike style to transition.

in the end it wasn't ideal, and all told i probably lost 15 minutes, but in the context of a 12-hour day it's not the end of the world. what killed me was run nutrition, so can't blame the bike too much.

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I've had multiple issues.

The most memorable one. I was leading on the bike in a sprint and got a flat. Didn't have my repair kit so I started walking in. 2'nd place passed me (my son). Course support came by and swapped out my tire and I got going. Passed my son the run and won the race. (he finished 4'th on a sprint finish with the 3'rd place finisher). At the time, he was 14'ish

Using a rental as I was on vacation, the seat post "slowly" started to come loose and "sink". Nothing I could do so I just rode on a bike with a seat 6 inches to low... Not fun, but made it back and ran to within 2 seconds of winning my ager group. It wasn't a mass start, so I had no idea where I was.

A few other flats where I fixed it and rode in with a time a few minutes slower than I hoped.

Most recently, I got a flat 5 miles from T2 in a local Olympic distance race. Of course it was the rear wheel, and of course I was running a disc. Definitely sucks to flat in shorter races, but I was feeling good and didn't want to pack it in so I got to work fixing it. Bike support came by about 90 seconds in and helped me get it done even faster and I was back on the road in 6 minutes (according to computer stopped time). Felt good starting the run so I decided to go for it. Won my age group.

The most outrageous was long distance aquabike nationals 2018 in Miami. Mile 35, so about as far as possible from the finish because it was a 2 loop course, I get a flat after going around some weird slippery pesticide that had been sprayed in the road - almost went down. Pulled over, started to take off the rear wheel...and then the end cap for the skewer went flying into a bunch of tall grass. Looked for it, no luck, went to changing the tube, finished that and then sat there for...a while. Eventually bike support comes by. Doesn't have a spare skewer, but does have zip ties. So he zip tied my rear wheel to my frame and told me to not use my rear brake and be careful around corners. Spent 25 minutes on the side of the roade. Made it to the finish, got a spot to 2019 worlds though definitly placed MUCH lower than I would have without the flat.

I will read any race report that includes the phrase :


Well done. That's a classic.

*********

My epic mechanical fail was in Ironman NZ, way back in '92 when the race was in Auckland and featured a bike course on rough, granular, pot-holed roads. I was riding an 18-spoke front and 24-spoke rear wheel. They had performed well in the past but hadn't yet been subjected to anything like the IMNZ roads.

Well into the ride, one of my rear spokes popped, followed later by one of my front spokes. As the rims were rubbing against the brake pads, I loosened the caliper brakes to allow the wheels to turn freely, albeit in an unnervingly wobbly trajectory.

Soon after, another spoke broke and I was now riding with a massively misaligned 16-spoke front, wondering how many spokes can be lost before the integrity of the wheel is so compromised, it simply collapses.

Before my ponderings could be definitively answered, I heard the now familiar but unwelcomed sound of another spoke popping. Perhaps fortunately, it was another rear spoke, leading to my rear wheel rubbing against the chainstay, ensuring my bike was now unrideable.

Knowing the on-course bike mechanics were not carrying spare wheels, and with a bike I could neither ride nor even wheel along, I was stranded 14km from T2, having seen my hopes of Kona qualifier extinguished hours earlier.

Of the few options now available to me, I'm still unsure why simply sitting by the side of the road waiting to be picked up by the sag wagon wasn't the one I chose. Instead, I took off my bike shoes, lifted my bike onto my shoulder and ran the rest of the cycle course barefoot.

It was a relief to arrive at transition, unloading my bike from my now bruised shoulder to a waiting volunteer, before feeling the relative comfort of my running shoes as I slipped them on my feet.

Ultimately, it was an unexpectedly long day. 3.8km swim, 166km cycle, 56km run. Not the usual way to finish an ironman, but I made it through.

Kona 2022

* Got on my bike to find the handlebars twisted - didnt think much of it straightened them out and started riding
* 5k later the gear spazzed and chain drop - got it back on and though that was weird

* Climbing up palani gears got a mind of their own and shifted all the way up to the hardest gear - luckily right in front of a bike work mechanic. After 20 minutes of trouble shooting we determined by etap blip box had shorted out. Turns out my bike was bumped in transition and the box crack - then my hydration mixed or salty air got in and fried it.

Ended up getting the bike into a rideable gear and unplugging the blip box... road the reaming 100ish miles of Kona on a single speed. Yes I looked like an idiot riding out of the saddle to hawi and spinning 100 rpm on the way back

Bike split 5:15 (including 25-30 minutes spend on the side of the road trouble shooting)

Ironman Wisconsin 2007.

Pulled the rear derailleur into the spokes and snapped 2 spokes, shredded the lower pulley and snapped my chain stay. Limped the bike to the rest stop in think it was in Mazo where they cut my spokes off so it would stop hitting the frame and removed the lower pulley from the derailleur. I waited for an hour for neutral support for a new wheel but they ran out I was told. So I continued on the course with the 16 out of 18 spokes holding just enough to keep going, the rear of the frame shifting on me with every pedal stroke and my rear derailleur locked into the smallest cog for the entire second lap. Finished the bike completely done with a marathon to finish but told my family no matter what happed that day I was going to finish even if I had to crawl to the finish line.

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Owner of a few Speed Concepts since 2011.

Ironman Ireland in 2019. Cold and absolutely pouring rain. Swim got canceled and we did a TT bike start where I was one of the early people to start. Things were going just fine until about mile 30 where I got a flat. Took a few minutes to fix it and was on my way again but I only made it about 12 miles before I got another flat and I had only brought one spare. Given the insane day and the race being altered and just being miserable and cold and worried it would happen again my intention at that point was to just drop out.

I had flatted by a school where a bunch of people were out cheering (those Irish come out in any weather) and they asked if I was all right and I told them what happened and that I was probably done. They would not let me stop. Someone ran to their house to see if they had a tube or even a wheel that would help me. I was offered a bike. I kept telling them it was fine and I would just stop but they insisted they would get me going again and sent word to officials to try and get bike support to me. I stood with those people for almost an hour shivering and waiting for support to arrive and watching everyone bike past me. Finally bike support showed up and put a new wheel on and sent me on my way. I just wanted to make it upright and fortunately had no more bike issues and given how hard that bike course was I actually didn't finish as far down compared to others as I thought I would. Got off the bike (cold enough in T2 that I could see my breath) and ran my way up to finish third in my age group.

I've had 2. First was a flat 1 mile into the local sprint race, I just walked my bike back to the techs in transition who fixed it and then I finished the race for fun. Second one was at 70.3 Worlds in 2022, spring in my shifter for the rear derailleur broke halfway up Snow Canyon and the back end just dropped into the smallest cog and I jumped off the bike. fumbled with it to get it back in a climbing gear and got going, had to ride the rest of the climb with my left hand on the basebar and right hand at the end of the extension holding it in gear, lost maybe 90 seconds total. Really happy with myself that I didn't panic, just figured out how to get through it and then went on to smash the run finishing out a great day.

Self-imposed mechanical at Alcatraz when I didn't install my quicklink quite right earlier in the week (despite testing it on several rides) and it popped and got lost the moment I started pedaling hard near T1.

Had to go all the way back to T1, then spent 8 minutes digging out my spare and reinstalling it.

Rest of the race went fine. Assumed the 8-9 mins lost in a 3 hr race would knock down my performance big time, but at least in terms of USAT scores, it probably only made 2 points of difference, which isn't that much, honestly.

I honestly thought of DNFing the race right then and there when the quicklink broke and I didn't know if I had a spare in my extra flat gear in my transition bag, but I'm glad I didn't. I'll definitely be mentally ready to salvage the day in the future if other mechanical mishaps occur, you can still have a great race.

IM Coeur d'Alene 2014-had new race wheels shipped to our hotel. Got them on, had the bike looked at by race mechanics, thought all was well. Got onto the bike race day, and the front brake was immediately rubbing. I stopped and got some help from the mechanics, thought the issue was fixed, went back on my way, but soon enough I felt like I was just going slower than I should be. Finally, I stopped and checked again-brake was again rubbing. At that point, I made it to the mile 28 aide station, stopped, asked for a multi-tool, and just took the offending front brake hood off. So, I rode the remaining 3/4 of the bike course with only a rear brake, which, other than a few hairy moments when coming up on someone I was lapping in a no-passing zone, ended up being fine. The whole thing likely cost me a podium spot, but to this day, I'm glad that I carried on to the best of my abilities.

IM Lake Placid 2021-it had rained overnight/in the morning, I had covered nothing on my bike, and, well, sweating a lot on the trainer over the years made some of my Di2 connections dodgy to begin with. At mile 85 of the bike, just as I was starting to feel quite peppy, my bike completely stopped shifting. I spent some time with sag, as well as another very kind competitor who attempted to walk me through some resets, but the battery connection was just fried. Thankfully, I had been climbing when my shifting went, and my bike was stuck in a gear where I could still physically complete the rest of the (mostly uphill) course. There was some spinning out and apologizing/explaining as I obnoxiously seesawed with other athletes when I was either hammering uphill or spinning out on flats, but I made it (and that time, I was more than far enough back in the field that it didn't really make any difference in overall placement, anyways).

Lessons learned, and in retrospect, I'm glad finished those races-in the moment, it was a matter of not thinking too much, and just figuring out how to keep going. I've now finally upgraded to disc brakes and obsessively cover everything electronic on my bike if there's even the hint of rain in the forecast, though!

I had a doozy on my A race back in '16. Just two miles out of T1 I flatted. Tried not to panic, got off the bike, got out my flat kit, and proceeded to change it. Ran my fingers completely around the tire and didn't feel a thing so put in the spare and inflated and mounted. 100yds down the road I felt it flat again. F##K! Tried not to panic. Got off the bike, got out my flat kit, and proceeded to change it USING MY LAST SPARE. Carefully ran my hands through the tire and could not feel anything causing the flat so put in my last spare and aired it up and mounted. 100yds down the road it was flat again and I was out of spares and out of luck!

It was very frustrating watching everyone ride by and I even grew a crowd around me wanting to see what was going on. I waited for what seemed forever for neutral support but no one came. I finally saw an ambulance and asked if they could call race support for me which they said they would. It seemed like an hour for them to come, and the mechanic listen to my explanation and immediately gave me a new tire and tube and I was off.

I'm pretty sure I was the last man out on the highway. And that is when I started thinking about mandatory cutoffs and tried to do the math. Needless to say, I over biked the course until I finally made the turnaround. After that I started running into aid stations that were out of water and it was really, really, hot and windy. I made it back to T2 in time to start an Ironman death march but did gut it out (literally) to finish with about 20 minutes to spare. I ended up in the med tent and found out I had lost 15lbs during the day. But, I officially finished my one and only Kona!!!

Two years later I was out training and had a similar flat and had to call for pickup but this time I kept the tire. When I got home I found a sidewall cut where the tube would seep out and pop. I'm pretty sure that is what happened during the race.

Race: Boulder Peak, corner of Nelson & 63rd as I took a right turn--about half way into the race. Mechanical issue: R2C rear shifter stopped working (plastic pawls inside the shifter sheered & had to have them rebuilt--this is wired 10 sp).
Solution choices: DNF or "muscle" it all the way back stuck in the 11 tooth/53 ring. No matter where I placed my chain manually (by hand) it would go all the way to the small cog--as that is where it was when it broke.

End result--a difficult ending to the bike and even slower run (cooked legs from the gearing). But finished.

Had my chain break going up Snow Canyon in the 70.3 WC in Oct of 2022. I had put on my race chain once I got to the race with new pins, but somehow they popped apart as I went to pass someone. Pretty lucky that I didn't do a face plant, as I was standing and went from pushing almost 400 watts to 0 when the chain broke. I was lucky that the pins both stayed in - I hoped off, had to get the chain out from being wedged between frame and crankset, and and reattached them. I was a bit nervous up the rest of Snow Canyon that it would happen again, but I made it to the top and then down into St. George. Probably only lost up to 2 min, but still frustrating.

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

In an Olympic distance tri, there was a long false flat section with a turnaround, you ride up on the way out, down on the way back. Road surface on the way back is bad. A little after the turnaround, I was leading, looked at the other side of the road to wave at my friend who was a few people back and blasted into a pothole. Massive double flat, only had one spare.

Someone on my team going the other direction saw me a few minutes later, asked if I needed anything. I said I needed another tube and he threw me one. Back on the road I went. I want to say total stoppage time ~5 min maybe.

My friend was leading going into the run, I was second or third off the bike. Ran him down for the win :D

So far I've only had 2 issues, both over 30 years ago...

First was back in '87, my first race with aerobars (original Scott DH). I thought I clamped the bars tight enough when I installed them. The bike course was out and back, with the turnaround about a block after a railroad crossing. I crossed the RR tracks on the way out, and my bars were now pointing down about 45 degrees, with my knuckles just above my front tire. But the stem was tight enough that I couldn't pull them back up, so I rode the second half of the bike in the now uncomfortably angled downward drops.

Second issue was about a year later. With a few miles left on the bike, the retention plate on my right pedal snapped off. It was hard to keep my foot from slipping off the pedal, and I ended up doing most of the pedaling with my left leg. Started the run with a very sore and cramping left leg...

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

I got hit by a metal disk that came off a truck on the highway at Ironman Texas. It clipped and flatted my front wheel, bounced up and hit the derailleur. I fixed the flat once my heart rate came down, it was a 6-7lb flying piece of metal and would have ended my race for sure if it had hit me. Finished the rest of the ride with no issue. After the race I was walking my bike and saw that the derailleur was chopped badly. I spun the pedals backwards and the derailleur snapped off. Super happy that I was able to get through the ride with no issues.

I was doing a cross race in Syracuse and having a very good day. I was in second and chasing the leader hard with 3 laps to go. There was a run up on a sand hill and when I remounted the top broke off of the seatpost. I tossed the saddle and seatpost top to a bystander and said "hold this for me!" I got back on the bike and rode out of the saddle for the remaining laps and I ended up finishing 4th or 5th...I have never been so tired after a race, it was all I could do to walk the bike back to the car! I collected the saddle from the bystander who asked if I was going to do the open race (last of the day). Before I could answer a "friend" said they could pull the post and saddle from their bike and loan it to me. What could I do?! I threw it in the bike and raced 15 minutes later.