So I am a complete noob coming into the world of triathlon, but no where near a noob in cycling. Ive been on pro development teams around southern cali and been coached by pro coaches in cycling. Jumping into multisport is like a whole new world. I did my first tri a few weeks back, the herbalife sprint tri. Ok, so now to my question. I have a few bikes in my arsenal. My road bike is a Cannondale Super Six Evo and my TT bike is a Argon E-80. When I am out training I will see tri guys on their tri bikes or on road bikes. I know that road bikes are more comfortable on long rides or climbs and TT bikes have the aero benefit, but triathletes race on tri bikes so in order to get accustomed to a tri bike wouldn’t it be better to train on it. Should I train on my road bike, add in some days on my TT bike, and race on my TT bike or do all my training on my TT bike?
There are many opinions on this. Coming from a cycling backround, I won’t give the obligatory “as long as your riding it doesn’t matter”. Instead I will say this, if you are just putting in junk miles and time in the saddle, the road bike will be fine. If you are doing anything worthy of a tri-specific workout (intervals, repeats, sustained efforts, etc) I would be on the TT bike to get dialed in with the position and efforts. The less stress you can bring from the bike into the run, the better form your run will be and the faster race you will have (all things considered).
For me, during the “tri” season, I am solely on my TT bike. Once my last race is done for the season, it’s road and cross bike only.
I’m extremely comfortable on my TT bike so I don’t ride it nearly as much as I used to. I get on it for a couple long rides before HIM races and do some intervals on it every once in a while but I don’t focus on getting TT bike time. I just ride whatever I feel like riding. Around my house the Road Bike is a little more practical so it gets more use. I don’t race road bikes also
1 - Tri Bike
1- Beach Cruiser
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I’m not at your level, but for me if I ride with other people who will be on road bikes, I ride a road bike. If I’m on my own, then it is my tri-bike.
If I ride in the dark, it is always road bike, as I want my hands covering the brakes since things happen quickly with a headlight.
I also just picked up a cross bike since I don’t have a lot of roads with shoulders around me, but do have mile after mile of forest service roads. I did my first cross race last weekend. I got my butt kicked, but that is good motivation. I also think CX or MTB are great for all the people working on bike handling. You learn quickly in those settings.
In regards to training, you should put a majority of your time on the bike that you’re going to be racing with. In season riding, pre season builds should be done with your TT bike to 1: keep a good feel for it and 2: get strong riding in a time trial position.
During the off-season you can slack off a bit more with the time trial bike and ride a road bike around since you’re primary focus is to keep fitness levels up, albeit if you’re in the off season you’re not gonna be putting down 15-20 hour weeks of training… So doing 80-90% of your riding on a road bike isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and maybe just take the TT bike out for a tempo’d 10 mile workout or whatever.
My Arsenal consists of two Cyclocross bikes, a full suspension mountain bike and a hard tail mountain bike. The cross bikes serve as my road/gravel rider while the mountain bikes are my racing bikes.
If you were looking at doing a few different things in regards to riding, check out a cross bike.
I’m no coach, and in fact most of my training goes against some coaching, but for me I spent most of my time training for IM on my roadie. Several reasons for this
- I live in a suburb and I like having my hands on the brakes for the frequent stop signs, teens txting, and blue hairs running stop signs.
- There is no better way of getting stronger on the bike than the local roadie ride chewing you up and spitting you out the back. IMHO
- I like group rides and socializing. Hard to do on the Tri bike.
Now, after the majority of my base training and starting the build for IM (about 6wks from the race) I started doing the majority of my riding on the Tri bike and reserved the Roadie for recovery rides. It worked pretty good for me.
Dude, easiest thing to do is just ride the tri bike. I own two bikes. A race bike and a bike that sits on my computrainer. Both are tri bikes, and both are set up pretty similarly.
The last 4 guys to win in Kona almost never ride road bikes. Why bother riding something you wont race?
Train on whichever bike is more comfortable. If it is not the tri-bike hop on the tribike a few weeks before and get used to being in the aeros. Personally I am more comfy on a Tribike then a road bike.
So I am a complete noob coming into the world of triathlon, but no where near a noob in cycling. Ive been on pro development teams around southern cali and been coached by pro coaches in cycling. Jumping into multisport is like a whole new world. I did my first tri a few weeks back, the herbalife sprint tri. Ok, so now to my question. I have a few bikes in my arsenal. My road bike is a Cannondale Super Six Evo and my TT bike is a Argon E-80. When I am out training I will see tri guys on their tri bikes or on road bikes. I know that road bikes are more comfortable on long rides or climbs and TT bikes have the aero benefit, but triathletes race on tri bikes so in order to get accustomed to a tri bike wouldn’t it be better to train on it. Should I train on my road bike, add in some days on my TT bike, and race on my TT bike or do all my training on my TT bike?
My $0.02: do you mileage training on the road bike, it’s safer. You have a slightly more upright ride position and your hands are on the brifters.
Do you taper on the tribike, when the triathlon comes up you’ll be trained & fit, and fast.