There are a lot of things I don’t like to do but understand why they need to be done, but what I don’t get is what benefit checking your bike into transition is the night before the race? Are there really officials there all night double checking that the bikes are legal? If there is a certain benefit I am missing that is key to the execution of the race then I will happily check my bike in the night before, but I kinda like having my bike in the room with me the night before the race…sometimes I even cuddle with it…
I always thought it was to reduce the utter chaos that occurs during the morning of the triathlon. Especially at things like USAT nats, when you have literally thousands of individuals showing up to the race, and the race starts at say… 8 A.M it’s a lot easier to make the day prior just a “bike check in” race, where you can mark bikes and make sure everything is “hunky dory” so that in the A.M the only thing people need to drop off are their shoes and accessories to complete said bike and run. It never fails me that people are in transition literally up to the last second before transition closes, and race officials are chasing people out. I would think that having a large body of individuals descend with bikes over the course of 2 hours to load their bikes up would lead to some pretty big complications.
Maybe there’s some equipment legality issues they want to check, but I think it’s really just for convenience.
Shorter lines/ less logistical difficulty the morning of the race. Depending on how rigorous the officials/volunteers are about matching athletes to bikes to transition rack locations there can be fairly long lines to check bikes in to transition. Doing this in the morning when thousands of athletes are half-awake and all trying to show up late simultaneously is a recipe for delays and problems. Spreading the same number of people out over a larger period of time (i.e the day before) results in shorter lines (for the most part). For point-to-point races, or races where T1 is not the same as T2, or the race start is far from T1 it is helpful to check in your bike the night before to avoid having to stop by T1 in the morning to drop off your bike.
At local races where there are only a couple hundred participants this really is a non-issue and kind of just a time-waster, but I can definitely understand why it is done for larger races…
Mostly logistics. They got 6 hours to check in the bikes, instead of 1 hour for check-in plus everything else that must happen the morning of the race. Most of us come in the morning as late as possible.
There is an element of safety too. Check bar end plugs are present on road bikes. I don’t think they check brakes, and certainly not the structural integrity of frame or wheels.
Anyway some thieves will eventually learn about several million dollars worth of bikes near some lake way out of town, on any given weekend, guarded by a couple of volunteers. I just hope it won’t be at my race.
Anyway some thieves will eventually learn about several million dollars worth of bikes near some lake way out of town, on any given weekend, guarded by a couple of volunteers. I just hope it won’t be at my race.
My wife & mother-in-law asked me yesterday about this exact thing. “If you drop off your super expensive bike the night before, what’s to prevent someone from stealing it?” All I could say is that they have people watching the bikes & I’ve never heard of a rash of thefts in transition the night before.
The voice inside my head was screaming “There is really nothing to prevent anyone from busting in & stealing as many bikes as they can when only volunteers are standing in their way.”
At your next race, pay attention to the number of D-Bags who show up 5 minutes before transition closes and expect to check-in, get marked, inflate tires, put on their wetsuit, etc. If it’s a big race, you just can’t have this and I haven’t seen a RD yet with the stones to actually not let them race and not delay the race start and/or transition closing because of it. Requiring bikes there the night before removes a lot of this.
And, yes, if you are staying 30 minutes from the course and transition closes at 7AM and you leave your house at 6:15 leaving yourself just a 15-minute cushion, you are a D-Bag.
One race I have done numerous years in Atlantic City always has a traffic jam at the transition entrance. This traffic jam somehow seems to take everyone by surprise every year. I don’t even pay attention to the transition closing or race starting time anymore because I know it’ll be delayed at least 15-20 minutes.
Anyway some thieves will eventually learn about several million dollars worth of bikes near some lake way out of town, on any given weekend, guarded by a couple of volunteers. I just hope it won’t be at my race.
My wife & mother-in-law asked me yesterday about this exact thing. “If you drop off your super expensive bike the night before, what’s to prevent someone from stealing it?” All I could say is that they have people watching the bikes & I’ve never heard of a rash of thefts in transition the night before.
The voice inside my head was screaming “There is really nothing to prevent anyone from busting in & stealing as many bikes as they can when only volunteers are standing in their way.”
It might be dependent on the bike race. I think some of the big races again, using USAT nat’s because it’s the only race I’ve done where I had to drop the bike off will have security guards there, like an actual security division. I’m assuming not armed, but probably enough that if someone at 2 A.M thinks “hey don’t mind me just walking into the transition and looking at bikes” he would be thwarted by whomever.
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
It might be dependent on the bike race. I think some of the big races again, using USAT nat’s because it’s the only race I’ve done where I had to drop the bike off will have security guards there, like an actual security division. I’m assuming not armed, but probably enough that if someone at 2 A.M thinks “hey don’t mind me just walking into the transition and looking at bikes” he would be thwarted by whomever.
I’m doing the Chattanooga HIM this weekend & it will be my first IM branded race. From what I have heard, something tells me that they won’t have security, armed or otherwise, beyond volunteers watching the bikes that have to be checked in on Saturday. I hope I’m wrong.
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
This is a much more plausible reason. While I get the logistics part & that it eases congestion & confusion the morning of the race, if you force people who live within even a couple hours drive to check in & drop their bike off the day before, there is a much higher probability that they will get a hotel room.
It’s the same theory behind having marathon expos the day before the race & not having race day number pickup.
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
This is a much more plausible reason. While I get the logistics part & that it eases congestion & confusion the morning of the race, if you force people who live within even a couple hours drive to check in & drop their bike off the day before, there is a much higher probability that they will get a hotel room.
It’s the same theory behind having marathon expos the day before the race & not having race day number pickup.
and, if one day early is good, two is even better. I’m considering doing IM CDA, rules say pick up your stuff no later than Friday, then check in Bike Saturday (the day before race day). Come on, Why not packet pick up on Saturday too??? They actually give some lame brain excuse in the “guide.” Makes me wanna puke.
One race I have done numerous years in Atlantic City always has a traffic jam at the transition entrance. This traffic jam somehow seems to take everyone by surprise every year. I don’t even pay attention to the transition closing or race starting time anymore because I know it’ll be delayed at least 15-20 minutes.
Reminds me of when it snows for the first time here in Michigan. Facebook blows up with people announcing that they see snow. You would think they were seeing the second coming of Jesus.
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
That doesn’t really have anything to do with checking your bike in transition.
Anyway some thieves will eventually learn about several million dollars worth of bikes near some lake way out of town, on any given weekend, guarded by a couple of volunteers. I just hope it won’t be at my race.
So the master criminals have loaded a semi-truck with several millions dollars in bikes and somehow gotten away unnoticed. What do they do next, craigslist? Ebay? Of the things to worry about, it should probably be way down the list. Fact is, it just doesn’t happen. Carry homeowners or renter insurance and sleep well at night.
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
This: end thread
Wouldn’t doubt it. And while it makes race morning somewhat easier, Oceanside for years had race morning bike check in (still does, I think now it’s voluntary day before checkin) with no issues at a very popular and crowded race
if i remember correctly, the first time i encountered the bike-stays-overnight situation was nationals in columbia, maryland in 1994.
to say that i was concerned about theft would certainly name my fear. i apparently asked about it at the time and was told that the RD had hired a company with guard dogs. the whole T area was fenced, so when all bikes were in, the dogs were let loose in their night’s campground, the gate was locked, and wasn’t opened until early race morning.
peggy
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
This: end thread
Wouldn’t doubt it. And while it makes race morning somewhat easier, Oceanside for years had race morning bike check in (still does, I think now it’s voluntary day before checkin) with no issues at a very popular and crowded race
Vineman 70.3 is still one where you can rack your bike race morning. But it’s not owned by WTC, so perhaps they get to do some things their own way. The Honu 70.3 also let you rack race morning the first year I did it (2006), but when I came back starting in 2008 it had shifted to making athletes leave it in T1 the day before.
I was told by the RD of a large race that it was required because it gave the area hotels a somewhat more guaranteed customer base staying in their rooms. His thoughts were that without requiring it, it would be difficult to get his race plan approved by the city. Maybe not always the case, but it does sound plausible.
This is a much more plausible reason. While I get the logistics part & that it eases congestion & confusion the morning of the race, if you force people who live within even a couple hours drive to check in & drop their bike off the day before, there is a much higher probability that they will get a hotel room.
It’s the same theory behind having marathon expos the day before the race & not having race day number pickup.
and, if one day early is good, two is even better. I’m considering doing IM CDA, rules say pick up your stuff no later than Friday, then check in Bike Saturday (the day before race day). Come on, Why not packet pick up on Saturday too??? They actually give some lame brain excuse in the “guide.” Makes me wanna puke.
Why not just have race day check in?
I may be the only one that likes checking in on Friday, bike check in on Saturday before an Ironman.
I don’t want to have too much shit to worry about. If I am spending a year preparing for an Ironman, I am getting into town no later than Wednesday as it is…