Hydration system recommendations

Congratulations on the graduation to longer distances!

I just recently (One week ago) competed in my first 70.3 (Muskoka 70.3) The race was awesome. Lots of fun.

I used a Torhans aero30 for front hydration and a Xlab Supering with x2 MacGyver'd Chinese carbon cages (Zip tied around the circumference to reduce to the chance of a bottle launch) on the rear.

Now, this set up is awesome for longer training rides. Plenty of areas for fluid.

Although, I did not like it very much during the 70.3. Gatorade in their generic bottles was given out during the race. This meant every time I wanted to fill my torhans aero 30, I had to flip of the Gatorade bottle and try to squeeze it to feel the aero30. This was very difficult as because the twist cap of the Gatorade kept closing shut as a pushed it onto the top of my filling cap of my aero30. For anything less than a half distance ironman, I would recommend not using a front hydration system. Next race I will be purchasing an cage for my aerobars for easy access to a water bottle. Then, when I run out of fluids in the front, I can just switch it with a bottle from the back. Nice and simple. I felt like I wasted too much time trying to fill the front hydration system.

That is just my experience. Overall it the ride was great. Oh! and another tip is bring a max of 1 of your own water bottles. I brought a water bottle of my own ($20 camelback) and accidentally dropped it during the race. You will primarily be taking the fluids from the aid stations unless you're picky and have your own solutions so don't bother bring your own. Just figure out what type of fluid the race will be using and bring that. If it's Gatorade, buy a bottle from convenient store and use that till the first aid station then toss it and grab some more. If it's any other fluids, use your cheapest water bottles so you don't mind if you lose them.

So my ideal set up from now on for 70.3+

Front hydration: Aerobar cage (Easy access, no fiddling around)
Downtube: Clean (More aero)
Rear hydration: Xlab Superwing w/ x2 Cages (Empty until first aid station)

That is my set up and my experience. I only have experience with one front hydration set-up so some other may be better. Trial and error I guess.

Hope this helps your decision! Good luck.

Lol, lots of spelling errors sorry haha. For some reason I can't edit it.