Professional/Elite Swim to Bike Transition Question

There is a video on here that shows how they do it using rubber bands to hold the shoes/pedals in the upright position.

Practice, practice, practice...you'll get it.  I just use my barefoot turn shoe upright, then grab the loop in the back and slip it.  Get's quicker every time.  I still practice it 5-10 times the day before the race though to shake off any rust.

tri bike shoes usually have a loop which is very helpful for this.

i use rubber bands, hooked through loop at the top of the heel (on back of shoe). The crank side shoe I hook at a very small cable tie that is clamped around the seat stay, and the other side I hook on one of the bottle cage screws in the seat tube. keeps the shoes upright, so when you hop on you just pedal on top of the shoes until up to speed (the rubber bands will snap) and then slide your feet in once you are stable.

like bmcgee said, you just take your barefoot and push on the toe of the shoe. It flips right up underneath your foot. Get rolling and slide it in the shoe. Pedal a few times and put the other shoe on. putting shoes on at 10-15 mph will take you down the road a lot faster than if you put them on at 0 mph.

Some people use rubber bands with great success, but I like to keep my transitions and the set up simple, so I just practice. Great way to learn is to never unclip your shoes after your training ride. You get to practice before every ride. Saves the soles from wear as well.

I've always wondered, what do you do about sand or dirt on your feet? Can you really deal with pedaling all that time with somethign in your shoe?

(yes, i'm obsessive/compulsive)

I practiced a bunch of times doing it with rubber bands and a couple times the shoe jammed on the road and made my bike buck and I figured not worth doing if I have potential to fall/crash. I opted to do cyclocross mounts which I'm pretty good at. The dismounts work just fine and it is very similar to cross mount.

Someone asked about dirt/sand. We all worry about stuff like that but come race day all those things disappear and become non issues I find.

yep, I've never noticed it on race day...and I've had to run through plenty of junk to get out of T1...