Olympic London Tri-Using Road or Tri bikes?

ITU races are draft legal and all the athletes use road bikes with clip on shorty aero bars. Oly distance races in the US are mostly not draft legal and you can use whatever bike you want.

Just a note that ITU elite races at the sprint and oly distances are draft legal. ITU age group races are not draft legal.

Shane

I know this seems to be a taboo subject, but i think it would be really cool if there was an option for Age group draft legal triathlons.

The issue with this is that there would then need to either be categories (like cycling) or some type of standard to ensure the athletes who register aren't a hazard to themselves and others. An athlete believing they are skilled enough to race draft legal is insufficient to ensure the safety of participants.

Shane

The only reason they are on road bikes is because of the style of racing; a road bike is designed to be quick and agile which is what you need in a group. A tribike OTOH, is designed to go as fast as possible in a straight line and as a result, handles much more slowly and is poorer choice in a group. In order to address this, the ITU basically adopted the UCI's rules for mass start bicycle racing. One of the things included within these rules is that aero helmets may not be used so you see only standard helmets. They did make an allowance for the use of shorty bridged aerobars but otherwise, what you see in an ITU race is the same as you would see in any mass start bike race.

IMO, most triathletes, regardless of whether they plan to do any riding outside of training and racing tris, should start on a well fit road bike. Since many triathletes are "new" to the bike, I believe that it is best to relearn how to ride on a road bike as opposed to a tribike. After a season or two, then I would suggest deciding whether or not to add a road bike to the stable or just stick with the road bike.

I love my tribike, it is great for tris and TTs and unless the event is draft legal it is what I race on. However, if I could only have one bike, I would get rid of it and keep my road bike as it sees the vast majority of miles.

Shane