By: Bruce Lin
You’ve followed your training plan, put in the hours, suffered through the workouts, and dialed in your nutrition and recovery. You’re ready to perform, but as race day draws closer, your triathlon bike deserves just as much attention as your fitness.
We put together a quick 10-point checklist to help ensure you’re not compromising reliability or leaving any performance on the table. Many of these checks take minutes, and the combined effect of getting them all dialed will provide peace of mind and a bit of free speed! Work through this checklist in the days before your race, and you can line up feeling confident that your bike is ready to go.
1. Are You Comfortable?
This is the most important aspect of your bike setup, and ideally, you should have it all figured out well before race week. A comfortable riding position ensures you can stay in the aerobars and produce consistent power for the duration of the bike leg. It also prevents little niggles and pains from forming that can negatively affect the run. Increased comfort can even make you more aerodynamic and efficient, too, because you’ll be able to ride in your aero position for more time.
In the weeks (or ideally months!) before your race, spend ample time in your aero position and focus on the sensations to make sure nothing is off. Can you comfortably stay in the aerobars for long periods? Are your back and butt pain-free? If you have to adjust anything like saddle height, aerobar reach, or pad width, try to do it early so you have time to test it. Try to make only small and incremental changes! Get it all locked in before race week.
2. Is Your Bike Washed?
It sounds trivial, but a clean bike is genuinely faster than a dirty one. Our engineers spent thousands of hours refining our aero frame shapes to make them as fast as possible. Accumulated dust, dirt, and grime on the frame spoils all of that! Wash your bike, or at the very least, give it a good wipe before race day.
This has the added benefit of giving you the opportunity to inspect your bike and make sure everything is in good working order. I like to give the bike a thorough wash a day or two before race day, not the morning of, so I have time to dry everything, look it over, and re-lube the drivetrain properly (see below).
3. Is Your Chain Clean and Lubricated?
A dirty chain is the thief of speed. It creates friction, which reduces efficiency and saps watts, while also causing poor shifting and accelerated wear. You should be keeping your chain clean and lubricated at all times, but even if you’re a slacker, you definitely should clean and lube your chain before race day. Give your chain, chainrings, cassette cogs, and pulley wheels a good scrub with a brush, water, and degreaser. Rinse and dry it all completely (this is important!) before applying lube. When you re-lube your chain, use a high-quality lube, and apply one drop of lube to each chain roller. You don’t need more than that! Anything more just attracts dirt and grime. Wipe the chain down with a rag to remove any excess lube on the surface. Now your chain and drivetrain will be clean, efficient, and fast.
For the cleanest, most efficient, and fastest drivetrain possible, consider waxing your chain. If you go down this route, you should get your method dialed in weeks before your race. Immersion hot wax treatments or drip-on wax lubes reduce friction more than any traditional lube, stay cleaner longer, and are the choice of many pro triathletes. It takes a bit more effort upfront (you need to strip all factory grease off your chain), but it pays dividends on race day by saving an additional 2-8 watts compared to a standard oiled chain.
4. Is Your Drivetrain Tuned?
Even a perfectly clean and lubed chain won’t help if your shifting is off, and bungled shifts are nothing but stress when you’re trying to set a PR on race day. Run through all your gears, do it on both chainrings (if running 2x), and make sure every shift is crisp and consistent. If anything feels hesitant or noisy, a quick barrel adjuster tweak to change cable tension or a few micro adjustments using your app (for Di2 or AXS) can fix it. If you’re not comfortable tuning your drivetrain yourself, your local bike shop can sort it in minutes (but do it early!). If you’re riding a Quintana Roo, we send pro mechanics to major events across North America and Europe, and they provide free services for every QR rider! Check our event calendar. Our team will be at The Championship, Challenge Roth, Challenge Almere-Amsterdam, and more!
5. Is Your Tire Pressure Dialed?
Do you know what tire pressure you use? Tire pressure has a significant impact on both rolling resistance and comfort. Too low and you’ll risk pinch flats. Too high and the ride becomes harsh and traction suffers. The most efficient tire pressure is somewhere in between, and by race day, you should have figured out exactly what tire pressure you’re going to run. Right before you drop your bike off at transition, make sure your tires are pumped up to the correct pressure.
The ideal tire pressure will vary based on your weight, tire width, and the road surface. If you don’t know your ideal tire pressure for your event, we recommend using a trusted tire pressure calculator (like Silca) or the handy tire pressure guide on the Quintana Roo website. As a general rule, lighter riders, wider tires, and rougher roads require lower pressures; heavier riders, narrower tires, and smoother roads require higher. Conditions matter too. Slightly lower pressures can help a lot in wet or rough conditions to improve your grip and confidence.
6. Are Your Tires (& Sealant) Fresh?
As a mechanic, I see way too many punctures and flats from old and worn tires. Racing on your everyday training tires is fine, but be sure to inspect them before any big race. If the tire has any cuts, flat spots, or threads showing, you’d better swap in some fresh rubber. If I’ve put a few thousand miles/kilometers on a set of tires, I’ll swap them out before a race just to be safe.
Personally, I think a big race is the perfect time to swap in a faster set of rubber. Tires are one of the best bang-for-buck performance upgrades, and using a high-performance clincher or tubeless tires with low rolling resistance (Continental GP5000 TT TR, Vittoria Corsa PRO Speed, or similar) can save several watts compared to cheaper training tires. Speaking of tubeless, if you’re running a tubeless set-up, when’s the last time you checked your sealant? Make sure it’s topped up for maximum puncture protection!
7. Are All of Your Bolts Torqued?
After flats, problems caused by loose bolts are the most common mechanical issue I see at races. Not only can loose bolts cause annoying creaks and rattles mid-race, but they can be a safety hazard too. Have you ever seen aerobars fall off at speed? I have, and it’s not pretty!
You should do a full bolt check once a month, and definitely do one prerace. Work through your bike systematically. Check all of your cockpit bolts: stem, handlebars, aerobars. Check your seatpost and saddle clamp. Check your axles, any bottle cage bolts, derailleur bolts, and brake caliper bolts. Torque everything to spec using a torque wrench. If you’re using a BTA or behind-the-saddle cage, check those are tight and secure. Most bolts on modern bikes have a torque value printed directly on the component, or it can be found in your bike manual.
8. Are Your Derailleurs & Devices Charged?
There’s nothing more demoralizing and avoidable than having your race derailed by a dead battery. If your bike has electronic shifting (Shimano Di2 or SRAM AXS), check that the batteries are fully charged. If you’re traveling, bring your chargers! Charge your bike computer or your watch the day before, or before you travel. If you use a power meter or heart rate monitor, I like to swap in fresh batteries before any big A-race of the year.
9. Is Your Repair/Flat Kit Ready?
Know what you’re carrying and know how to use it. Some racers don’t race with a flat kit, but I think it’s a good idea for any middle-to-long distance event. A useful flat kit includes at least one spare tube or a tubeless tire plug kit, a CO2 inflator or mini pump, and maybe a tire lever. If you haven’t practiced changing a flat recently, do a quick run-through before you leave for your race. A flat doesn’t have to end your race, but fumbling around with unfamiliar equipment on the side of the road can cost you far more time than the flat itself.
Side note, this is why I love tubeless tires. I just carry a tire plug and CO2 inflator. I can fix the majority of flats in less than a minute, and the whole kit is the same size and weight as a single inner tube.
10. Are Your Bottles, Helmet, & Shoes Ready?
Preparing your bike extends to everything else you need to ride it. I wash and prep the bottles I plan on using, and get the nutrition I plan on using onboard way ahead of time. I clean my helmet, sunglasses, and shoes so everything feels fresh and fast. I also double-check the cleat bolts on my shoes!
Nothing on this checklist is complicated, but doing everything consistently is what separates athletes who leave T1 confident and focused from those who end up troubleshooting during their race. Dedicate some thought and put in some time with your bike in the weeks and days leading up to race day, and it will do its job better, so you can maximize your potential.