Transitions play brief but weighty roles in sport of triathlon

In triathlon, the shortest segments of a race — by far — are the transitions, in which competitors switch from swim to bike and bike to run.

But don’t be fooled by their brevity; while transitions compose only a modest percentage of a triathlete’s time, they can have a considerable impact on the flow of a race.

“You need to be able to focus physically and mentally on what your next sport is, and what you need to do to get ready to go to the next sport,” said Littleton resident Susan Williams, the bronze medalist in triathlon at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

For the typical triathlete, transitions take up to a few minutes. For the pros, transitions last only seconds.

The main advantage of a quick transition for a pro is keeping up with the competition. International Triathlon Union and Olympic races permit drafting on the bike leg, so if an athlete has a slow transition and misses the pack, they have to work much harder in an effort to catch up and still might never bridge the gap.

Even in events where drafting is not permitted, triathletes can benefit greatly from speedy transitions.

“A transition is a part of the race,” said Joe Umphenour, who has trained at the Olympic Training Center since 2001 and was the runner-up in last September’s USA Triathlon Elite Nationals. “It’s not like they stop the clock in between the time you get out of the water and the time you jump on your bike. All of that adds up.”

Savvy competitors can use transitions to their advantage. Quicker times between disciplines help triathletes keep up with competitors who are otherwise faster or gain time on a rival, which is much harder to make up on the course.

“The transition is the one area where you can make up so much time without having to do the grueling training,” said Sheila Taormina, a two-time Olympian and the 2004 world champion. “It’s like a free bonus to going faster without physically exhausting yourself in the race.”

TRANSITION LIKE A PRO

Slice some time off your next race with these tips:

1. Practice, practice, practice

Susan Williams conducts group transition practices with the athletes she coaches. After the necessary equipment is set up, athletes train in a race-like setting, doing short laps around the parking lot between transitions.

“I think the main thing is to just practice what you would do as you would do it in a race,” she said.

2. Know where your stuff is

Walk the transition areas before the race, Sheila Taormina said. Identify which rack your bike is on and how to enter and exit each transition. Williams always used a purple towel as a marker to help her find her gear.

3. Check your gear

Taormina recommends putting your bike in the desired gear before you rack it. Take into account whether the course starts uphill, downhill or remains flat out of transition.

4. Baby powder instead of socks

“A sock is there to be a buffer between your skin and the shoe, and it’s also supposed to wick moisture away from your skin,” Joe Umphenour said. “Baby powder does the exact same thing.”

Be generous: The baby powder should poof out of the holes of your shoes when you put your feet in them. And beware: In longer races, if you opt to cool off by pouring water onto yourself, blisters can result when the water reaches your powdered shoes.

PROS ARE HUMAN, TOO

Professional triathletes seem so infallible as they run out of transition, jump on their bikes, put their feet into their shoes — already clipped into the pedals — and glide away. But sometimes they make mistakes.

In Sheila Taormina’s first World Cup race in 1999, she took the wrong bike out of the transition area and then had to return it. Luckily, the competitor to whom the bike belonged hadn’t yet made it to the transition. Taormina’s luck didn’t improve once she mounted her own bike as she crashed on the course.

Taormina’s first race as a pro — St. Anthony’s in Florida — also was disastrous. When she approached the dismount line on the bike, the four women riding in her group took their feet out of their shoes and smoothly dismounted. Taormina hadn’t learned the skill well, so she had to brake and clip out of her pedals, almost causing the whole group to crash. The pack gained about 20 seconds on Taormina, and she sprinted the first half-mile of the run to catch up. She didn’t finish the race because she passed out later on the run.

“A real rookie move,” she called it.

One of Joe Umphenour’s favorite transition tales involves his friend, Olympic Training Center resident Mark Fretta, who was ranked No. 1 in the world in 2006.

In 2001, Umphenour was helping Fretta set up his transition area for one of his first pro races. Umphenour showed Fretta how to attach rubber bands to his bike shoes and pedals so the shoes wouldn’t drag on the ground when he ran to the bike mount line. Umphenour didn’t think to check the shoes: Fretta had put them on the wrong pedals. During the race, Fretta realized his mistake and had to stop to put them on correctly. He missed the bike pack.