Belle River Bike Set-up

With the bike being 40k of a 55km race; it's a pretty important factor.  When racing "age group" - you don't get the ability to draft so aerodynamics are increasingly inportant.

Most people that are 'fast' race on a time trial bike, however not having endless amounts of racing capita, I choose a road bike with aero properties.  Last year I traded in my much loved Fuji Team Issue II (as in the second one I had) for a Scott Foil - in my opinion one of the TOP aero bikes (and Matt Goss makes his look SO fast)

When it comes to TT parts; I don't have a ton to play around with so my bike is pretty much the same as it was for the Toronto Triathlon Festival (bike set-up here - *Photo*)

For the Belle River Triathlon (the 2013 Ontario Duathlon Championships), I tried a few things different from the above photo, but mostly stuck with what works:

1) Profile Design Tri Stryke Ti 
With most of my winter training being on my trainer, I found both of my Fizik saddles where making my 'down there' region fall asleep.  Part of this was due to my more aggressive TT position and part of it I just couldn't figure out.  The Tri Stryke is my fist dip into the 'cut-out' market.  It definitely helped on the trainer, but I could use it to work a bit better to be my go-to race saddle; this partially could be fit,  and the fact that I'm in a TT position on a road bike... Very open to feedback and suggestions

2) NO BOTTLES on frame
The Belle River Race was some of the windiest conditions I've ever raced in and as a result the day was a little cooler so I risked riding with just my Torhans30 (which usually isn't quite enouth.  My bike + me = +/- 200 lbs so I'm not a lightweight by triathlon standards, but I was feeling blown all over the road and I only had 56mm wheels.  The Scott Foil is made to slice through the wind with and without bottles, and due to today's crosswinds I was definitely glad I went without.  There was even a bit of Gatorade mix left in my Torhans bottle after finishing the 38k race.

3) Used Torhans30 again... Twice - shame on me.
Last race I mounted my Torhans bottle below my aero bars and didn't have the greatest success.
This time I posted my Torhans to spec, on top (better between the arms positioning, more aero), used rubber non-slip buffers, added my 'rubber-band stabilizer', cut the straw, ...  and AGAIN my bike and I took a Gatorade bath, ever.single.bump!  The 20 seconds it apparently saves me on the course is not worth the 40 mins it took to clean the frame, and I haven't even started on the brakes or drive train yet.  Both caps were on and I even shook it up and down and it held the liquid in great, but on the course, it sucked!  To be fair I should have just put duct tape over the fill hole (which I'll do next time) as I didn't have any extra bottles with me to refill it, but SERIOUSLY, this was a major p-off.

Considering building a TriRig BTA system for my next race.  I'm usually not wanting to put 'that' much work in, but after how long it took to clean blue Gatorade gunk off my bike... I'm willing to invest!

For my next race I have a special upgrade coming from TriRig.com that I'm excited to debut!