LESSON LEARNED

Never ever change any of your proven or unbroken racing equipment just before a race, never ever! Sounds like a pretty sensible rule to follow but if taken lightly you may fall victim to the go fast temptation gods with a price to pay. Even the very top professional triathlete’s give in to these temptations from time to time. I will use Peter Reid, Ironman World Champion as an example since he wrote about this himself.

It seems Peter had a friend who was using a new aero bar that took his interest and in a moment of questionable thinking he decided to use them as well. Now, the bars themselves were probably fine but without having the time for a good break in period temptation had won. Peter used these bars which were just half an inch shorter in length then his regular bars and it almost cost him a finish in Hawaii. This small change of just half an inch was enough to put his machine like, fully trained body into an unfamiliar position which caused him tremendous back pain by the end of the ride.

Do yourself a favor and make all for your planned changes when the training and adjustment time is at hand