This was my first race season, and after finishing my second (and final) scheduled race in mid-July, I found I was loathe to let it go so soon. My fear I would not enjoy racing was completely unfounded – on the contrary, I fell in love with it. So, I was excited to learn about a 40K cycling time trial in mid-September. The perfect distance at the perfect time; it went into my calendar.
The farthest I’d ever ridden at that point was 20 miles, and I generally kept my training rides at 10-15 miles since I only raced sprints this year. It's really hot around here in the summer, and on a routine training ride I would always finish my bike bottle and guzzle my back-up bottle when I got back to the van. So before I tacked on another 10-15 miles, I knew I had to address the hydration situation.
I spent the early part of the year searching high and low for a bike shop that not only offered the Trek WSD models, but one that actually had the smallest frames in stock so I could even sit on the damn thing. More than once I found myself staring in disbelief at some clueless teenager in a bike shop as they tried to get me to test bikes so tall I could sit my breasts on the saddle... without bending over. I finally had to cave and drive the 60 miles downtown to score my ride.
All that's a long way of saying I was aware I'm on the short side as cyclists go, seeing as how I'm on the short side as people go. But I thought once I acquired a bike that I had cleared that particular hurdle. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
It was summer and it was hot and like I said, I knew I needed to figure out how to carry more fluids. I’m not thrilled with the idea of a Camelback, at least not for triathlon, so I knew I was looking at ways to carry more bottles. I’ve had my fair share of flats already, so I wasn’t in any hurry to abandon my seat bag for a behind-the-seat bottle rack. In case you're wondering why I don't have an aero drink bottle - I do. But it couldn't be installed because the idiot bike shop put my computer where the bottle should go (this will be fixed soon). I noticed there was another set of contact points on the seat tube, so I popped by my LBS one sunny afternoon for a quickie derailleur tweak and second bottle cage.
Next day I was feeling pretty cool as I prepped my bike for a planned 20+ mile ride. Until I tried to put a bottle in my new cage. It didn’t fit. Specifically, it didn’t fit because it’s too tall.
That’s right, I’m so f%&$* short that my bike frame is so %&*# small that a normal-sized bike bottle will not fit in my vertical bottle cage. Luckily I did have a stubby little bottle that just barely squeezed in. BUT, I quickly learned (while challenging the limits of my ability to balance) that I can’t access it while riding because it's such a tight fit it’s a struggle to get out. And I can’t swap it to the “regular” cage spot when my first bottle’s empty because…. you guessed it… the first bottle won’t fit in the damn vertical cage. So after about mile 12, I have to stop and unclip and dismount to get a drink!!! AUUGGHH.
So, back to the drawing board I guess. This is fine temporarily and for training/pleasure rides only… but obviously I need to work something out before I enter any races with a bike leg over 15 miles. I didn't end up needing to solve the problem by September because I almost broke my wrist playing softball (read: desperately need to work on my fielding skills) and couldn't ride for about a month.
I did see a cool accessory called a Cage Rocket that might solve my problem. It's shaped like a bike bottle but acts like a seat bag. If anyone has tried this I'd love to hear your thoughts.
If I'm able to fit the cage rocket in a bottle cage then I can go ahead and get the seat mounted dual cage I've seen on TV in the longer races. Who knows, maybe having a ridiculous bottle capacity will shame me into longer bike rides and get me to my goals of century rides and IMWI that much faster.
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