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Race season is underway, and for many of us, that means traveling to events. Sometimes, that means a quick drive to a neighboring city. Other times, it’s a multi-hour road trip. Big destination events could mean a flight across the country… or around the world.
Handling the stress of traveling with all of your triathlon gear without compromising performance on race day is its own special skillset. To get a few tips, we chatted with top QR pro (and veteran world traveler) Matt Hanson. He was fresh off a race trip to Europe to scout the World Championships course in Nice, France, and he gave us six pro travel tips that will help you succeed in your next destination race.
Hanson always travels with his Hypervolt massage gun.
Whether it’s a long drive in the car or a long flight, sitting idle in a car or airplane seat isn’t just tedious, it’s bad for your body. Joints and tendons that are used to motion get tight when sitting idle. Blood tends to pool at low points, creating those awful travel “cankles” we hate.
Hanson says to do the obvious: move! Regularly get out of the car and stretch, or get up and walk around the aisles of the plane frequently—about once per hour. He also suggests a couple of tools that help keep his body from stiffening up during his travels.
“Wear compression socks on a plane or car, absolutely, especially after a race,” Hanson says. “I always fly with a portable Hypervolt and use it every hour or two to get circulation moving again. All that stuff will keep your calves from 'muffin-topping' over your socks.”
Always know where your bike is located.
It’s distressing how common it is for airlines to lose bikes, creating unnecessary stress before a race. This happens often enough that Hanson has found massive value in a common Apple product: the AirTag. Place an AirTag or similar tracking device (Tile, Chipolo, SmartTag, etc.) in your bike box.
We suggest placing it in a Ziploc bag and taping that bag to a hard interior surface, or within a pocket in your case’s internal space. Your airline may not know where your bike is, but if you’re able to provide proof that it’s sitting on the tarmac, it will help them track it more easily if they know it's actually there.
AirTagging a bike hasn’t just saved races for Hanson, but for many members of the QR team. We’ve had it happen enough times to us and our athletes that we ALWAYS use one when traveling. Hopefully, your bike never gets lost, but if it does, you’ll be thankful you took the time to toss an AirTag in your bike box or bag.
Scicon Aerocomfort 3.0 Triathlon Bike Travel Bag. This is an incredibly popular bag, and for good reason. It holds most tri bikes without removing the saddle, seat post, pedals, or most types of handlebars.
Bike Box Alan Triathlon Aero Easyfit. This hard case provides maximum protection. Note, some extra-large bike frames might not fit, so do your research.
The Quintana Roo ProBox. This is the custom-designed cardboard box we use to ship many of our bikes. If you order a QR, it’s worth keeping in case you decide to ship your bike to your destination instead of flying with it. Note that it’s so large that it won’t fit in many small to mid-size cars.
A quick swim, bike, or run can help you stay awake and reset your bedtime.
When you’re traveling across time zones, your sleep and rise schedule gets thrown off-kilter, especially for athletes used to regimented schedules. Trips that cross multiple time zones compound the issue, making for restless nights and groggy mornings. Effectively transitioning your body to the new time zone is key.
“Traveling east is always harder than traveling west; you lose hours of your day,” Hanson says. “Going west, I’ll stay on my [local] time and slowly adjust one or two hours a day. But going east, that first night is key. You can’t take a nap and just have to push through the day and stay up until bedtime. You have to be willing to suffer a little discomfort on that first day, even when you’re tired from a day of travel, to get your body in sync with the new time zone and rested properly. Getting in a little run, bike, or swim on site can help get the body moving to push through those hours when you need to stay awake.”
Hanson also suggests that for those long multiple time zone trips to bank a few extra days to allow your body to acclimatize.
“The third day of any long trip is always the roughest,” he says. “Most trips, I’ll arrive three days before a race, but for example, when I head to Finland later this year, I’ll be out there a week before the race.”
Hanson flies with his rice cooker, coffee maker, and supplements.
Long trips and hotel stays in unfamiliar locations often force you to diverge from your nutrition routine, especially if you have to eat out. If you’ve trained for months for a big race, it’s a bit negligent to roll the dice with nutrition. Trust me, racing on a stale bagel and a cup of terrible coffee from the hotel breakfast room never ends well!
With a little planning, you can avoid racing with suboptimal nutrition. The ideal solution is to find a grocery store and do your best to find the same (or as close as you can get)that carries the same or similar food to what’s gotten you through training and stocking up when you arrive. If possible, traveling with key foods, supplements, and cooking tools can ensure you get the nutrition that helps you perform best.
“Having a nutritional plan is key,” Hanson says. “I always travel with a rice cooker to make rice the night before the race, and a portable coffee machine for oats and coffee race morning. Rice, oats, and coffee—they’re really my three staples for the night before and morning of the race.”
Preparing like a pro also means planning the meals in the days leading up to the race. Fast food may be handy when you’re racing around with registration and meetings, but again, proper preparation prevents poor performance. One of your first tasks when you arrive at a race should be seeking out the fuel—lean proteins and fruits, and vegetables—you’ll need to perform.
“Make sure fruits and vegetables are easily accessible. Unless you’re staying at a really good hotel, it’s easy to miss out on those things when you go out to eat for breakfast and dinner every day,” Hanson says. “If you aren’t able to find fresh fruits and vegetables, and don’t take a regular multivitamin, it might be something to think about doing."
When we compare options, we’re not talking about business class versus economy (though if you can upgrade and lie flat for a flight, more power to you!).
We mean, look at your costs. Some airlines are renowned for cutting triathletes traveling with bikes zero slack, extending you a handsome $250 oversized fee (or more,) plus an extra bag fee for the honor of carrying your bike to your race. But you have other airlines (like Alaska Airlines) that currently consider your bike a standard piece of luggage, and simply charge you the standard luggage fee of $30 for the first bag. When considering airfare, hotels, rental cars, and more, a reasonable bike shipping rate is worth looking into.
Hanson has one caveat.
“On international trips, if the flight is shared by codeshare partners, be sure that those partners are bike-friendly as well,” he said. “I recently made a flight accommodation through United, but on the way home, it was governed by Lufthansa, which had bike fee rates that were higher than those of United.”
Read the fine print. Most airlines have a policy requiring hard-sided cases for triathlon bikes. If using a soft case, you may be asked to sign a liability release. Make sure you read the fine print, as some airlines will state they are not liable for damaged bikes when using soft cases.
Inspect your bike before leaving the airport. Most airlines only have a 2-4 hour window to file a claim for a damaged bike. Inspect your bike for damage as soon as you receive it. Flagging damage immediately can alleviate future headaches.
Derailleur hangers and brake rotors are the most vulnerable.
Our pro mechanics travel to events around the world to provide free bike services for Quintana Roo owners before their race, so they see A LOT of bikes that have been damaged in transit. Bent derailleur hangers and bent brake rotors are easily the most common issues. There’s an easy way to ensure those two major issues never happen: learn how to remove and reinstall your rotors and rear derailleur when packing your bike.
Remove brake rotors and then store them in something like a bubble wrap pouch or towel, and secure them somewhere in your bag or box where they won’t move or get crushed. This not only prevents them from getting bent, but it can also help prevent contamination from any brake fluid or fluid leaks that might happen in transit (hopefully not though).
Removing the rear derailleur from your frame and packing it securely in a bubble wrap pouch, box, or towel prevents it from acting as a lever and bending the derailleur hanger. If you’re clever with your pack job, you might not even have to remove your chain, but with a chain quick-link and a cheap pair of quick-link pliers, removing and reinstalling a chain is easy. (If you remove your chain, be sure to use a new quick-link when reinstalling!)
Also, if you remove your wheels, don’t forget to reinstall your axles. Keeping the axles installed ensures an errant heavy bag doesn’t squeeze the rear triangle or fork and cause damage (we’ve seen it happen!).
“If you learn how to do just these little things, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress,” Hanson says. “They’re truly basic mechanical things we should all know. Quick links for chains, again, make removal and installation really quick and easy. Doing this bit of extra work when packing your bike saves you time, heartache, and probably a lot of money.”
Remove your pedals first. Waiting until your wheels are off or when your bike is in its box or bag makes removing pedals more difficult.
Insert a “disc brake pad spacer” in disc brake calipers. These are cheap and come with many new bikes, or you can use a small piece of cardboard inserted between your brake pads. This prevents them from getting squeezed together during transit.
Mark your seatpost height with a piece of tape. Many bike boxes require removing the seatpost. Marking your seatpost height makes reassembly quick and simple.
Clean your bike. Packing a dirty bike sucks! Hanson suggests keeping a pack of baby wipes in his bike bag that makes wiping things down while packing a breeze.
Protect parts that might experience impacts or rubbing. Adding a bit of extra padding around your frame never hurts. Pool noodles, pipe insulation, bubble wrap, towels, and butcher paper all work and are easy to find.
Remove the QBox from Quintana Roo tri bikes. Our QBox is the ultimate aero storage solution, but we’ve seen the tabs that attach them to the frame get broken from rough baggage handlers. Take it off and store it somewhere safe!
Traveling to new races is fun. But having a successful race doesn’t happen just in the months leading up to the race. Follow these tips, and you’ll put yourself in a position to have a great race, far away from home.
A big local presence, a big IRONMAN World Championship qualification, and a big win at The Championship in Samorin, Slovakia. This past weekend was a BIG one for the Quintana Roo family.
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