Boulder Peak Transitions
I was back at old stomping grounds yesterday, with K8. We managed the mount and dismount lines. I'd never been at Boulder Peak Triathlon before, went away before I arrived in Colorado, it was part of 5430 Sports that was sold to Ironman/WTC. I have though spent many a happy, hot, and sometimes rainy day managing T1/T2 at UK races including Windsor Triathlon, The Commonwealth Games in 2002, and a number of ITU races. It's a great way to learn by seeing what works and doesn't work for other people.
Yesterday was no exception, with a good pro' field I was expecting some consummate demonstrations of how to do slick, fast, and smooth transitions. Overall, I wasn't disappointed, even by the age groupers. However, a number of the pro's still have somethingr to learn it seems.
We only had one dismount crash; four people, three women, completely overshot the dismount line, one actually trying to cycling into transition; plenty of people trying to mount too early, either slightly before the line, or right on top of the line. The latter is just selfish. Really, running an extra five to ten feet is going to make little or no difference to your time, but it's going to create a blockage for the other competitors.
The following are just a selection of the pictures I took while directing traffic out of transition, blowing a whistle and getting people to dismount, and occaisonally yelling, plus checking bikes and competitors out. Click here for captions and comments on the competitors mount/dismount style.
