Bottle Drop
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Joe_H posted 40 weeks ago.
it's a bottle exchange. you lose your empties and they give you new ones while still moving on your bike. bottles are pretty universal they should fit.
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Iron Dan posted 40 weeks ago.
Typically what you get are not the water bottles you buy at your local bike shop. They are like water bottles that you would buy bottled water at your grocery store. The bottles they give you should fit inside your water bottle cages. You could always stop and refill your current bottles, but pretty much everybody just grabs the bottles as they ride by.
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driggins posted 40 weeks ago.
they will give you standard 24 ounce bike water bottles with water unless they state otherwise. the bottles will fit your bottle cage. some folks do dump the contents into their own bottles/aero drink system.
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UFTriGator posted 40 weeks ago.
I got a bottle of gatorade like you'd buy at the store at St. Anthony's last year. They fit in the bottle cages, but they tend to crumple up after a few miles, so I dumped it in my own bottle.
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brittda posted 40 weeks ago.
at my 2 IM's and hubby's HIM they give you bottled water or gatorade like you would get at the store, not a bike bottle. So, I start out with the same crappy bottles (with my own mix) and if I need water on the course i can just toss it with out worrying about loosin a good bottle. I also have my aero bottle, so just dump water/gatorade into that and toss theirs.
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1645 days
kylie posted 40 weeks ago.
I have a really small frame so have actually had issues with the bottles not fitting. Make sure you know what you have and what they'll be handing you. Before you toss your bottle know that it will fit in yours. I have emailed race directors before to get clarification on what would be handed out and was then ready with my backup plan since I couldn't carry their bottles.
But yes, a bottle drop is where there is a specified area where you toss your empty bottle and soon (or right) after it is an aid station where you can get a new bottle.
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TriSooner posted 40 weeks ago.
Suggestion: Start the bike portion with crappy bottles or store-bought bottled water/Gatorade because you will chunk whatever you have when you hit the bottle exchange. Invariably you will see someone who starts with $15 polar bottles who chunks them at hand-up #1 to make room for new bottles. (You may also see this area referred to as 'hand ups'.) As everyone has said, they are usually store-bought water or gatorade bottles - already opened for you - that they hand to you as you ride by. Be careful of other riders and be careful not to run over bottles that have already been missed. Also, the 'hand up' area sometimes have big trashcans painted with targets, or soccer goals so you can have a moment of levity and see if you can hit the trash with a bottle while moving by. Make sure you throw your trashed bottles immediately before or after the hand-up area: this is the only area of a race where you are able to 'litter.' If they race is really crowded I have found it helpful to vocalize what you want as you approach, saying 'gatorade' or 'water' and pointing or calling to a volunteer (nicely, of course). They usually perk right up and make eye contact with you and will pace along side of you for a quicker hand up. Riding by them at speed while they stand still will cause the bottle to drop, so they have to jog next to you or you have to slow way down.
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Anton posted 40 weeks ago.
Good time to point out that this is often where mis-haps occur during a race.
Toss your bottle before you get to the station if you're discarding.
Hold your line going into the station...in other words, don't weave! You may hit someone else.
Point to the person you want a bottle from, make eye contact or speak to them...
Grab the bottle and move on. Get out of the station before you start monkeying around with pouring, eating and slopping around. Too often I've seen and been hit by folks who grab a bottle and start pouring as they drift across the road into the path of others. And be kind to each other! An aid station is no place to get aggressive or nasty, especially at 15 to 20 or more miles per hour.
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Iron Dan posted 40 weeks ago.
Another addition to Anton's warnings is that may full bottles get dropped in the area. Be on the lookout for bottles laying on the ground as your ride through, you wouldn't want to hit one and end up eating it.
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PJT posted 40 weeks ago.
One more addition to Anton's & Iron Dan's sage words: the road is often quite slick around the bottle exchange because of so many bottles being dropped. Proceed with caution!
One final piece of advice: cheap aluminum bottle cages can be your friend. Unlike plastic or carbon, you can bend them in so that they really grab a hold of some of those non-bike bottles.
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kylie posted 40 weeks ago.
And another bit of aid station etiquette: slow down a bit! Volunteers don't want to lose and arm, and you probably really want that bottle. Sit up, slow a bit, and say thank you! :)
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jsk85 posted 40 weeks ago.
Hehe...I am so bad at taking bottles. I did an olympic 2 years ago where they were handing out bottles (not sure why on such a short ride) and I slowed down, but was so uncoordinated I ended up just slapping about 4 bottles out of people's hands. They probably thought I was a bully.
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Iron Dan posted 40 weeks ago.
It's funny how hard it is to actually grab ahold of the dang bottle as you ride by. Maybe thats why they call it a bottle "drop".
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blobin posted 40 weeks ago.
Thanks everyone- awesome explanations! Now I have a better idea what to expect!
Second year of triathlons, I am about to sign up for my first half.
The race description talks about a "bottle drop"- since everyone has always been very supportive of newbie questions on this site- what happens at a bottle drop?
I get the point that you loose your empty bottles- but what takes their place- something the race provides (ie bottles of gatorade)? Does one need support here to give you your own pre-prepared bottles? What if they don't fit in my bottle cage? Do your just refill your existing bottles?
Thanks in advance for the help!