So is this normal?
 

Since no one replied to my post on the Austrian Tri team regarding this issue, I'll ask the question. It is not behavior that I see among road bikers, but perhaps its "de rigueur" for Triathletes?

I noticed that they leave their shoes on the bike. Before a ride the mount the bike, and put thier foot in one shoe, unclip, and put on the other shoe, Now this may be standard for triathletes, but since I'm not one, so it was strange to me.

pretty normal. Several Tri biking shoes actually have a flexible heel top, so you just need to slide you foot in and out of it in the transition. The thing is that some transitions will make you walk your bike for a while, so if you just go shoeless, you might drag stuff into your shoe = not fun for a bike race and the subsequent run.

Very common. Tri-shoes are designed for just such a use and appropriately so. The strap on a tri shoe hangs away from the bike when undone while a typical road shoe is on the inside. Because triathletes are "transitioning" from the swim and to the run it allows us to get our feet in and out easier and safer - away from the wheels and gears. Road shoes on the other hand are strapped once before the race and never undone until after.

You might also notice that some triathletes shoes tend to stay horizontal while the racer is running next to the bike. This is with the help of rubber bands that hold the shoe in place for easy foot placement once the racer mounts the bike. The rubber band just snaps and falls away once the foot starts to pedal.

Little things like that help us to save time in our transitioning. Not everyone does these but they are very common.

Interesting about the rubber bands - I'll have to try that. my shoes always drag ( size 47) and so I tend to run to the end of the transition and then put them on and mount at the same place. Coming in I leave them on and take my feet out over the last 100m, resting them on top of the shoes, and then lift the bike and carry it to my spot in the rack once i'm inside transition.

While on the topic of shoes - who here rides races with socks ? who not - and then puts them on for the run? I tend to go barefoot but I only do sprint distances and would probably "sock-up" on a full distance IM or similar.

I have always used socks but just bought my first new pair of tri-bike shoes and will start doing some rides without socks to get ready for my Olympic in May. For my race this weekend...socks.

I'm sure you can find some youtube clips about how to use the rubber bands. That is another thing that I will try after this weekend.

That brings up another really good point...NEVER do something for the first time on race day! Practice those things first to be sure that you know what you're doing and that you are comfortable with the results. Just because it is a time saver doesn't mean that it is a good thing for everybody.