Will other riders take my bottles?
Unfortunately, not everyone plays clean. A Bottle Grab can be home to deterrents to help prevent other riders from taking your bottles. Writing your name on the sign can be effective. A flag with your team logo or other team identifiers can also help. Riders sometimes take bottles that aren’t meant for them when they are desperate, perhaps when they missed a feed earlier in the feed zone. Placing a Bottle Grab towards the beginning of the feed zone if possible can help avoid these situations.
While I am working on ways for the Bottle Grab to prevent this from happening, I am open to taking any suggestions. My ideas have ranged from placing a sign on the Bottle Grab stating “One of these bottles contains laxatives….” to a bluetooth or GPS detection system from your bike computer or phone in your pocket that unlocks a mechanism holding your bottles securely until your get to the feed zone. Please send your suggestions to drewmathews12@gmail.com with the subject line “Bottle Stealing Deterrent Suggestion”.
Ultimately, in cycling, the culture should be that everyone should have the opportunity to perform in a bike race. In the pros, the culture is that feed zones are areas where attacks should absolutely not happen. I hope to foster a similar culture of respecting a riders ability to get their bottles in a bike race. Bike racing isn’t the most popular of sports, and while the Bottle Grab has the opportunity to help it grow by enabling amateur racers, being a jerk out on course won’t. In my opinion, all bike racers have a responsibility to be ambassadors of the sport and help it grow. Tadej Pocagar gave Tom Pidcock a bottle he didn’t need once the two had broken away in the 2025 edition of Strade Bianche. The only threat to Tadej winning the race was Pidcock, and he helped him get fuel. That’s how the culture should be.
How can I be sure I will be able to get to my Bottle Grab and I won’t be blocked by soigneurs or others on the side of the course in the feed zone?
It can take time for people and systems to adopt changes in the form of new products or ways of doing things. As more people use the Bottle Grab, more people in the feed zone will understand to leave it accessible for riders to get to. For amateur racers, I suggest setting up a Bottle Grab in a less busy or crowded area of the feed zone.