I mentioned this in my book "Ironstruck."
It's extremely important to be aware of the gear you leave your bike in when you have it all set up in the bike rack before the swim start.
I call it "the leaving transition gear." It's important for a number of reasons. First of all, when you exit the water, you have been in the horizontal position for some time, and there might be a bit of dizziness, and even it there's not, it will take your body a little while to adjust to suddenly being thrown onto a bike.
Your reflexes might not be all they should be and you may take several stabs at getting your shoe locked into the pedal. Once you get your shoes locked in, you don't want to have to stand up to get your bike going because you left your chain in the big wheel before the race even started.
It's much easier to maintain control of your bike if you are in a very easy gear when you leave transition. This is especially important if the bike starts with an uphill.
The Great White North triathlon is a perfect example. The first few hundred meters are straight uphill. In the 2009 edition of the race I watched many cyclists lose control of their bikes because they were in a huge gear on the very first revolution and of course, couldn't get any momentum. Their bikes were all over the place and one girl blew her chain right off when she tried to drop into the small chain-ring while standing on the pedals.
It's very easy to avoid this type of problem by simply putting your bike in the easiest gear before the race even starts. That way you will have more control, and be ready for any type of situation that will require you to maneuver your bike or to go into a climb.
It's much easier to shift into a big gear from a small gear when the time is right, then it is to shift from big chain-ring to the small one.
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