kman74 wrote:
are you kidding me? how about going over to Europe and having an american flag on your bib and see how much you get harassed by refs. I was a spotter at IMTX and I can assure you the refs were watching ALL athletes that day as I was with the lead cyclists for the entire race. they didn't pick on anyone and they handed out a ton of drafting penalties.
The Marshalls for IM races for the pros are paid by Ironman and are all very knowledgeable of all the rules. These aren't local triathletes volunteering. As for ref's wearing helmet cam's...that is typical of society today. the onus falls on the athlete to NOT cheat or violate rules. NOT on the ref to prove the athlete did. society is full of it's someone else's fault not mine attitudes.
Apart from the fact that paying referees doesn't guarantee in any way that they are knowledgable, they are, to the best of my knowledge, not paid by Ironman, but by USAT (which in turn is being paid by the race organizer (WTC in this case)). A USAT referee over the course of a season may be officiating at a few races which may have different formats and may be run by different race organizations, and different rules apply.
As for the regulation regarding drafting I found the following (and it could be more if I include locations outside the US):
Length of the drafting zone (beginning at the leading edge of front wheel)
7m (USAT, non-elite)
10m (USAT, elite, IM age group, ITU non-elite)
12m (ITU elite, IM pro)
or clear space between bikes of
6 bike lengths (IM pro)
5 bike lengths (IM age group)
These are already 5 different definitions! To complicate things further, the time you can take for a pass may be 15s (USAT elite and non-elite), 20s (IM age group, ITU elite and non-elite) or 25s (IM pro), and how quickly an overtaken athlete has to drop out of the drafting zone could be "immediately" (whatever that exactly means, USAT non-elite and elite), 5s (this seems just plain ridiculous, ITU elite and non-elite), 20s (IM age group) or 25s (IM pro). [Note that the wording of the IM rules is not even clear what applies in case of a pro passing an age grouper (or vice versa)].
Assuming the referee has done his homework and knows exactly which rules apply for the race he's currently officiating, now he sits on the back of a motorbike and has to estimate the gap between two (or possibly many more riders), stop the time of passing manoevers and it's obvious that there are a lot of judgment calls to be made (and I think with the pros in the lead group I don't think there are really instances of blatant drafting offences as there are in the age group fields). And if you do have a pack of 10+ age groupers all drafting, how is the referee supposed to hand write the bib number and other details of every athlete after showing each of them the blue card, all on the back of a motor bike?
Don't kid yourself in thinking that for every drafting penalty it can only be the athlete who's at fault. And even so, what harm would it do to have the evidence available? I've been a referee myself at a few races this year (in Switzerland), and I for one would welcome any technology assisting me to assure I'm making the right decisions.
And an instance of a pro like M. Raelert receiving three drafting penalties without realizing any wrongdoing seems so bizarre, that it should (also in the interest of the sport) be resolved.
Achim Traut