Yes, there were a lot of race marshals on motorbikes. As much as I support penalizing drafting, I found myself, to my surprise, feeling kind of terrorized. I kept worrying about gray area situations where riders in front of me over-slowed for turns so suddenly I was unexpectedly right on top of them. Or I'd be behind and catching up, while maintaining some L/R offset. But then they'd shift abruptly left/right and I'd lose the offset. Or riders bunching up on each hill, sometime so bunched that the lane was entirely blocked.
I've been doing tri's, off and on, for a long time. But those races were tiny compared to Nats. There's always been few cyclists around me that the real problem is navigation, not drafting avoidance. It was new to my experience to have to worry about it so much.
I didn't have any experience with race marshals. I had no idea if, for example, there was informal agreement like "no one cares about proximity in a steep climb" or "no one cares if riders are (precisely) side-by-side for a bit".
In my mind I was very aggressive about making sure that I either stayed 4 bike lengths back and a meter left/right, or I hustled on by. But I worried constantly that some ref on a motorbike 40m behind me might be in a lousy position to tell 4m back from 2m back and decide that I was drafting.
Twice I had to dart left while passing and I touched, but didn't cross, the yellow line. In both cases I was in the middle of passing someone and they inexplicably darted left so I had to go left also. I was instantly mortified that maybe there was some ref behind me now noting my #.
I was just about to pass a guy and he suddenly darted left into my path. I hit the brakes and darted right to avoid. But that put me beside him and passing on the right, a big no no. So, grinding my teeth, I slowed down even more, got back behind him, moved to his left and made the pass.
There were an awful lot of slower cyclist that had to be passed, and many of them bunched up at turns, or they bunched up as they passed other riders that were slower still. Every time someone in front of me did something unexpected that created geometry that a ref at some vantage point might hold against me, I imagined a ref 30m behind me writing my # down. It was a frequent source of stress.
I guess I need to better understand what the refs are briefed so I can better read their minds. And I just need to get more used to high profile races that have refs everywhere. I'm all for strict rules re. drafting so I certainly have to be supportive of the refs being aggressive.
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