Well right now, individuals looking for a podium finish or slot to Hawaii have to go around packs anyway, so there's no difference there. As far as starting them at a different time, you don't need to. The ref's still have to go up and down, but they only have to look at 10 or 20% of the field, the rest are just in there to finish. This method may better be suited for 1/2 and full IM races only. Shorter races would be too difficult to sort out contenders and just finishers. Also with chip technology advances, there will come a day when race officials could monitor ALL participants and determine who is drafting and for how long, WITHOUT having to be right at the location. I think when that day comes, drafting will be something of the past.

It still would come down to the ref having to look for every number, wherever its stuck on the frame. I once joking said to a ref "Hey, I'm number 204, please don't give me a penalty." Her response was: "If I'm looking for your number, it's already too late!" (that is, she decides first whether a penalty should be called, and then looks for the number). Using different colors doesn't sound like a lot of extra work, but I don't think it would be any easier, either.

I think the idea of a technology solution to detect drafting is a long, long way off (if ever). GPS won't work, because even under the best of conditions, its inaccurate enough that you would have both false negatives and false positives. So you would have to have some kind of range finding device that attaches to every bike, and who knows whether that would be accurate enough? Even if you had it, many bike courses go through wireless dead zones, so they would have to store every possible drafting situation, and download all of that stuff at T2, to be sifted through. And even if you got that to work, you would still need to not call penalties for natural and allowable bunching steep hills, aid stations, tight traffic areas. Even if technologically possible, doesn't sound cost effective.

Also, I took a glance at the ITU rules - they're interesting. They say that you have to ride to the side of the course, but doesn't say anything about you must 'ride to the right' or 'ride to the left' - this sorta makes sense, since some countries have cars driving left side, some right side. There are a couple of pictures showing drafting zones, and the writing with them says that the bike riding right is blocking, which implies 'ride left, pass right'. Anyone at World's know whether this was covered in the pre-race meeting? Is it standard for ITU age group races to either 'ride right, pass left' or 'ride left, pass right', depending on what country the race is in?

I won the 25-29 men's age group at Honolulu, and I was frustrated with what I saw too. In fact, I was soo motivated by being reeled in by a peleton, I put the hammer down on the run early in hopes that anyone who drafted would not be in the hunt to steal a podium spot.

Tai, I hear your frustrations. I came out of the water 36th, and early on the first climb of the course, I reeled in a bunch of guys. No worries I thought, when I get to the top and get aero, we'll string out and I'll pull away. Well I got aero, and started to pull away, but suddenly I was reeled in by a pack. I was LIVID! I started yelling at guys to get off my wheel, and telling them to quit cheating. I threw in a few attacks when I noticed I was starting to get swallowed up, hoping it would string us out. Didn't happen. We got to the Kaina'olinani (sp?) Highway, and I realized I wasn't able to hold my intensity, as the pack kept swallowing me up. I backed off and got behind the pack, trying to stay legally "out of the draft zone", however, when you are 3 bike lengths behind a peleton, there is still a drafting effect. At this point, I thought, "It's over. No way can I catch the leaders if I'm dealing with this crap."

All of a sudden, a motorcycle pulls up with an official. He points at three or 4 guys in the front of the pack of about 12, and they pull over, NEARLY causing a crash! Another American pulls back next me and says, "What do we do now?" I shook my head and told him, "You better hope they didn't call your number!"

I notice the pack had backed off the pace, because of the official, as they scrambled to figure out how to not be in a pack, so I took off, going around them finally. The course was so narrow, I had to go to the outside of the cones a few times. I catch another pack in front of me, as the course starts to climb, and I pass another group of riders in a line, all from the same country. I'm finally out front feeling like I've got things under control, and it's clear I'm not in any danger of drafting. We hit the climb, and it gets a little crowded again, as we we're catching a lot of the older athletes, 60+. We near the turnaround and there is an official riding with us, but we're definitely riding legally, as Chris Martin is out front about a minute, and then there's only about 5 of us. I make a big move at the turn around and pull away from everyone, trying to catch Chris. I check at every corner, I can't see anyone behind me. I hammered the entire way back until just before the descent from Diamond Head back down to transition, and a pack of 10 guys swallows me up again. I sat-up, pulled to the right side of the road, let them by, hyrdrated and attacked again, taking the lead down the descent, just to be sure I was ahead of them going into T2, not drafting. I came into T2 with a guy at my side and a bunch behind me.

My friend told me I was only 45 seconds out of 1st, and I just went hard, trying to shake off anyone who was in that pack which caught me. I took the lead from Chris just before 3K, and luckily was never threatened by anyone, especially not anyone who drafted the whole way!

One gentleman was out on the course, calling us cheaters and yelling at me. I don't recall him cursing, but he may have. I told him they reeled me in, he said, "Yeah, whatever you cheater!" I decided it was best not to speak with him.

Later on, after the race a reporter interviewed me for the Star Bulletin, and when I read the article the next day, I found he miss quoted me, quite badly. I had told him that I had to "back off" early on the bike, and saved more energy for the second half. He thought I said, "packed up" early on the bike. I was pretty bummed to read that, because many people may think I cheated. But I actually even hinted at the fact that a pack reeled me in, in that same quote, and out on the course I was trying to get people to ride legal.

All in all, there were officials out there and they made some calls, but not enough. The course needed to be wider, and maybe more waves with smaller fields. I hope things improve, but I'm not sure they can with fields this big. I hope everyone at least enjoyed the event for what it was, a triathlon in a beautiful place against lots of people from around the world. I'm thankful it went well for me.

Jim Vance

So, as an obviously strong cyclist, Jim, are you in favor or not in favor of the US going to draft legal triathlon?

Do you think you would still be as competitive if racing became draft legal?

why not make world SC champs draft-legal?

really, you've got a whack of very competitive athletes coming out of the water within a minute or two of one another, and biking within a few minutes of one another. assessing penalties quickly becomes arbitrary or completely impractical.

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I'm not sure what the actual percentage of people are for draft-legal racing in the state are. I know people are very vocal one way or the other about it. I mean, who has the balls to yell "cheater" at someone during a race unless they were very supportive of non-draft legal racing?

Is there a silent majority of non-draft legal racers out there and just a small handful of draft-legal proponents, or is it a 50/50 mix? Or is it that most people in the AG really want draft legal racing in the states?

Is this whole draft-legal thing a "squeaky wheel gets the grease" kind of thing for a small minority of racers? It's not like there is a whole mass of people defending drafting as there seem to be people against it.

I know who Jim Vance is. I know he is a fast biker. Are fast bikers typically ok with the idea of draft legal racers? And what kind of people are supportive of draft legal racing if not?

Good question. I don't think I'm for draft-legal racing, as much as I am for racing by a set of agreed upon rules. Truth be told, if this was a draft legal race, I might have still won, I might not have. I was around a lot of guys who could have reeled in the leader, but the leaders may have conserved more energy in riding in a pack. Of course, I would probably have trained and prepared differently for the race if it was draft legal, not to mention how I would have raced instead. But the frustration is that the agreed upon rules were not being followed, so everyone kind of loses. I was kind of P.O.ed at the guy who was yelling at me, because he had no idea how hard I worked out there trying to race cleanly, but he nonetheless will do what he can to continue to tarnish my win.

If I were to enter an ITU pro race, like the World Cup in Honolulu in April, I would have gotten my ass kicked. I can't swim well enough right now to be with those boys, no matter how good of a biker I am.

Do I like draft legal racing? You bet I do! I love it! I just wish I could swim faster to make it even better for me. I think it's better for the fans, more exciting and more strategic. My whole off-season will be devoted to getting faster in the water, and giving myself a chance to compete at the 2008 Olympic Trials.

Can an average swimmer do well in ITU? I believe so. Look at Susan Williams. A so-so swimmer, POWERHOUSE on the bike. She's done quite well for herself. It's also course dependent.

So it's not that I'm for one way or the other, it's that I love triathlon and enjoy the different versions out there. That's why you'll see me do non-drafting, draft-legal and XTERRA races. I love the different varieties, even the different distances. I think each race offers it's own unique challenges, and I just want to be on a level playing field when I accept those challenges. Luckily, I can hold my head high knowing that I won, and I won fairly, despite many opportunities to cheat, and the amount of cheating that went on around me. I feel sorry for a guy like Chris Martin, who worked his butt off out in the lead on the bike, but probably got caught by guys who were drafting most of the 40K, and couldn't get on the podium.

Jim Vance

Hey Jim, you were actually one of the guys I noticed out in front when I saw the pack at the turnaround. I think it was one guy off the front, then you (you're pretty easy to recognize) and then a mass of bikes. There's nothing you can really do and the course is to narrow to let you pass if people are riding down the middle of the lane, much less a pack of people. Catching the older guys was pretty sketchy especially climbing the main hill and descending it. I caught at least 15 people going up and it required weaving all over the road. Coming down was almost scarier as some guys were going 20mph where you were goning 48-50mph. One girl apparently crashed pretty hard into one of the older guys down the hill. Like you said, you can try to break away, but if the pack decides to go and they have fast riders it's tough to get away. My main problem was that the 30-34 pack caught me as we rode up diamond head and then spent all sat up at the top and cruised into transition waiting for the run. I mean backing off a bit is fine but we were going really slow and there was no way around them. I finally got around in Kapiolani park but all that time lost...

Anyways, great race, at least you had the legs to back it up on the run. Just knock off another minute or two on your swim and you'll be ready for ITU.