I didn't see any at Muncie. I was trading positions with 2 others guys leading my age group. They all seemed to be keeping legal distance and putting in hard efforts to make the pass in legal time. OF the people we passed, even slower traffic, really didn't see a lot of close riding. The course was 2 loop, out and back, so the marshals were thick. I also don't remember seeing anyone in the penalty tent. Maybe the marshals were issuing warnings first. No blocking issues either.


At Steelhead M35-39 are the 2nd and 3rd waves and single loop. My bike fitness is coming back, swim is feeling good, my home course, "A" race, so I don't expect to see anyone. :)

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TrainingBible Coaching
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I have not found there to be much drafting in the front of the pack in most north american 70.3's. If anything it's been pretty lonely. I don't know why 2017 qualifiers would have more drafting than others. Last 70.3 I did was Boulder in June, so still a 2016 qualifier. On the climb up Nelson people bunched up a bit and technically there was some illegal spacing/passing, but nothing that was purposeful cheating or even creating a real advantage for anyone. Other than that, I saw only one pair of guys that looked like they might be riding illegally on a fast section for a couple minutes.

Last season in 70.3's I only saw one instance of really blatant drafting, except at Worlds in Austria where it looked like just about everyone was riding illegally. Lots of marshals giving warnings - often multiple warnings before giving only the worst offenders penalties. I think they were trying to balance the extreme difficulty of having lots of people about the same speed on the bike who all come out of the water together with enforcing the rules to the letter. I think very few people were setting out to cheat, but lots of people unwilling to sit up and sacrifice their race to be within the rules.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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Agreed. I really didn't see any drafting at Muncie, but I'm a slow AF swimmer (so I never see the top guys) and a strong biker (so I'm constantly passing people).

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Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

I also raced Calgary and didn't notice much drafting. Started in the 2nd wave of men and worked my way up through the bike leg. Maybe 1 or 2 "groups" of people, but the climbing sections made things bunch up a bit at times.

I worked with the 2nd place finisher for a few miles before he pulled away on the long, mid race climb, but we kept it legal.

I may have caught a bit of an 18 wheeler draft coming back home on the LOOONG descent finish. Does that count? Gave me the KOM for the final 23mile speed run in :)

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Alex Arman

Strava

I was up front (got off the bike as the 2nd or 3rd amateur) and I didn't think drafting was that bad. Maybe one group was pushing the limits, but nothing overly blatant. But there were also motorcycles on the course, and when you see draft Marshalls more than once, that can scare people in not trying to draft. Also, anyone know of some people who try and cheat by starting in the wrong wave? I know a guy who should be an awa, and thus have a black swim cap, who I'm 100% positive started in the first wave even though he should've been in the 2nd wave. He had a pb in the swim of about 3 min and his garmin magically 'froze' before the swim so he didn't post a swim file to strava, just a bike and run. He swam a 1:06 in ironman nice a month ago and now does a 26:54 (29 if the course wouldn't have been short). I call bull shit

Alex. Were you wearing black with some green? I think you were the only one to pass me on the bike.... You're a fricken machine.

Yep, and thank you! Great race on your end as well!!
The 2nd half of the bike course was so fast and so much fun. And those "mini" kicker hills on the run really made the legs want to break down.

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Alex Arman

Strava

Welcome to 70.3 Worlds, AKA Draftfest. It'll be the same in Mooloolaba this year, and Chattanooga next year. And even if they do repeats up the Alpe d'Huez in 2018.

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Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

[quote

Last season in 70.3's I only saw one instance of really blatant drafting, except at Worlds in Austria where it looked like just about everyone was riding illegally. Lots of marshals giving warnings - often multiple warnings before giving only the worst offenders penalties. I think they were trying to balance the extreme difficulty of having lots of people about the same speed on the bike who all come out of the water together with enforcing the rules to the letter. I think very few people were setting out to cheat, but lots of people unwilling to sit up and sacrifice their race to be within the rules.[/quote]
The absolute worst drafting I have ever seen was at Worlds 70.3 in Mont Tremblant. I was stunned, and I live in south FL so this is saying something (lots of drafting in the Miami and FL 70.3s).

Without exaggeration, I would be riding and then a pack of 30+ athletes would come flying by. This happened several times during the race.

I walked away from that race wondering if this was how everyone at the pointy end races. It was really depressing.

x3. M30-34 played pretty nice. Although, I didn't see the marshal's too often. See you at Lake Logan, btw.

I don't think you can come to the conclusion that all the folks on the pointy end are cheaters who draft all the time. In non-wc races, they are riding mostly alone all the time. But at 70.3 worlds when you have all 250 guys in the AG get out of the water in a 3 minute window and then they all ride within 6 minutes of each other (but not in the same order as they exited the water) while the front end of the next wave overlaps them it is pretty difficult for many of them to ride clean all the time, even if they really want to. You do the best you can in the situation.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Same experience for me at 70.3Worlds in Mt Tremblant. The packs on the bike were completely nuts, blatant drafting by dozens of people, including people at the front sitting up and motioning to people behind to cycle through as in a paceline. And there was still space to the left of the packs if people wanted to pass and stay legal, so they weren't being forced into it.

Somehow, amazingly, i was able to avoid drafting. It would have been pretty easy to latch onto many of these groups, and many did.

I shouldn't have used the "all" word though.

That race was an absolute joke, and everyone who was there knows it. It was by far the most disappointing thing I have seen in any races I have done.

As far as non-worlds drafting, I race 3-4 70.3s a year and I very rarely see any illegal drafting from the top guys. I think maybe once or twice a year I see something but it is very rarely blatant; it's more likely just questionable than anything.

There are people who will draft and there are people who will refuse to do so. I doubt it has much to do at all with how pointy they are. This is completely unsupported, by I would maybe guess that some of the worst drafting is coming from the people who are trying to become "pointy." The pointy guys I know (at least as far as I believe) have enough respect for the work they and their competitors have put in to go out and race fair. At least that's what I choose to believe.

I was in wave 3. Had a good swim. I passed 3 groups of 5-6 riders (all wave 2 based on age on calf) on the bike course and saw plenty of non staggered pairings on every climb were the guy(s) in back was looking for 1 foot protection against the wind the whole way up the hill. I may have been in the heart of all of it so maybe there was none outside of what I saw.

Even on the back stretch coming home there were 4 dudes on the tail of a pro female. No less than 2-4 feet off each wheel. Sure enough they jumped on me when I passed them.

Regardless, really enjoyed that race. I think the RD did a great job all things considered. Loved the beer garden!

Funny you say that about the dude that started with the pros. There was one guy in the back after the start who clearly was not equals with everyone else. I looked over the pro swim times to see who that could have been and nobody jumped out time wise. Makes sense.

No. He was supposed to be in the 2nd wave with males under 30 and over 45, but I believe he went with the first wave of males 30-44

Oh. Still sad.

How about that first buoy? After watching the chaos in the 30-44 wave I figured the only way to have a decent time was to be one of the first few to that buoy. I think I set a new 200M PR on that swim once that gun went off.

that first buoy was mental. nothing but a washing machine of legs and arms!

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

I agree...I can't wrap my mind around the math. I did Racine a couple weeks ago and there were only 3 spots in M40-44. IMWI last fall also had 50 spots and M40-44 had 5 Kona slots. Is the age/gender distribution really that different?

I was in a middle wave at Vineman 70.3 and did not see any drafting and only one course marshall.
At World's in Austria last year I saw very little drafting, but I was in one of the very last waves and all the young fast punks are ahead of me. ;)
Looking forward to both Australia and Chattanooga! While I hate drafting, this is my hobby, I can't let it bother my life too much either.

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Team Zoot So Cal

For Calgary everyone showed up for the race. Male all the way to 70-74. Females all the way to 65-69. Throw in some odd math due to AG sizes and boom just 4 slots for the big male AGs.

Raced Galveston and Buffalo Springs so far this yr and have seen pretty much zero drafting, for most part its been a bit lonely out there. Racing Timberman in few weeks what looks like 6-7 guys in my AG all gunning for a Worlds Spot, people can say its easy to get into Worlds but i don't think we will see any rolls down happening at Timberman and at best 4 spots maybe. I don't expect much drafting up in NH either with a decent hill 10 miles into the bike to break everyone up, honestly at the front i just don't see a lot of people around for the most part.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

Yes. When I did Chattanooga Full in 2014 there were 6 Kona slots in M40-44. There were 4 at Muncie in that age group this year.

Both races were 50 slots, and the allocations were what I calculated based on the numbers in each age group. I think there are more 30-39 guys (relative to 40-44) in the 70.3's than the fulls.

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Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3