Everyone in Jail is innocent if you ask them, its only people who are not our mates who are guilty

At previous IMWA's I have never seen many people in the penalty tent. This year I got my first drafting penalty and there were 4 other people in the tent at the same time as me. At the time the TO saw me I was unintentionally drafting, so he was just doing his job. They didn't seem to be warning people this year, straight to a penalty.

im wa participants and ozzy triathletes in general so used to getting to draft with impunity are surprised when some one penalises them.

I did the half. Had a crap race. But my run number on my belt slid to the rear and I had an official tell me to move it to the front in a very authoritarian tone. I thought that was a bit rough considering those bibs bounce around a bit with many others facing the rear. But meh, rolled it to the front.

As for drafting I had 2 mates pinged as well and both proclaim innocence however don’t they all !

I hate people drafting but at the same time it’s not right to give out unnecessary penalties. There’s always a stubborn and headstrong guy messing up everything. Watched Trevor Foley’s Indian Wells recap last night and even he said pros tried to draft as he passed them by. Anyway, warning would have been nice but I bet this guy was enjoying his authority and power. Dumb people do dumb crap.

Had a similar experience in IMLP 2018. I swam a 57 and there couldn't have possibly been more than 50 people in front of me when I passed 8-10 guys at the penalty tent at mile ~20. Likely got a little overzealous at first, especially with the amount of climbing and descending in the first segment of the course.

That being said, they were probably drafting by definition, but were not giving any leeway with the hills.

At the 70.3 WC in Nice I had an official put his hand in my chest while I was running completely shocking me and stopping me to yell at me about my bib being backwards. I almost punched him out of instinct.

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

I was referee for a national middle distance and worlds qualifier about 20 years ago. And as normally happened at the end of the race I was surrounded by a throng of people complaining. Some because they'd missed out on qualifying by a place to person X who "was drafting the entire way round". And others because they'd lost their place due to a drafting penalty that was totally unjustified. I was literally surrounded by people all talking at the same time, all wanting redress. Now there is no appealing of a draft penalty, and I had full faith in the bike refs- I'd worked with them many a time to know they were consistent and knew enough about how things look/happen on hills. corners, packs, etc. So for the only time in my refereeing career, and this after the race I actually used my whistle until i got a bit of peace (I think everyone was just shocked). Then asked all those complaining that someone hadn't been pinged for drafting to move to the left, all those that had been unfairly pinged to move to the right. And they did. Two pretty even group sizes. So I pointed out that gave me confidence that with 50% complaining too aggressive in calls and 50% too lax, that the calls were pitched at the right level. And in fairness that did pretty much end the 'discussion'.

I've also done the motorbike role too. Including one year on the back of a Harley, so not the most subtle thing to be on as the exhaust was pretty deafening. And still despite that it was incredible how riders would be getting a warning from me and still as I'm beside them not make any attempt to get back from the rider literally 2m in front. The irony was after 30km of giving increasingly stern warnings to the lead pack I started pinging people. All were accepting of it to be fair, as they knew they'd been given plenty of warnings. Sadly after pinging 4 or 5 in succession 3-4mins apart when we got to the turnaround point I noticed all I'd done is split the one large pack into two smaller draft packs as those that had been pinged had just formed up again 2mins back.

That said first IMUK there was no lighting on the run course. And one of the last finishers was a clubmate. Someone I knew ended up riding beside them on an MTB with a light on so that they could see. The next day the organiser emailed to say that the person (last finisher) was going to be DQ for outside assistance. Now that was technically in the rules, but to me was overly officious. However I did point out that that penalty hadn't been posted on the board within 1 hour of the finish and so therefore was outside of the window so queried them on a technicality. In the end it all went away.

But a final point. Without referees there is no race. And referees are generally travelling long distances, getting up early, even paying for accommodation to be able to be there for the race. It's not their job, this is something on their weekends and on the Monday they are back in the office, on the building site, etc etc. I have never ever met a referee that wanted to give out a penalty. In almost every case then penalties are a last course of action, and my best days where (like most races I reffed) where I got home at the end of the day having 'offered some advice' to a few people, including very directly in transition situations about helmets, etc, but no penalties.

I travelled from NZ to race IMWA for the first time.

Unfortunately only got to 65km on the bike before crashing into the back of a slow 70.3 athlete. Got patched up but wasn't going to be able to run so gingerly spun back to transition to DNF.

I only saw 1 official in that time.

While heading back I was passed by multiple groups with a strong guy on the front and others wheel to wheel drafting behind. No gaps at all, repeatedly looking back over shoulder to ensure no marshalls coming. Never seen drafting so blatant, so good job if they got caught.

Was only 1 person in penalty tents I passed. So guess all the penalties were on the 2nd lap. Maybe once the pros finished the bike?

Possible scenarios for BOP swimmers + FOP riders getting pinged while passing a pack:

1) an (illegally spaced) paceline of 2-3 people passing a pack - intentional drafting,
2) while passing a pack, rider X is approached by faster rider Y, who has to choose between going around, braking hard or entering the draft zone of rider X (without immediately passing X) and just waiting for X to get ahead of the pack to pass them - unintentional (let’s say) drafting by Y, and very common,
3) a variation of situation 2, but there is no rider X and the pack is just taking the whole width of the available road; Y is trying to scream at them or whatever, but that’s hard to do from 12 m away.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

That’s insane !

I say bring back the way we did the bike course back 35 - 40 years ago

You get 10 motorcycle riders from the local bike club.

They have a person on the back

They wrote down the number of anyone drafting

At the end of the race anyone who had their number written down 2 times or more received a 5 minute penalty

It was difficult to find anyone actually drafting because there were motorcycles all over the course

Yup! I had a harsh (IMO) penalty in South Africa, but for anyone that asks I say I deserved it as that sounds better than being one of those dicks that denies it!

what he said

there was plenty of drafting going on (not as many big packs that u usually find in OZ races though probably due to the tough swim) lots of 3-4 fast guys working together but on each others wheel
so good to see the TOs actually pinging people , should of happened years ago and then we probably wouldnt have the draft feast at every oz race like we have now