B_Doughtie wrote:
So to me the issue is and what I laugh at is when athletes bring this up, fans call them out for sucking at swimming or just wanting it to be in favor of their strength and they miss the entire point.
Under current rules the draft zone currently is blurring "draft legal" and "non draft". And Imo we have the potential to widen the draft zone to make it more "non draft", which I think is the biggest point of what LS is on (and why he skipped 70.3). Do we want a more realistic "non draft" where you have to put in a good honest effort in each discipline or do you want it to be where if you can make the draft train, you can "sit in" til T2, and if you want to call that "non draft".....oookkk. It's why I laugh when people shit on LS and tell him to shut up and swim faster, etc., and yet the point he's making completely goes over their head.
If races think the current rules allow for the best "non draft" race especially for the pros, fair enough. I think it's being shown that other distances make a much fairer and individual effort, and at some point, races that don't move to that distance, likely should have to answer to why they don't do the same. Atleast have a good conversation about it, and maybe that's already happened and the current rules are going to always be the "compromised" appropriate distance.
But I think you as a sport have an problem when some of your own best 70.3 athletes are not doing races because of the way the rules are setup. Now again I'm not saying this to make it in favor of strong cyclists. I'm actually looking to make in favor of more actual fair "non draft" conditions. And yes I know there is always going to be a benefit and there has never been an true "individual" race ever because of the drafting in the swim and run, etc. But I think if you understand the sport, to simply ridicule athletes like I've seen on ST over the past year or 2 when talking drafting issues in the sport is completely missing the boat. No shit poor swimmers need to work on their swim, they'll be the first to say that. But let's look at BK, a wider draft zone likely improves his overall racing as well, as it "tires" out the draft train who is chasing him down on the runs at every race. So a more wider draft zone isn't for LS so he can win. It's to make it what we all think it should be....a more fairer, "non draft" race.
Great points Brooks. This is analagous to the points jersey in the Vuelta. In the rest of the grand tours the points Jersey is really a sprinter competition that was created to give the non climbing fast closers another race to participate in. Basically none of the top sprinters come to the Vuelta due to lack of pure sprinter stages and the structure of the points race which is basically another jersey for the GC guys making it redundant. In that vein, the 70.3 Worlds with its depth of field is in effect a watered down extension of ITU racing rather than a shorter faster version of Ironman racing (already pseudo draft legal at Kona, but closer to a non draft race than 70.3 Worlds).
At other non championship races with less depth of field you can have the 12 meter draft zone and it works so those who do a descent 3 discipline day can shine, or as a minimum, everyone can get the most out of their strong discipline. In championship racing at 70.3 World's you now take the top 3-4 from every race and put them all together and you have 50 guys who are equally strong filling all the gaps between each other and loosely you have an ITU-esque train of some form.
Last year, a fast rider like Kienle had less gap to make up with a salt water wetsuit swim. This year, no wetsuit, fresh water and up current and he's got a tougher swim, with a larger gap where he uses his legs more in the swim and uses his legs more before he closes, leaving less potential legs for the run. Make that draft zone 20m like Challenge Samourin, and the picture changes big time and all athletes have to work harder on each discipline.
So, a bunch of guys don't go this race, just like a bunch of sprinters can't bother with the Vuelta. I don't think the Vuelta organizers care to have much of a sprinter competition and it almost feels like WTC does not care to have a tougher bike leg where the pros are strung out further. It should be dead easy to say, "OK, tomorrow, we're doing 20m draft zone for pros". Done. End of story. How hard is that to switch to and it should be EASIER to enforce
