drafting at an ironman race? shocking

That looks like the end of the ride, where riders bunched up before dismounting.

Yup looked pretty blatant for me. It had nothing to do with a very crowded course on a very flat road. DQ them all! Most where like 12" off the wheel in front just like a good road cyclist would be. It had nothing to do with the slow uphill/headwind section they were on either.

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I have a hard time getting worked up about people drafting at 10-15 mph. Is there even any benefit at that speed? That snippet and the snippet at 4:06 in the video (which was shot approaching the aid station across from special needs) appear to be people that spent a very long time on the bike. I was spectating on course throughout the competitive part of the day and saw very few competitive men/women drafting.

Yes, I saw a few packs like that as I was coming down the Beeline, but I was never in any nor did I see any in front of me. Because of the winds, I felt like there was MUCH less drafting and fewer packs than in my previous three races there. There was drafting and penalties were handed out. Yes, that clip showed it.

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Team Zoot So Cal

I was Jimmy's motorcycle driver, as I have been ~4-5x on the IMAZ course. I also moto'ed IMSG, CDA this year and was suited up for race morning at LT. I've done similar moto schedules for the past several years.

I'm pretty sure I've observed more IM bike courses from the vantage point of a motorcycle than anyone on this forum. I can tell you that you can't really tell what's going on unless you're riding behind and offset of a group of riders. It's a very dynamic situation and a static shot can't tell you everything, certainly not the entire story. Consider that with 20" to pass and 20" to drop out of the draft zone once you've been passed, the interplay between any two riders can be as long as 40". Now have all of those little dances happening all over over the course and it's just (1) very dynamic and (2) you need to actually count people down.

That snip of the video looks like northbound on the Beeline, from the terrain, vegetation, speed. Generally uphill, into a headwind, very strong this year.

Jimmy and I worked the men's pro race for a bit until he decided that they were spread out and he had good coverage with his other officials. So he decided to find the pointy end of the AG race and work them. We got sidetracked taking care of a woman who crashed very badly at high speed, southbound on the Beeline just after the turnaround. Compound clavicle fracture and I stood sorta in the road for a good while flagging riders to move over and slow down. If you slowed down for me, thanks. If you went by me full gas, in the aerobars, and couldn't be bothered to at least get in the hoods and be a bit safer considering the moto, ninja turtle suit guy in the road, troopers and ambulance on the side...you need to just chill.

Anyway, when we saddled back up and found the pointy end, things actually looked pretty good. Or rather I can say it was very dynamic, with Jimmy and I counting many, many folks up to 17secs...then the pass is done. Then 18secs to get out of the draftzone...stuff like that. Again, very dynamic but with more than a few people working it to stay in a sweet spot. Jimmy gave out many penalties, I can tell you that.

We then found Rapp and I followed/led him into T2. He has a nice little trick of feathering right brake while in the aerobars, to avoid AG'ers.

IMO, the consideration for AZ isn't so much the drafting but rather the crowded course and the speed differences between BOP, MOP, FOP, and Pro's all occupying the same loops of the course. Especially on a day like this year with a headwind as you're going north, tailwind south = a VERY big speed differential between the lanes of traffic on the Beeline. I can imagine being a faster cyclist out there could get pretty frustrating and squirelly, especially on the 3rd loop.

Does drafting happen? Yes, intentional and otherwise.
Is it tough to avoid on such a crowded course? Yes.
Is it as bad as it appears, either as an athlete on the course or a static observer? Not in my experience. Again, very dynamic and only a motorcycle gives you the proper perspective. Well, I guess sitting in a draft back would do the same :-) but even riding behind a group often doesn't tell you the whole story.

My job was made a little easier this year due to the lack of cones that I had to dodge last year, but I essentially played Frogger for 4-5hrs on Sunday. I say this every year: not sure I'll be back to do it again next year, but it's always fun to drive Jimmy around and catch up, especially since he weighs the same as a 15yo girl :-)

JnR Action Photo

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Rich Strauss
Endurance Nation Ironman 2013 and 2014 World Champion TriClub, Div I
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Thanks for posting this

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Thanks for being out there Rich.

If that video is the worst drafting there was at AZ, you guys did fantastic work, because that's just a few people. Though it is evident from that snippet that the guys in back aren't progressing in relationship to the guys in front, if there were only a few groups like that one, it's an improvement from the past.

What's this brake feathering technique Rapp uses to avoid AGers that you write of? Nothing about braking on a straightaway sounds good.

Until a yellow card is 20 minutes in the bin, drafting will continue

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I was getting passed by everyone and their grandmother on Sunday. Only saw one real pack of 10-12 riders that didn't want to play by the rules. I did see a few of the top amateur women seem to be drafting off men. Overall, it seems pretty clean to me.

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speedySTATES

Rich -

I thought you and the rest of the officiating team did an AWESOME job yesterday. I was one of the guys at the pointy end of the age group field, although being passed more often than passing. I saw great coverage on the beeline, doing the best to move up & down the highway despite the congestion. It definitely got a little crowded out there, with a motorcycle riding between traffic in both directions, likely not a comfortable position for the athletes and competitors.

I counted maybe 2 or 3 legit packs, but these were at the back of the field (folks 1/2 way thru laps 1 or 2 while I was on my 2nd & 3rd), and I saw motos working thru these packs with a few cards going out.

Also - I noticed a concentrated effort for the ref's to make an impact at the start of the race, to really create a strong impression that it would be a well policed event. Did you find more citations for blocking rather than drafting?

Now that you got this one figured out, please ask Jimmy to get a gameplan for 70.3 worlds in Austria. It seems like 70.3 Worlds has repeatedly had big issues with major packs.

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Thoughts on being an Urban Triathlete

All I'm saying is that's very dynamic, 40 secs is a lot of time, you can't tell what's going on from a static pic or short video, and there are many other considerations going on regarding the safe positioning of a motorcycle on the course, etc.

In particular, see this blog post I wrote after moto-ing IMCDA this year, where I thought the drafting was especially bad, and the lack of knowledge of the rules by athletes was also just as bad. I then sat in on an athlete's briefing at IMWI this year where, in my opinion, the explanation of the rules was done rather cursory and with a bit of a cavalier attitude. I discussed this with Jimmy on Saturday during our special time together :-)

Basically, solving/addressing the drafting problem has a lot of moving parts, and the parts I have direct experience with is:

• # of moto volunteers -- I think ~10 moto volunteers failed to show up. That said, I'm very certain that all of the draft marshals had a ride.
• # of draft marshal volunteers. As I've said before, for all of the clamoring around here about the need for more marshals, you guys should be 10 deep to volunteer to be a marshal. Happy to ride you around for a day :-)
• Safely negotiating a motorcycle around a course <-- this is something many of you don't really appreciate but which is probably one of the most significant factors to consider. Driving the IMAZ course is no. joke., says a guy with over 200k miles and a ton of dirt riding experience. Pretty much everything from T1/2 to the Beeline was no-go territory for safe officiating on the 2nd and 3rd laps.
• Educating athletes about the rules. Again, see my CDA post above.

Jordan simply stayed in the aero, reached over and applied a little brake now and then. Not in high traffic situations and nothing revolutionary, just something I noticed out there.


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Rich Strauss
Endurance Nation Ironman 2013 and 2014 World Champion TriClub, Div I
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Thanks for describing the "dynamic" situations so well. I think it was on my second lap on Sunday, nearing the top of the hill out by the turnaround, I had just rejoined the race after taking a few seconds on the side of the road to fix a dropped chain. It was pretty crowded. A spectator from the side was standing there shouting "keep it clean!" I think I literally mumbled "wtf". Seriously, first of all, we were going 10-15mph, secondly, just because a lot of cyclists go by in close proximity to each other does not mean "hurr durr look at the IMAZ draft packs go by". Even at only 10mph, 300ft are covered over 20sec. There are so many changes in position over that amount of time, especially where we were on the course with people attacking the hill at very varied rates. Was I within 1-2 meters right behind 2-3 guys? Yes. What that the case 10 sec later when this spectator was in my rear view? No, not even close.

I think people sometimes get the idea that unless they see a single file line of cyclists 7 meters apart, there is drafting. Well that's just not true, it takes a trained eye and maybe even a motorcycle to tell, but no way most courses can accommodate the field sizes for one to see that ideal picture.

From my perspective (1:06/5:22), it was pretty clean out there.