Perhaps there is no way to stop drafting in full 140.6 events since running a run marathon - at the end - is a critical part of the race; however, for all other events a substantial run BEFORE the bike with a second run after the bike will eliminate 75% of all drafting. Break International distances into two 5k runs and LD events into one 5K and one 15K run. Drafting solved!

Legal drafting is fine. Even in athlete briefing he told us if you work with someone doin pulls and the 20 sec 4 bike lengths is met is is totally legal. I'm never lucky enough to get someone at the same speeds as me. My swim sucks. I have to muscle it out.

I actually witnessed a pace line. They were riding each other's wheels and taking turns pulling. Continued for last 20-30 miles. That is cheating. When you draft, you are able to travel at greater speeds with less effort. This also helps the run.

Back in 2009 at IMNZ they had a bike on a mag trainer, set up at the expo. There was tape around, to show the draft box. I got behind the bike, bent over like I was on the aero bars and took a mental pic of that image. I then shuffled back about 3 metres and did the same.

On race day I was riding what I consider to be 10m back. I thought I was riding clean, but the motorbike came up and warned me. I took that as meaning I was in or near the zone but the marshall wasn't confident enough to ping me. I really appreciated that. I tapped the brakes, dropped back another 2-3m and asked if that was good enough. The guy gave me the thumbs up. I checked the distance to the rider in front and that became my new mental picture as the correct distance to ride.

I was happy that I didn't get a penalty, but likewise would have accepted it if I got one. My policy is to ride so clean that the marshall can't question my judgement. I haven't been warned since, and never been pinged.

You got caught and that makes you a very very bad person :-) It does not earn you the death penalty unless you were on PED's as well.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

Yeah the mental picture probably wasn't accurate even though I was trying to measure bikes as we'd pass other riders. A warning that I was too close would've helped at any time as I was trying to maintain legal drafts all around the course especially in the lone headwind section. The official said he was watching from behind the group for a "long" time. I never saw him next to me or even heard his moto behind us so I'm guessing he was hanging back. This seemed like a good moto strategy as I saw a few folks right on wheels that were constantly turning their heads back.

The drifting into the draft zone is probably what he really got us on. Although perhaps from his perspective we looked closer than what I thought was mostly 4 bike lengths.

Next time I'll just be a lot farther than legal so any potential variable speed in front of me doesn't take me into the draft zone. Keep a pro draft distance which gives me 2 meters of brain fart distance.

Thx everyone for helping put it all into perspective and tips for not letting it happen again.

Slightly tangential, but can someone explain to me why the draft zone appears to be 7m in the rest of the world and 12m in Aus - or have I missed something?

What he said.
It's not a big deal, really.

I watched a group on 3 all get red carded around mile 95. They were probably 250 meters ahead of me just up the road and they weren't going any faster by drafting anyway.

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There is no difference between "legal / illegal" and "right / wrong". If you are riding at legal distance, you are "right."

There is nothing intrinsically "right" or "wrong" in the rules (or lack thereof). There are the rules and nothing else. Stop trying to instill some sense of inherent morality where there is none.

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I agree. Following one guy 7.1 meters back is wrong. It is best to follow a large group that is drafting together 7.25 meters back. A lot more benefit and gives you an extra 5+ inches of buffer.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Funny I didnt see a draft marshall out there the entire ride! I saw a few small packs of 3-5 guys that were too close and not trying to avoid it, especially in the 10 miles after the start of lap 2, kept hoping to see somebody get busted but nothing.

I think this officially makes you, quite literally, the worst person in the world. Good thing Olberman is not on the air anymore or you'd be appearing in his worst person in the world segment.

I swam 1:12 and rode 4:45 so I passed a lot of folks and did not see too much drafting at all. The official was present A LOT around me the first hour but then I rarely saw him. I was with 4-5 guys for a little less than an hour and I think we kept it legal 99% of the time. Staring at my garmin, if I was getting any actual draft it was negligible, but it was nice to be with others.
The second half of the race I saw maybe 2 people.

To answer your question, if you know you were not cheating you should not feel even a little bit bad, the officials are making split second decisions. Everybody will violate the drafting rule at some point for a second or two whether on purpose or not, it can happen. People who actually show up planing to draft are the losers.

IM MD was a million times better than Florida in terms of straight-up cheaters.

I'll agree with the others. "Cheating" implies intent. You simply broke a rule and got a penalty for it. No big deal.

I'll say, though, that at my first 70.3 I got hit by a drafting penalty that I, too, thought was kinda unfair due to the circumstances. Regardless I said nothing and went to the penalty tent. I walked in and said "apparently I was a bad boy and had to stand here for a few minutes". The ladies in there got a kick out of that saying that nobody ever came into the penalty tent that cheerful. Whatever - shit happens and it gave me a 4 minute break to finish off some nutrition and get a few sips of water. When I got out of T2 I felt much more "refreshed" than I might have had I gone in and straight out. Did I get those 4 minutes back by running a little faster after a "break"? I doubt it. But I still had a pretty damn good run and part of that might have been attributable to getting a few minutes rest time.

If you are so opposed to drafting, why not work to make the rules state the legal distance is something like 15 meters. Can you prove that's far enough? How about 20? 30? At what point do you get no draft benefit? And then, how do you enforce such massive distances? 7 meters is pretty easy to "eyeball" correctly. 15 or more, from a motorcycle isn't.

Until then, you can be moral all you want, but if the rules say I can stay 7m back, that's where I will be.

Do you draft on the swim? Or is that a-moral to you? Do you ever try to pace with someone while running (who is also in the race)? Or is that also a-moral?

Can I get a clarification here? In a local race in my area there is a rather steep climb that is prob 1/2 mile long. It's a typical get off and walk for most 1st time triathletes so it bottle necks. Anyways, at this race this past year I saw 10-15 cyclist in a huge pack climbing this hill. 5 wide at the worst, 3-4 deep - taking up the whole road. USAT moto was right behind them. I was sure most would be dinged. Nothin! Not a penalty to be had (nothing reported in the race results). I asked about this on my local tri FB page and the consensus was, "no competitive advantage to drafting up a steep climb" so no penalties were issued. Is that accurate? If so, how does one determine what is steep enough, like in your case Bryan?

Just curious.

I've heard it this way at a couple of races with an especially steep hill. "On such-and-such hill, most of you are probably going to be creeping up the hill under 10 miles an hour. No one gets a draft advantage going up it, so you can bunch up and we won't call drafting. But two things to remember: 1) if you're riding on the left and not passing, we'll call you for blocking or position because the good climbers need to have a place to pass, and 2) as soon as you get to the top of the hill, you need to either pass or drop back to get legal again."