[/quote]
You have to understand too that as pros we can't slip stream so the benefit we are purely getting is basically the mass of people breaking the wind in our general area. As a age-grouper you are allowed to bike up to someone in the draft and sling shot around.[/quote]

I would say there are massive caveats here and it as all assuming you have more than a handful of people to even pass. Take Oceanside 70.3 for example or any race with a rolling start, if you are at the front of the AG race and are good on the bike, it is not long before you are in the middle of nowhere by yourself for a long time. I'd take riding in a pro pack for 56 miles over that any day.

But yeah, if I come out of T1 behind 2000 people would I save some energy? Of course. Would I be that much faster than riding in a pro pack? I don't know - I would probably be white-knuckling it the whole time.

As for the elite AG question, we just had the Boulder Peak make its return to Boulder and it was a lot of fun. We had an elite AG wave start behind the women pros and I would bet I went faster in that wave than if I started in my typical AG wave because I was pushing myself against some very fast guys and chasing and being chased. That counts for something in motivation.

Also I would say forget about potential awards or recognition and put yourself up against the best field you can if it's available (but don't ask me about the "if you qualify for your pro card you should take it" thing - that's a separate issue...I think).