dunno wrote:
Dean T wrote:
The race would have been very exciting, as a draft legal race. It’s such a shame that some draft whiners had to mess up our sport 40 years ago. Maybe it’s time to turn that around.I don't agree. I thought the non drafting aspect made it highly technical, like a game of chess, I enjoyed it.
As a old guy, who used to love the local draft legal triathlons back in the 80’s, before it was even an issue... I’ve come around to the modern draft rules, in regards to chip timed, rolling and wave starts, with huge fields, on TT bikes and inexperienced riders. But in events like yesterday, with a mass start, unlimited room, and perfect surfaces... it seemed rather silly to have an all out full contact, draft legal, free for all swim, and then clamp down, and restrict the riders to riding between cones. I was like man... let em rip, look at all that room, let’s go 5 wide and have a race! And how nice it would be to not need subjective judges, and officials, and rulings and warnings, and penalties. It’s a freaking race, it’s not figure skating or hockey.
The side by side idea was mine a few pages ago... maybe a perfect compromise? It would be easy enough to lay down some lane lines, with all that room. That would also make things more interesting and exciting.
It’s also one thing to watch, as a triathlete. But it’s another, to try and come up with ways to make it more interesting for football/basketball/ baseball people to maybe find it interesting. Or how about NASCAR folks? Or possibly suck in a TDF loving cyclist? From an outsider view, Kona is entertaining for it’s distances, and grueling conditions, scenery, and people cracking and crawling, and human interest stories. Julie Moss made it a thing. But A triathlon on a race track, made me realize it’s more like watching a track meet, or NASCAR race. If they want to make it noticed, outside of just other triathletes, they should focus on how to hype up the hard core race action.
Athlinks / Strava