Dreitz didn’t pull off because the DS in the team car told him not to, or there was a malfunction with his ear piece, or he was getting in some good base miles for the spring classics ;)

Serously, know he had real aerobars, but I imagined him slumped over on a road bike in the invisible aero bars reeling in the break of the day

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Ahh, that explains why Lange had such a slow marathon time this year

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

 I've seen his name on result sheets, but never heard him talk so went back to watch his breakfast with bob interview. He reminded me of a kid in a sweet shop, you just can't help but like the guy.

You defined your own "or". I added that regardless of being in a train, no one is on the aero bars all the time. You claim it had to do with the train, you prove it. I'll wait.

You tell me. I'm not in the accusers bandwagon so I'm fine. Nothing to admit here.

Hello
I don´t want to critizice anyone here but I don´t see the point to blame Dreitz for pulling at the front. Whatever he made a job for Lange or not, the other guys behind also took advantage of the long train, and as far as they did not draft, what´s the matter?? As long as Ironman does not prohibit to work as a team or bikers to follow the train, no issues here. Dreitz did what he did ...it is his business
I also do not like what Frodo and Kienle "said" about Lange for not usually keeping the distance and drafting....Lange is not a Uber biker, so, it just sounds as if he should push hard on the bike as both frodo and Kienle do to be a legitimate winner... does Lange follow the rules? If so, no issues either...

I guess someone in these years has suggested or wondered if there could be a kind of a chip to avoid drafting, like, kind of entering within the 12m zone and get a red light in the handlebars...also connected to the judges to check it out. Of course, just feasible for the pros.... anyone spoke about this before?

Cheers

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P

I also do not like what Frodo and Kienle "said" about Lange for not usually keeping the distance and drafting....Lange is not a Uber biker, so, it just sounds as if he should push hard on the bike as both frodo and Kienle do to be a legitimate winner... does Lange follow the rules? If so, no issues either...

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I think the issue is that if people want to "sit in" that's fine. But dont ride 10.8m back of someone when it's a 12m draft zone. That is what I gathered from the pre-Kona talk from Sebi and Frodo. That Lange def doesn't follow the prescribed distance when officials are not there. Which to my point, as I've said with triathlon. We've made triathlon a "officiated" sport. So if there is no officials around "doing the right thing" becomes a choice, not the standard. So by adding officials we are taking it out of the hands of the athletes to ride by the rules, but making the officials dictate who/when athletes are violating the rules. ETA: And that's fine if that's how we want our sport governed- we just have to deal with the fact that when you have so little officials with so much ground to cover your bound to have some "cheating" going on.....

I saw several times on the telecast from overhead shots, members of that draft train easily within probaly 10m of each other, and of note, not a single person in the Lange/Gomez train got a penalty.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

 If he didn't want to pull anymore then all he needed to do was move to the left and forcibly drop back. It's really that simple. He's not an idiot.

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I think technically he can't move to the left, that would then be a positioning foul. You have to "hold your line". So he would just have to brake sharply enough that the group rides into his draft zone and thus is forced to pass him. I'm assuming in that scenario he wouldn't be able to slot behind anyone until the final athlete passed him in the draft train.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

What Frodo & Kienle say and infer is accurate ...

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Dave Latourette
http://www.TTENation.com

IN agreement with what you are saying ... If you watched the Dreitz group from inception there were a couple athletes who chose to "play games" when refs were not focusing on them AND others (one especially who rode closer to 15+m and at the front at times)

I mentioned in another thread, between the airport and Waikoloa there should have been a handful of penalties in that group (this is before it got bigger) ...

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Dave Latourette
http://www.TTENation.com

I was waiting for this response.

This is ST so people are going to consciously or subconsciously avoid the entire point here, which is...

First off, yes, technically he clearly shouldn't do that but I've also seen that done many times in an IM. Of course, he's riding with the defending champ so there's a reasonable chance he has some eyes on him which makes his options more constrained. Look, we want to believe these guys always obey the rules but the truth is they don't. Sometimes it's a conscious decision but sometimes it's a subconscious decision because of the self-preservation principle.

Now, the point is that he has options if he truly wanted someone else to pull (as he so claimed). Some options are much more desirable than others. The option I proposed above was more of a last resort since he apparently went to the brakes a few times in order to allow Lange or Currie to take over. IOW, he certainly planted the seed in everyone's head that he had no desire to pull the entire time yet that's exactly what he did.

Thinking about this logically, if he truly made several attempts to force these guys pull then I would think he did so because he clearly felt it was in his own best interest NOT to do it. However, it didn't happen. I'm not going to speculate why it didn't happen but it just seems rather odd to me given that it's really not that hard to force someone else to pull.

Oh I agree if you want off the front you get the F off. Whether moving left or just brake checking the group and forcing them to then pass. I think Dreitz wanted to work the front because it helped lange and at that point he couldn’t break away. Yes he hurt some people in that group but I also think he hurt his own legs. Maybe he was never going to pass anyone on the run but it was 100% when you burn all those matches on the front and everyone else sitting in. But imo that’s the moment the poorest runner in the group should decide to have others do the work and rest your legs. But that’s just me. I also think at some point Dreitz looks at lange and says your own your own now. You get 1 partner race but now Dreitz likely wants to race fully for himself. No pulling for anyone, no worrying about the pace being too hot or too slow, no getting “orders” from the peanut gallery. Every man for yourself, if they work together great, if they don’t great.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II