My son is a sophomore in high school and is competing in tri's. He is a xc runner and a swimmer which makes him very competitive in the sprint distance. We are buying a new tri bike as he has gotten more and more serious about triathlons. I've seen a number of posts / articles regarding the USAT Junior Elite cup races so we looked at them try to see if they would be worth pursuing. One of the main differences is that they are a "Drafting Legal" format and tri bikes are not allowed. The typical course description is that the bike course is on some type of loop for multiple laps so a Tri bike probably wouldn't offer that much of an advantage.
I don't know what rules were in place for the original triathlons (back in the dark ages) but even in the early 80's when I competed, drafting was illegal. The question then is: Rules continually change as sports "evolve", is the sport of Triathlon heading in the direction of drafting being allowed? In my ignorance, the information I read regarding the ITU triathlons implied that drafting was legal in that "brand" of the sport, was drafting allowed in the Olympics?
How does that effect the use of Tri bikes?
I don't know what rules were in place for the original triathlons (back in the dark ages) but even in the early 80's when I competed, drafting was illegal. The question then is: Rules continually change as sports "evolve", is the sport of Triathlon heading in the direction of drafting being allowed? In my ignorance, the information I read regarding the ITU triathlons implied that drafting was legal in that "brand" of the sport, was drafting allowed in the Olympics?
How does that effect the use of Tri bikes?