RowToTri wrote:
rudyvonberg wrote:
Sean H wrote:
Slowman wrote:
my takeaway from this thread: you can't pace someone from behind; and if those in the race, at the race, don't see a problem with it i don't see why those of us hundreds or thousands of miles away should have a problem. triathlon began as a sport with almost no rules. the more rules it got, the less fun it became. and rudy is right. in 1989 i was one of those guys on the bike, maybe 40 or 50 of us, maybe more, riding behind mark and dave on the queen q, witnessing history.
So wife can follow me on the bike and it not be considered pacing? I had no idea this was allowed, and I'm sure lots of other people didn't either. This could get very interesting.
We are talking about the lead of the professional race, not a random age group racer. Two very different things. We are talking about spectators following the leaders from behind, not about a relative/ wife following their husband. That would be considered pacing as per the rules, but having spectators follow the PRO lead from behind is different.
I'm not necessarily against the spectators train behind the leaders, but obviously you know that most of the "spectators" were friends of the athletes. Not just random fans. So that's not the difference. We are definitely talking about allowing different rules for pros than for age groupers.
I agree, we are talking about "different rules" if you want to label it as rules (because I guess those rules don't really exist for PRO's yet in this case). In any sport, the professionals have it differently. Thousands of spectators, better stadiums, better pools, closed roads for cycling, something that doesn't happen for amateurs in all those sports. The comparison is made in triathlon only because it is one of the very few sports where PRO's and amateurs are on the same course at the same time. So I think that some rules should in fact be different, like it is in other professional sports. And having spectators follow leaders is something that I think should have different rules than for AG ers just because it helps our sport, it makes it more exciting and more accessible. Triathlon is known as an accessible sport in the sense that spectators don't have to pay for an entry ticket/ pass. Anyone can just go spectate a triathlon. Be a fan for free, and you can get very close to the PRO's. So for the good of triathlon, I think that having a "peloton" follow the leaders of the race is a good thing, and should not prohibited.