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Re: Idea to police drafting [TooSlow] [ In reply to ]
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Neat idea, but I could only imagine the entry fees that they would need to charge to subsidize the costs of this approach... The sport is already prohibitively expensive for many, and this would crank that up a notch (that in an of itself might help reduce drafting, by reducing field sizes through pricing out some of the pack fodder...).

The easiest/cheapest solution is just to make it all draft legal... I prefer racing draft-legal, and generally have felt safe in most DL races I have done...

Alternatively they could spread out the waves more, to avoid so many people hitting the course at once, move away from looped courses where there are larger fields, all to help reduce congestion and to eliminate the perfect storm of conditions to produce a draft-fest...

The post-COVID guidelines might actually be a good fix for some of these issues, because of the reduced field sizes and efforts to spread people out more to avoid potential transmission... As long as there's no vaccine, if someone is sucking your wheel, a few wet coughs might work to shake them too... The biggest issue is not the policing of drafting, it is the prevention of the conditions that create that perfect climate for a draft-fest...

There will always be those looking to cheat/gain an advantage, but the majority of draft fests are actually caused by the way the events are organized... So giving out penalties left right and center is actually in some ways penalizing athletes for the failures of the RD...
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Re: Idea to police drafting [synthetic] [ In reply to ]
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synthetic wrote:
or how about just allow drafting. then it wont be a problem anymore, would it?

And turn it into a race for wheel-sucking runners. Rather like quite a lot of the last few years in ITU, particularly the women's races between about 2013 and 2017.
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Re: Idea to police drafting [trail] [ In reply to ]
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trail wrote:
Well shit, maybe I'm wrong about cyclists. But I'll try it out.

1. Maybe you shouldn't always ride faster than everyone else out there, then maybe you would experience this ;)

2. As a decently speedy cyclist, I have found that yes, it detects faster riders approaching from the rear.

3. However to the OP, I do find that it only detects these cyclists if the speed differential is at some level, significant enough to call it approaching. I have had my wife slowly ease up into my draft without ever triggering the radar but definitely have had her and other riders trigger it. That is to say that I don't think your idea is very good, since drafters typically aren't zooming up to you to get in your draft, they'll either ease into it or more likely, these are rider you pass and they just slide right into your slipstream. Neither would trigger the radar.

4. This solution would be what, for pros only? Certainly wouldn't work for a massive AG field of Kona unless everyone wants to pay $1500 for an entry fee rather than $1000

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo
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Re: Idea to police drafting [Dean T] [ In reply to ]
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Dean T wrote:
synthetic wrote:
or how about just allow drafting. then it wont be a problem anymore, would it?


This will always get my vote. All our local events were draft legal in the 80's, until TriFed came to town. It made the bike portion of the race, a real bike race. Those who could draft did, those who couldn't didn't, and we all had a blast. Every now and then we'd get a whiner, usually poor swimmers, and/or someone who got dropped, about how unfair drafting was. But they were few and far between. The whiners back then, were much fewer, and caused a lot less hassles and trouble back then, than the draft cheaters do now.

Unfortunately, it probably won't happen anytime soon, as the bikes have evolved into very dangerous draft machines. I couldn't imagine 3000 indoor trained, inexperienced cyclists on tri bikes, in a draft legal race. And I also couldn't imagine making a race draft legal, and telling everyone that aero bars were illegal. So wham... things have evolved into what they are, and that's the way it is for now.

As for draft policing, I'm looking forward to the technology to be put into our timing chips. Simply recording a violation, any time the chip is in the proximity of another chip, for longer than a certain time span. Then electronically add the penalty time to finish time.

obviously bikes with aero bars can be easily banned. I like racing in mexico. Its draft legal for non ironbrand events. If you use a tri bike, you get a 1 minute penalty in olympic race, 30s in sprint
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Re: Idea to police drafting [synthetic] [ In reply to ]
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synthetic wrote:

obviously bikes with aero bars can be easily banned. I like racing in mexico. Its draft legal for non ironbrand events. If you use a tri bike, you get a 1 minute penalty in olympic race, 30s in sprint

I like that idea. A lot. Lift all the draft restrictions, make life simple for everyone, and add a time penalty for aero bars. How about 15 minutes for a half, and 30 minutes for a full.

Athlinks / Strava
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Re: Idea to police drafting [Dean T] [ In reply to ]
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In many places the bike part of triathlons occur on open roads, and for both safety and in some locations legislation then draft legal racing is not allowed. You need to have closed roads which limits the number of events and massively increases the costs.

The safety side comes from not all triathletes regularly riding / training in groups. Perhaps if races were all draft legal then more triathletes would practice, but I wouldn't want to draft 99% of triathletes as they just don't know how to ride in a line - and even in training I politely ask people I don't know not to sit on my wheel please as I've been in a crash before where someone ran into my back wheel and got their front jammed between my rotor and spokes.
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Re: Idea to police drafting [trail] [ In reply to ]
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trail wrote:
Well shit, maybe I'm wrong about cyclists. But I'll try it out.

i've paired my garmin to my buddy's varia when i've forgotten to charge mine and he loves to hammer up hills way more than i do. on the descents i've seen it pick me up. i've also seen mine pick up pelotons as they pass me when i'm riding solo
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Re: Idea to police drafting [TooSlow] [ In reply to ]
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Just switch to MTB triathlons. Problem solved. Wish there were more of them.

Stephen J

I believe my local reality has been violated.
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Happiness = Results / (Expectations)^2
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Re: Idea to police drafting [TooSlow] [ In reply to ]
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A pandemic to reduce the # of people in a race FTW!

Too soon?

Brian Stover USAT LII
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Re: Idea to police drafting [Duncan74] [ In reply to ]
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Duncan74 wrote:
In many places the bike part of triathlons occur on open roads, and for both safety and in some locations legislation then draft legal racing is not allowed. You need to have closed roads which limits the number of events and massively increases the costs.

The safety side comes from not all triathletes regularly riding / training in groups. Perhaps if races were all draft legal then more triathletes would practice, but I wouldn't want to draft 99% of triathletes as they just don't know how to ride in a line - and even in training I politely ask people I don't know not to sit on my wheel please as I've been in a crash before where someone ran into my back wheel and got their front jammed between my rotor and spokes.

the bike part on open roads with traffic should not be considered a race or certified. that is like a bike tour gran fondo.
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