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...
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...