Practice your Drafting technique

This actually worries me.. in every tri I have done (only a handful of sprints and olympics and one 70.3) I have seen pretty rampant cheating in the form of drafting, outside assistance etc.

I do my best to stay clean but admittedly some of the vids I have seen from Barcelona make it seem worse than I have seen before.

Ah well, location chosen by my better half so we get a family holiday after the race.

I saw a lot of draft packs there but also some large groups of people in the penalty tents. But you can race pretty cleanly and still go fast there. If you catch on to the end of a train, just try to keep making passes. Odds are you'll still be in a decent shape power-wise.

The year I did it, my swim was about 5 minutes faster than I predicted. Not sure if it was just a good day for me or if the course was actually a little short. Bike - pretty much easy, just be careful the first km or so out of transition as there are several speed bumps getting out of town. The run is on a hard packed dirt trail which is mostly pretty good. There's a small section on pavement.

All day long was very comfortable weather when I was there, about 16C in the morning, high of about 22C.

It's a great venue. Easy for the spectators too as there are tunnels going under the road to get to the beach. So spectators can cross without getting in the way of racers.

But are you in ketosis?

---

808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Thanks! What year did you compete?

It was my 2nd IM and had heard the drafting was bad but didn't think it could be as bad as i had heard. It was worse..
Note course last year had an extra little loop on bike to bring distance up to 181km (was previously ~176km).

We had a rough swim last year but even still it's a lovely swim. Sea very clear and buoyant.
Bike surface is great. I tried to beat the packs and burnt a few matches. If i was you just let them off and ignore and don't let it frustrate you. In fairness there was loads of lads in tents but won't get near all off them. Fairly boring course tbh. Had done CPH before and enjoyed
Also it is a few before you are fully out of the streets and onto the bike course proper. Also we had a little bit of rain which made these streets slippy on the return and seen a few people have some crashes on some of the tight corners.
Run is lovely and flat and the loops makes it easy for family & friends to follow you.

The area itself is very family friendly. I brought wife and 2 kids and worked out well. We stayed 3-4km away from race venue just to stay away from it all pre race.
Loads of nice spots to eat and very reasonable prices.

2015 before the course went inland - so it was even less elevation.