The swim course was about right.
The bike course was 5km short due to roadworks.
The run course was 500m short of 42km according to my watch.
The transition was about 1km long though..

Anyway, there were huge drafting packs for MOP triathletes, BUT the front riders were about clean (some small groups more or less 12 meters apart).
I am hugely impressed by the run speed of AGs though, it’s getting insanely fast.

They didn’t do it live, they’ll send emails.

LOL

You'll be laughing but back several years ago when I participated in this race I literally saw a huge group of riders (maybe 50-60) who rode like a weekend group - took the whole lane, some of them were chatting and using their arms for articulation only.


Thanks for the clarification. The guys were crazy fast. The winners from the previous year were around 30 minutes slower.

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Слава Україні 🇺🇦✊

In 2021 the starters field was relatively small, more or less 1500 units, and the guys in front did quite a fair race. This year was a total different story: even the head of the race on the bike was a tight pack; this allowed them to run on much fresher legs

I finished in 9h, close to the top of my age group and top 50 overall so you can certainly call me front pack; the race was not clean. Huge draft packs, esp second lap as we merged with 70.3 athletes. We all had a great day out but the times overall are meaningless. Finish positions also quite doubtful.

My Disclaimer upfront: I think the organizers did a great job in drying to get both races (IM and 70.3) underway on Sunday after the crazy Storms on Saturday but it came with a cost!


I raced the 70.3 and it really was a mess...I'm usually a good swimmer but I got a cramp out of the water and spent 8min in T1 before getting on my bike..... so I got into a first big pack after 10km into the bike course... now I tried 2 things: first I pushed harder than I was originally planning to get out of the pack but due to draft, everyone stayed behind me... than I decided that I really want a to have a "fair race" and started soft pedaling for a while until I got spit out of the pack and I could race fairly again... but only for 1-2 minutes because then I was swallowed by the next even bigger pack. I tried my soft pedaling approach again and each pack that swallowed me was even bigger (and slower). After 1h I gave up and stayed with the pack I was in to somehow complete the course and not get knocked off my bike as it got really crazy around me (overtaking from right side, crossing the centerline, squeezing into gaps that didn't exist, etc.). I was quite frustrated coming into T2 and I finished the run more as a training run as I lost my fun for the competition and I ended up approx. 20-30 places lower than in similar "fair" races over this distance.

I also did the math afterwards: 7000 Athletes on a course with a required distance of 12m needs a 84km course.... and ours was 90km, so this just doesn't work!

An thoughts? What would you have done? Any similar experiences? I'm starting in Kona in 3 weeks and I really hope to avoid similar situations...

Best regards,
Andreas

Ironman Italy is traditionally marred by excessive (to say the least) drafting. In 2021, with a relatively small starting field (1600 people for the full 140.6), things went a little better. This year's race became the ultimate draft fest. As I wrote in my first post here, the only way to have passably fair races, was to avoid overlap between them on the bike course, by reducing the bike leg of the full race (something like 120km). 120km might not be sufficient to call it Ironman, but neither a 180km group ride is

I was spectating and there from Friday afternoon. That they were able to pull this off after the Saturday storm was amazing.

What I learned: people will complain no matter what the solution is. Cancelled? Complain. Not cancelled? Complain. Yes, there were a lot of athletes on the course and drafting was there if you chose to. But I saw a lot of happy and satisfied finishers too 😄