In my mind, 20m makes the bike portion of the race more significant and dangerous. I want guys like Gomez having to pull on the bike, or otherwise give up a big gap going in to T2. Right now there is no incentive to really race the bike if you are an Uber runner. It makes for boring racing. It would be nice to see the Uber runners out of their comfort zone during the bike, as I think it would lead to more drama and uncertainty on the run.

In my mind, 20m makes the bike portion of the race more significant and dangerous. I want guys like Gomez having to pull on the bike, or otherwise give up a big gap going in to T2. Right now there is no incentive to really race the bike if you are an Uber runner. It makes for boring racing. It would be nice to see the Uber runners out of their comfort zone during the bike, as I think it would lead to more drama and uncertainty on the run.

So what you are saying is that the sport is evolving right? So it's only fair to suggest with that evolution, does the drafting rules need to be adjusted as well?

So what you are saying is that the sport is evolving right? So it's only fair to suggest with that evolution, does the drafting rules need to be adjusted as well? //

Well since they began with a 5m zone and that has opened up several times over the years, I would say the sport has evolved in this regard, and quite a bit. But at some point you have to say enough is enough, we can't even see two guys in the frame anymore. So maybe under some conditions at 12m a guy saves a few watts, most of the time it is nothing because of a crosswind, tailwind, or just not the ideal conditions that this distance gets tested at. Whatever it is, it is much less than a swim draft, and less than the run draft. The entire race has some element of drafting, always has, always will. I think we have hit the upper zone of minimizing the bike draft to the point where it really won't make any difference in how guys race, or how they end up in those races.


Now if some race wants a 20m zone then fine, do it. But make sure you don't have 50 top pros and just a couple marshals to work it. If you put it up then you got to finish the job and make it right. And while you are at it make sure you have one dedicated Marshall for the lead rider the entire race too, want to talk about cheating watts, that is the low hanging and biggest fruit..

One thing that is interesting is that a 20m draft zone takes off some "pressure" on the officials. Now I may get my hand slapped for saying this but I think currently 12m the athletes can "game" the 12m draft zone. And that's not meant to say officials are at fault or that the athletes are directly trying to "cheat". I think it's simply the reality of the situation of guys riding in a paceline at 26 mph and an official sitting beside/behind/ahead and trying to "measure" 12m. I would find it almost impossible to have 3 officials from the exact same viewpoint able to consistently come up with the same measurements on riders. Again this is not a knock on the officials, this is more in line to say, what if the average distance really is 11.78934m in between each rider? It's like in MLB the rulebook has a directly defined strike zone, yet what do we see. We have all kinds of different strike zones, and pitchers know who calls a "tight" zone and who are "pitcher friendly". And again, this is not a knock on them, this is the reality and exactly why I think in 10 years, MLB will be using robots/machines to call balls/strikes.

So a 20m zone allows for more margin of error that doesn't have as a direct impact on the benefits of the draft zone. A rider at 11.87m gets more draft than rider at 12.00m, and carry that to 20m, if the margin of error has the riders riding truly at 19.83m instead of 20m, that difference is less critical the further out you go in the draft zone.

So essentially 12m zone right now puts absolute critical importance on officials to measure 12m, 12m. And again if I get my hand slapped for that, ok fine. But I think we are seeing draft zone distance options, and if we can discuss these things, great. So again, I'm not saying officials are doing a bad job. I actually think they are having to hold a standard that I don't think can be held in the current dynamics at this point in the development of the sport. You have what 6-8 guys all in a paceline, and 1 or 2 guys is suppose to sit there and watch and know that every single athlete is staying at 12m....that's just unrealistic, so then things start creeping up.

And finally yes it's the athlete's "responsibility" to know the rules and to ride 12m and not "creep up", and when they do they are "cheating" whether they get caught or not. But what I'm suggesting is that if 12m is a very tight window to actually measure for both athlete/official, why not decrease the margin of error and help both in the process?

All you guys arguing for a different draft zone and how unfair this 12m is, what do you think the result of this race should have been?

As I see it the best overall triathlete won, a super swimmer/biker went out on a flier and got paid off with 2nd, solid ex ITU guy who has moved up quite profitably gets 3rd, and guys that lose 4 minutes in the swim or blow up fill out many of the next places. Seems to me it was a pretty fair race all around and the results reflect that.

There is nothing wrong with a 12m draft zone if enforced. What did Keinle think after hammering and closing 4 minutes, that everyone else was hammering in front of him? No they were just riding a comfortable pace waiting for him to catch, and be ready to match his pace afterwards. That is why he cannot break them at this junction in the race, he is toasted a bit from the chase, and everyone else is fresh and ready to up their watts to match his pace. He can't get mad because Gomez doesnt come to the front to set pace, why would he? He is the best runner in the race by far, why chance a blow up on the bike? That is like getting mad at some guy in a break at the TDF, for not pulling when his teammate has the yellow jersey in the peloton and 2nd place is in that break. Some things just don't make sense, and Gomez ever setting pace when the group is all together, is one of those just doesn't make sense scenarios. Silly to get mad about that. Javier is not Keinle's domestic, now if Sanders had been there it is a whole different situation. They could have traded pace and broke the group off of them and changed the dynamic. But he wasn't there so you have to play the cards dealt on the day..

The best triathletes are winning the big races, how it ought to be. If you lose 4 minutes in a swim you probably are not the best triathlete under any circumstances, sorry guys but just too many that lose no time who can also bike and run like monsters..

Strong, no moto draft there.

Spot on.

x2. well said, monty. 12m is arbitrary, as is 20m, 19m, 11m, or anything else. you show up and you toe the line, and deal with everything that includes: weather, terrain, competitors, rules. . . if you know your strengths won't be rewarded, you either work on your weaknesses or find another race, or accept a sub-optimal finish.

While I agree with much of what Monty wrote in many parts, to say that 12 meters versus 20 m or anything else is arbitrary is laughable. Sorry.

Javi executed a brilliant race within the rules that are set out, just as if he had won a fully draft legal race.

I think it really just comes down to what people perceive non itu Triathlon as IDEALLY being: as close as is feasible to a true Individual time trial, or a nearly draft legal bike that we pretend is non drafting.

Personally, I think that bumping it out to 20 meters would show the strongest overall athlete, but not necessarily the strongest overall tactical competitor.

And yeah, I know there's drafting on the swim in the Run blah blah blah blah blah blah blah the bike is more than half the race, so if you can keep that clean, you've already got half the racing non drafting right there.

But should the bike be over half the race??? You have inadvertently hit on the root of the whole issue: if each leg took roughly 1/3 of the race, then the athletes would be much more spread out when they get on their bikes, not to mention a bit more tired. Swimming say 5000 m would spread competitors out a good bit more.