OK, since we are having some fun on this thread, technically there is nothing illegal about having an extra marital affair with a pornstar, whereas speeding and drafting are both illegal. So the Orange One would get a pass at IM Texas if he did not draft but banged a female athlete in T2 who he chatted up during a legal pass on the bike while Melania was wondering why he is taking so long in T2 (or maybe he's fast, I don't know)....he could even brag about it during the marathon all he wanted even if there was Access Hollywood reporters taping the bragging. He'd probably get elected in as Prez of WTC after that to straighten out the WTC drafting swamp and ini the lead up the head of the FBI would have outted Messick for all kinds of personal emails that he ran off a personal server where confidential email between him and Jimmy and the Texas State troopers who limited moto access to the Hardy Expressway were all purged!!!!

Did I miss anything that we should add to this?

Nope. You achieved your goal of being super extra douchey.

This shit needs to move to the Lavender room.

Custom 2019 IMTX training plan for guaranteed PR: Allocate training time as 85% run, 12% swim, and 3% bike. Remember, it's not "cheating" unless you get caught, and since Ironman is too busy selling your loved-ones more crap merchandise back at the Village, consider it tacit approval that everything's kosher.

I kinda knew I would be killing the thread when the other guy started with the pornstar angle. But in fairness, he's picking on the guy for doing something totally legal (the affair with the pornstar). It's not against any legal rule, just some implicit moral contract the guy may have with his partner. Drafting on the other hand inside the confines of the sport is a rule transgression. Yes, we have all incidentally drafted due to situational traffic/rider density, the real question is whether we sat in getting the full blown illegal tow. Just cause a peloton is doing it, does not make it legal. It may "feel OK" but it's still illegal in the sport.

Well beneath you....sad.

I think that you guys missed the most important part of that satire. Messick/WTC knew they would not have enough marshalls on the course but chose to run a championship events stacked with Kona slots without refs. From half a continent away, it appears to be that way.

As for the satire, well, OK, but I picked on the email deleting crew too, and maybe we just have more fun with banging on our politicians in Canada and the UK without getting too serious about them. But I'll behave myself and stick to triathlon....so which email thread did Messick get involved with when he was informed that he will run a championship race with no referees or not run it at all.

Jimmy, "Houston, we have a problem, we're about to run the Big 12 Conference Championships at the Astrodome and the dome staff won't let our referees enter the stadium"
Messick, "Well dammit, the fans have paid for the tickets and the sponsors are lined up, we have no choice, let's just assume the players will behave themselves and follow rules"
Jimmy, "Are you out of you mind? Even Gomez sits right at the edge of the box with Kienle blows by, and you expect age group ego maniacs to play clean....we need a solution"
Messick, "Jimmy, use your three refs to make sure that Starky is not drafing anyone. We want to make sure any records are legit"
Jimmy, "I heard the course is a bit short anyway, so the records won't count, maybe we use our refs to make sure no one drafts the Prince"

Ok seriously, what happened with Ironman not being allowed more refs on the field of play. Aside from athletes not behaving, this seems really weird.

I don't know the ground truth regarding refs at IM Texas this year, but I've read in several other places that because the 2 and 3 abreast draft packs were going into the center lane which was supposed to be clear, the police pulled the refs from the course for safety reasons. If that's true, the drafters were rewarded for bad behavior with a marshal-free course. What I don't understand is how WTC lost control of the course in the first place. I did IM Texas last year and they kept everyone to the sides while refs, ambulances, and police maintained the center lane. What the heck happened this year that changed it so markedly for the worse?

I was one of the first hundred or so amateurs onto the bike course & the only moto I saw all day forced us into the middle lane, leaving the right hand lane open. I didn’t ask why, he was screaming pretty loud.

This completes my disillusionment with triathlon. It's just a white middle class activity that people do in an attempt to feel special about themselves.

Well that probably set the stage. I looked at the athlete's guide and it is silent on how to ride the freeway. That is something they need to address next year.

Good satire doesn't need an explanation.

I'm not surprised there was drafting, nor am I surprised it was as bad as it was. It is a flat race. It is a 'championship' race. It's also early and really far away from Kona. Given those factors, I think that you would have to expect the potential that a lot of drafting would occur. Given those factors, I do not think that it is un-reasonable to expect an organizing body to have precautions or preparations in place for controlling or at least attempting to control packs and drafting.

I was mildly surprised that there seemed to be little to no officiating out there. I've heard of this at a local yokel sprint tri, but not at a 'championship' race.

I think it's a little disingenuous to place all of the blame on the athletes like a couple of tweets and other comments seemed to do. I would venture that every single person who was involved with decisions about the race knows how athletes behave and what to expect of athletes. Athlete behavior hasn't changed since probably the beginning of time...generally speaking here. Given the choice between drafting and not, most will chose drafting, especially if they will not get caught or tagged. So again, I do not think that it's an un-reasonable expectation to have a relatively fair race at a designated 'championship.'

So maybe we're saying the same thing. Other than having 1 athlete who had a really good race finish further down than he might have with a fair race, I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm a retired pro triathlete who has seen the sport grow from a fringe sport in the mid to late 80s to the sometimes overly corporate sport that it is now. I'm glad we still have local participation in Austin.

And like Pantelones kind of mentioned, we're really talking about a 1st world problem here when you get down to it. I exercise now and don't miss the BS around the events. I'm down to 1 bike with fattish road tires and mtb pedals and shoes, 1 pair of running shoes, and 1 pair of swim jammers. I'll identify as a triathlete for a long time, but I don't miss the BS like this thread. It annoys me that I've got good athletes who aren't going to get their slots because they try to race clean or have to spend $1,000s more to get to another race.

Really, I think that we need a classification system so that those athletes 'expecting' to qualify get a fair race and those that 'just' want to finish get their medal. I'm not downplaying either segment, I've coached all of them and I've been in each category. But, I think that it's time for different ideas to be considered. Ideas that don't simply involve cramming more athletes onto a course because they'll pay the entry fee.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

It’s now wrong to feel good or special about oneself?

my friend crashed badly yesterday at IMTX. she went straight to the hospital, where she remains 24+ hours later. I'm sure due to the overcrowding. Too many athletes of different abilities, all crammed into the same 20 M segment at the same time, in the same place. she trained for months and months, and was near the top of her AG when taken out. This is not just a drafting problem (look at the bike splits at the top of EVERY age group, and the drafting part becomes crystal clear) but more so an issue of gross negligence on the part of WTC/race organizers. As for choice/ no choice....and also regarding the PRO race....look up DImity-Lee Duke's post on Twitter today.....

I don't really think you can blame the athletes. In every sport, players try and get away with breaking the rules, waiting for the referee/umpire to turn their back, sneak a few extra yards, that's why we have referees. I don't draft because I don't want to give up 5mins and also I think it's a pretty lame way to race But if there were no TOs and everyone was drafting then I'm not sure I wouldn't? Ethically is it any different to pissing on the bike? I certainly do that. It's an easy problem to fix, not sure why this remains a problem. 10mins+ in the bin, repeat offenders during the season get a ban, no warnings. Competitors won't object and they'll still return to race, they just won't draft.

There is some pretty impressive CdA evident on this Strava leaderboard. Make your own conclusions. 4:25 on less than 175W would be sweet.

https://www.strava.com/segments/14700825

ha ha that's insane!

I know it doesn't make it right, but i think it's easy to get caught up in a big pack like that, you have lots of riders of a similar ability so you naturally come together and it takes a big effort to get out of the situation.

Unless it breaks up because of a hill or a referee motorbike etc. you either need to do a sustained 4/5 minute effort to break off the front (probably only to get caught by the same group 3/4 minutes later) or more or less stop to drop off the back - if you just sit up and freewheel you get sucked along, none of which are very appealing when you're in a race.

Sit up for 45 seconds and the pack will drop you.

The pack is going faster than you because it caught you.

If you caught it, you can also drop it.

There is no excuse.

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As a veteran of 9 IM's (all of which were mass start) and a faster swimmer and a mediocre biker (5:30 range +/- 10 mins depending on course), I can attest to the fact that you're just flat out wrong.

I've got lots of experience being out on the bike course relatively early and getting passed all day long by legit riders and by packs. If I wanted to I could easily hang with just about any of the packs but I always chose to let them go up the road and never once needed to touch my brakes to do so. Simply soft pedal for 15-20 seconds and once they've roll through get back to it. Rinse and repeat when the next group comes through.

It can be done.

Or video marshall the race... seriously officials could sit in a trailer somewhere and watch cameras at locations all over the course. Seriously riding around on the back of a motorocyle with a pencil and scribbling in a notebook is a bit dated.

From what I'm reading it was deemed the motos were deemed unsafe for the course due to congestion... it's time to think outside the box.

And then the next pack catches you, and then the next....

I wasn't there, but it sounds like it was more an issue with the course itself not lending itself well to that many athletes at a time. Looking at the size of the packs, its hard to imagine how they all could have spread out 12-14m apart. I'm not saying it makes it right, but not as easy as some imply to be able to do your own ride perfectly legal. I think WTC needs to re-think the bike course, which would also allow room for more marshals.
If everyone in this thread hates WTC so much, why not take your money elsewhere...

How much of the course was freeway? Maybe they were bored to tears by the course and drafting to make it interesting :)

This is a ridiculous response. There NEVER is enough anti-drafting enforcement at IM races. It’s about the budget, not the course.

Take your money elsewhere? Where else can you find a 140.6 course with a competitive field and a chance to qualify for the WC? You have one company in that business.

How this works is when you sit up and let the first pack pass and drop you, then you keep TTing and then when the next one does the same you sit up, and let them blow by and drop you again and again and again. You do this knowing the marshalls will nail these guys up the road and you can pass the packed penalty tent with a big smile on your face, but mainly you do this so you know you earned your own bike split. You can't control who shows up and what their strengths are and what their morals are,but you can control your own.

I raced 31 WTC Ironmans over three decades and saw it all. I never got a drafting penalty with this strategy, except for twice in my life....IMLP 2006 and IMTX2015. Both times, I got into a Sebi Kienle tuck and came up to a rider. At IMLP it was actually because I bigger rider who passed me chickened out on the Keene descent and slammed on his brakes and I repassed him too fast without dropping back enough bike lengths. At IMTX on one of the downhills, I took too long to make the pass. Both case situational violations with another solo rider. I can't count how many packs I let got in all the 31 IM's and half IM races. Like Logella said, it can be done, you just need to decide up front that you'll ride your own race. If not, just catch the subway on the run course. It's all course cutting.

It is too bad about this situation at IMTX. The old course was super clean with zero packs that I saw, especially with the 2015 rolling start spreading out the field.