I am shocked no one has yet made one of the typical comments! Perhaps there is some unspoken agreement that I'm correct!

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willmillertriathlon.blogspot.com

And who say's there are not no honest people in Jersey ? I agree with you so there be two of us. Taking personal responsabiltie for ones self well thats not the new millenuim way.

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Official Polar Ambassador
http://www.google.com/...P7RiWyEVwpunlsc2JtQQ

Tsk, tsk... this is triathlon, it's hard, it's complicated. We, as triathletes, must overthink, over deliberate and over engineer solutions to perceived problems...

I'll admit to having benfitted from a draft in a race, which is different IMO from drafting. With races as crowded as they are (IM, I mean) sometimes it just is not possible to ride clean. So you do what you can. I've said it before, to me there is a big difference between someone caught up in a pack, sitting up and waiting to get clear and someone who is head down, cranking in a draft pack. It's all part and parcel of the entire thing...

The main reason you don't draft is that there is nobody around fast enough for you to draft.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I have the solution to these packs that form where everyone says there was nothing they can do, it's only a matter of interpretation.

Consider what happens when you roll up on two people ahead of you. rider A in front, being passed slowly by rider B. You are rider C. The common thing in people's minds is to roll right up to rider B and sit there while he passes rider A, then once he passes and moves over most people THEN take another 15 seconds to get around him. When really, the clock started ticking the instant we got within 3 meters of rider B.

Now consider a fourth rider, rider D. Rider D is immediately ahead of rider A. Run the same scenario in your mind, how long did it take you to get by rider D? Probably well over 15 seconds.

The thing about it is, everyone in this scenario thinks they are "doing their best" to ride legally, and as far as they have considered it, probably are.

But what if we start enforcing it this way? As soon as you roll up on the pack, you have 15 seconds to get past whatever bike is within 15 meters ahead of you. No matter how many are in between. In the one above, rider D is at he head of the pack. As you get to the back ofthe pack assuming you are within 3 meters of him, you have 15 seconds to get by, no matter how mny bikes are in between, if they aren't moving fast enough then you had bad judgement to start to your pass at the wrong time. You get popped.

I think enforcement like this could help, but more importantly getting the word out that behavior like that I mentioned is drafting would help. I think right now many people in the scenario above really don't think they are doing anything wrong.

I've talked to couple of officials about that. I think they do it that way. They consider a bike that's within 3 lengths of the bike in front to be in the draft zone, and have 15 seconds to complete the pass. So if A is riding to the right, B is coming up to pass on the left, and C is only sitting a couple of meters behind B, then they time both B passing A, as well as C riding in B's draft zone. If C doesn't then pass B, C get's a penalty.

I've heard pre-race talks go something like:

- keep at least 3 bike lengths between you and the bike closest to you in front
- if you get closer than 3 lengths to any bike in front, you must pass in 15 seconds
- if you are passed, you must drop back 3 lengths before repassing

So I think that at any time you're either legally spaced behind the bikes in front, actively passing, or actively dropping back