Know the course...

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

This is exactly where this stupid excuse of a rule shouldn’t apply.

As an athlete you have no idea if they had to make a sudden course change for whatever reason. There is no reason to expect someone following the lead motto to not follow them around the course.

And if I jumped into the canal, would you follow me ?

As I was doing the first 20 miles of the IMTX bike course, I was thinking of this rule. No possible way I could have remembered the number of twists and turns ahead of time had there been questionable markings.

The whole know the course Is just bullshit, and anyone should be able to follow the entire course having just seen it on Raceday. And absolutely if the lead vehicle, which is there to lead the race, goes in a direction, you absolutely follow it. Like someone else posted, what if they got instructions to veer from the earlier course maps and they had to make a quick course change? And the idiot who said would you follow me into the ditch, give us a break. This is following the lead vehicle on a legit road, where there is no reason for you to think it is going wrong.

Challenge or whoever is footing the bill for this race needs to take responsibility, and not put all the blame on an athlete doing the right thing. It was their mistake, their fuck up, and now they want the athlete to pay the full price for that, not cool...They should have figured out the time that was cut off and adjust, and or double up the place it appeared the athlete in question most likely would have gotten. They should pay for "their" mistake, not the athlete...

Exactly, there is no way you can remember the entire course if you're not that familiar with the area.

Do we know how much of the course he cut? I remember a few years ago about 5 people accidentally cut the course at Dubai 70.3, saving a few minutes because a sign got blown over. They got a time penalty instead of a DQ. Not sure if this is still allowed under the current rules though!

Classy move by the other competitors to share their prize money!

Can you come up with a more moronic comparison?

This is exactly what the rule is. It’s cya for the RD. But this is an absurd usage of the rule. It’s just another reason triathlon hasn’t figured it out on becoming a top tier sport. If something like this happened in the tour dr France they wouldn’t have been dsq.

Bullshit if it was an amateur because its not their job. It's his job. Therefore this is not controversial.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Yep. Plenty of them, if you're unable to come up with any more than you already have here.

Baloney, if he kept going on the actual course was and got to the end they would have dsqed him for not following the official vehicles. The rule is stupid. You’re screwed both ways as a pro.

Why would he have been disqualified for not following an official vehicle when the vehicle cut the course? That's one I've never heard of lol.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Hey Monty,
Is your best solution then to give two first places?
Not arguing, just wonder what is most fair for everyone.

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Team Zoot So Cal

Let me clarify. What are you supposed to do in each of these scenarios? With the key point being there is no communication on course so you don’t know if the course is changed.

Course did not change:
-Not follow the official vehicle?
-Follow the official vehicle?

Course did change:
-Not follow the official Vehicle?
- Follow the official vehicle?

Course didn't change. If the course somehow changed "in-stride" while he was swimming then it's incumbent on race officials to inform all athletes. But you don't do this with just having a motorcycle on the course. You do this with having race marshals inform athletes verbally while in transition and then having volunteers and marshals on the ground to direct the athlete where to go.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Okay perfect so they are supposed to inform you. How do you know if they didn’t inform you and something happened and the official lead vehicle is making a change in course because of what the officials told the lead vehicle? What if police are blocking the official course because they got a communication while you’re on the bike and the lead vehicle also turns off the course because of this and a race communication. So how do you know this as an athlete that you didn’t just miss that communication and the lead vehicle in front of you isn’t just fucking with your race?

I'm surprised (not) it took anyone this long to point out what should have happened. Has anyone been in a race in which the course was changed *during* the race? What happened? I'm guessing that the racers were informed, via signage or verbal instruction that the course was changed. I'm also guessing that the lead vehicle didn't just veer off the published course without any notification whatsoever. No notification? Stick to the original course.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

So you just trust that you think you’re right? What happens if police are blocking? Go right through? Give me a break everyone on here is following the official vehicle. Anyone who says they just stop following the lead vehicle and go on what they think the course is, is full of shit.

Why are you cussing? If the lead vehicle doesn't communicate with the athlete then he should keep going on the course that is marked. If the change is done in-stride and the changes aren't done yet then that vehicle needs to pull off, flag him down, and inform him that he needs to follow them along the specified change. But again, course didn't change.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

It’s irrelevant if the course did or didn’t change that’s my point. If you are the lead racer and the lead moto, as the official vehicle, turns onto a different course that is very well a communication that the course changed. At that point in time you are following an official vehicle and following their instructions.

You can’t post-hoc finish the race and have the officials come up and say oh actually in this case the official vehicle wasn’t actually informing you of a course change. It’s not like there was just some signs and the signs were pointing the wrong way.

You’ve never done HIT races clearly.

I've been in that situation as a pro(at IMNZ years back) with the lead vehicle going off course. In that moment there was absolutely no way I wasn't going to follow the direction of the lead vehicle. Out of the options you have to choose from in that scenario, with a very limited time to make the decision, it'd take a lot to go against what the official lead vehicle does. It's easy to sit here and say otherwise but in that situation and moment in time i seriously doubt many people would have actually chosen otherwise.

This is also not orienteering and it should be possible to follow the course without memorizing it 100% in your head. Traveling to a lot of races as a pro(or AG for that matter) you don't always have the option of getting to know the course well enough to know every turn in your head. It's just not realistic and you should be able to rely on course markings and lead vehicle for the most part. For me, what the lead vehicle does would always override anything else as I'd expect that they are most up to date with the course and any last minute changes.

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BA coaching http://www.bjornandersson.se

But I’d take this with a grain of salt though. Your original position you could have only seen 5 feet up the road anyways so you wouldnt have had much time to make a decision in the first place. haha.

Where a vehicle turns is not communication.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.