As far as I'm concerned, if you get caught drafting even once I put an asterisk on every one or your race results. I

been racing 20 years, every "big" race....you never "have" to draft...I don't care what the course is like, that is just a cop out[/quote]
Since we have been involved for about the saem amout of time in this sport, you must not go to many big races. Sometimes, like clearwater last year, once you got rolled by the pack, there was no where to go. Sometime you choose to draft, sometimes you get swallowed by 30 people.

you are right, you never "have" to draft. but to be competitive OV in the AG field sometimes you may end up ITU style. Sometimes, like clearwater last year for me, where I was in the top 5 AGers on the bike for the first 40k the race was very clean. It's when the peleton caught me that it got congested.

I've talked to jimmy for a long time after last years race, and he was pretty adamant that they were going to make, or try to make, changes that would result in a cleaner race. And that they were addressing issues in the elite field as well.

There are a few issues that need to be addressed for just about every large race:

1. people sign up for races that they know are going to have drafting
2. lots of people sign up for races to do them and could care less about drafting or not
3. RD's allow too many people into a race without enough course
4. Become an official and volunteer your time to help police a race and i think you will see a different side of things or at least talk to the officials (you can even search the forum to get many accounts from officials if you care to) to get their point of view.
5. Rd's don't design enough course to handle the volume of racers.

So before saying things like you don't care (and who knows you may not care) and calling it a cop out, gather the facts then if you must post an opinion.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I guess St Anthony's, Wildflower, Hawaii , etc are not big races,,,once again, fuzzy logic for cheaters. Big race, I can cheat. I'm sure if you have a spouse they will appreciate that line of thinking.

Maybe you can offer some solutions. What do you do when you are at the front of a race and pack rolls you. Do you back off and get crushed, do you ride with them or what. Instead of whining offer some solutions.

, I think the simple truth is that people are going to cheat no matter what, and there is just no way to prevent all of it. It's part of human nature to look for an advantage, whether it is "allowed" or not,