If you are going marginally faster or slower than the draft pack, it is not that difficult. You might have to burn some matches moving to the front of a pack that is moving marginally slower than you, but then it's not your penalty if they sit on your wheel. It's snot rocket time.

In my experience (FOPer), the draft packs are usually going faster. So you just let them pass, and often enjoy a short break. Once they past, it's usually simple to maintain target watts without re-catching them, unless they slow down.

I've never done a 3 loop IM bike course though. I've done IMFL 2x and it's flat and ripe for draft packs, but honestly only saw a few.

When they go by, your power is going to go down until you are away from them. Many people think that the pack is slowing down when in fact they are getting a draft benefit.

Let them all go until they are 10 meters in front of you, then go back to your power plan.

I find it HILARIOUS that there are hundreds of responses to the threads that bitch about drafting, but only 2 responses that actually constructively respond to a well-thought out question about how to actually avoid it!

(not trying to brag here), as a former AG'er I was fortunate enough to only experience these big packs at Worlds. All of the other races I was able to get away from it as I was typically constantly passing people or off the front depending on what wave I started in.

Whenever I did deal with it, I would just go to the back of a pack, sit legally behind them and wait for a marshall to show up. If they didn't show up I would make a few attempts to get away, and if that didn't work then I would just go back to the back of the group and sit the legal distance. Not much more you can really do. Hard for them to give you a penalty if you are sitting the legal distance and there are 20+ guys in a group ahead of you.

At 70.3 Worlds in Tremblant I finally got away from a group and any group I passed after that I would just lie to them and tell them a draft marshall was coming, they would scatter pretty quickly ;)

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-Brad Williams
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That's a reality of racing, though. Racers influence each other, and it's part of the sport. Sometimes you have go a little easier than you'd want to and judiciously wait for the moment when it's time to make a clean pass using the least amount of extra energy possible.

Certainly at the elite level, racers use the pass as a race tactic, to take other riders out of their comfort zone, get in their heads a little bit. I say embrace the disruption, and use it to your advantage. Don't be upset about invasions to your best laid plans.

If you don't think a clean pass is worth the effort, then enjoy the legal draft effect and start salivating about how that extra energy is going to help you lay waste to the run.

Helpful (all of you.), so thank you. I’m no elite, so no plans to get that tactical. I can’t predict the width of the road or the behavior of others, but I hope that any marshals will see that I’m trying to ride clean. But really, a few minutes break in the tent spent doing some yoga breathing isn’t going to push me from 12 hours to 17, so I’ll just do my best.

Here’s how I avoided the packs at Texas:

1. Be a mediocre swimmer. Kept me from coming out of the water with the guys more prone to drafting.

2. Use your wetsuit for the first time in almost 3 years on race day, and be uncomfortable.

3. Seed yourself in the rolling start in a spot where you’re guaranteed to be caught in a washing machine for the first 6-700 yards.

4. Have your swim cap bunched up on your forehead so about 45 minutes into the swim you’re getting a splitting headache. Stop, tread water, and fix it.

5. Ask one of your fellow competitors to unzip your wetsuit while you’re swimming, ideally between mile 1 and 2, to slow you down a bit further.

By the time I was on the bike, the closest draft pack was probably 10-12 miles ahead of me. And I spent the first 40 or so miles just passing people.

Next I’m kinda interested to know where the packs actually come from. In a rolling start, since my swim target is 1:10 (yes, the current could pleasantly surprise me), so i’ll Seed myself appropriately. When I exit the swim there will be 2 kinds of people: people in front of me that are strong swimmers, but I will catch on the bike - or, cyclists that are poor swimmers that will catch me. My riding goal is to hit 6 hours, so I’m right in the middle, and probably won’t get laps, but also won’t lap anyone either. So drafting is most likely going to be from pacelines/packs coming up from behind, right? I just stay right and not latch on, letting them just go about their day.
When I think about it, it does seem like I can avoid it if I want to.

Possibly not the best course to pick, pancake flat with 3 loops does make it very draft-friendly! I find it easier to avoid the drafters on courses with some hills to break them up, and a single or at least 2 lap course to stretch them out (more relevant if you're a MOP or BOP athlete where being lapped comes into the equation).

Single biggest challenge to not drafting is psychological. If you allow yourself to get stressed by:

1) The fact that so many people are cheating, and some of them will beat you as a result
2) Not being able to ride your target power/effort because you're frequently either having to soft-pedal to let a pack pass or surge to get in front of one
3) That rider you passed 5 miles back coming back past you in the middle of a pack

then it's going to ruin your race day. You won't enjoy the ride, you're going to be stressed and tense which will cost you time, and worst case you might even get tempted into just hanging in that draft window a little longer or closer than you should. I imagine the psychological aspect is even worse if you're targeting a KQ, podium or specific placing in your AG. Sounds like you've got the psychological aspect fairly well covered, but just breathe deep and remind yourself that you've entered an individual event and not to get caught up in what everybody else is doing.

The practical aspects are relatively straightforward. Stay to the right hand side when being passed, and ease up as much as you need to to let the groups go by so that you're not caught up in them and risking your own penalty. The draft benefit in a big pack really is astonishing - if there's only a 1-2mph speed differential between you and the pack going by then even easy pedalling is going to be enough to keep you right in the middle of it, so you may need to stop pedalling altogether and even sit up for a few seconds to get clear quickly. Enjoy the rest! If passing packs then give them a wide berth, put in a little surge if you can to discourage them from getting on your wheel.

How to behave if somebody is drafting you is down to personal preference. Personally I find that giving abuse to a whole pack is counterproductive - they'll ignore me and I'll just waste energy and get myself worked up. One or 2 riders sitting on my wheel is different though. A few choice words is often enough to get them to go find somebody else to cheat off, if that doesn't work then a snot rocket or blast from a water bottle (if you can spare it) usually has the desired effect. But others I know seem to actually get energy from hurling abuse at drafters, so YMMV!

As a mediocre swimmer I found draft packs almost non-existent at IMZoz last year. Having 3 laps has no effect. Anyone lapping you will be going way faster (Kienle and Weiss passed me like I was sitting still) and you will likely laps some slower riders on your last lap but again you will be passing them quickly. I think the biggest impact on drafting will be the wind angle. When it comes from the side, and it often does there for long stretches, helps to reduce drafting.

I swam 1:15 at IMTX and had about 3 large packs pass me at about mile 30-60. So there are definitely enough slower swimmers, but decent riders to affect a swimmer in that range.

The packs themselves didnt affect me horribly outside of a minute of soft peddling. But even on the flat IMTX course there were sets of overpasses where youd get these people who grind up every uphill and coast down the other side. Really screwing wit my ability to keep an even effort since Im constantly having to overtake them multiple times. I finally drop them on a long flat only to see them re-appear sucking the wheel of a pelaton. Only to fall off the wheel for me to catch them and do the whole dance again.