Riding through a field is not as easy as it sounds... two recent examples for my husband and I...
Santa Rosa 70.3 - swim was canceled and my husband (very strong cyclist) had one of the highest bib numbers (30XX) so started almost last. He had to navigate tons of traffic on the bike, including some dangerous situations through aid stations and generally with athletes not staying to the right, or multiple athletes passing others at the same time.
South Africa Worlds 70.3 - this was a wave start and I was in the very last female wave (45-49). As a strong cyclist, it was challenging to navigate by riders who didn't appear to know they needed to stay to the right... and it was narrow in places when you were trying to pass someone who was also passing another.
You could argue that there are benefits to coming from behind and slingshot'ing past 100s of riders over the course of but in my experience it's far more dangerous and seems to slow you down more than it helps you.
I'm a 1:05 swimmer but at the pointy end of the women's AG field overall and in the last two rolling start IMs that I've done (South Africa 2017 and Argentina 2017) , I seeded myself in sub 60mins. In both races, I've swam the entire way in free water, found some feet occasionally and have been rarely bumped by others.
Admittedly, rolling starts do mean that it's hard to know where you stand in the race... but I could barely tell anyway when races were mass starts, especially in multi-loop races. The IM app has improved so having someone there to tell you how you're doing can be beneficial... and if they're savvy enough, they can scroll back and see who is coming up fast from the later starters.
wbattaile wrote:
realAB wrote:
I wonder about waiting a long time on a 70.3, swimming and around the 23-24 mark coming in and being able to ride through the field.
That was my thought. I speculate that it's faster to start later on the swim, then ride through the field, than to get a clean swim and ride at the front all day.