So how was he robbed?

You're correct, he deserved at least three more drafting penalties.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Everyone caught in drafting zone at some point, Dont know for sure all details but seems arbitrary on Brownlee and Luis especially since they are ITU and used to racing close.

That's like saying a bank robber was denied a life of riches because security apprehended him...

He's undoubtedly one of the top in the sport right now. But to say he was robbed is to completely disregard the whole drafting rule thing...

It was a good call on the official's part. Luis was sitting right on the cusp for a long while, but he clearly was inside that 20m zone for longer than 45 seconds (look at the cones). You can't expect to be off the front, on a track, on the biggest stage of the year and cry foul when you get a penalty.

ETA: used to racing close? The police don't turn the other way when I get caught with weed in Florida "just because I'm used to living in Colorado."

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I wish they would have explained how they determined the penalty to the audience better through the commentary.

Even Anne Haug got busted and shes never had one in her career

During the men's race when Rowdy was in disbelief that Luis wasn't getting a penalty, Belinda stated that the officials were supposed to give warnings before issuing the first penalty. I thought they brought up the cones and the 20 meter rule quite a bit-at least during the men's race. I only caught the 2nd half of the women's bike.

I would like to hear Vincent's explanation but listening to Anne Haug after she finished she was absolutely stunned at her penalty

Vincent was in the draft zone for at least a lap if not more.

I'm not sure if he was warned or not but the cones were literally 20m apart so he had no excuse to do it for that long.

Several more of the ITU guys needed to be dinged. The call was correct and he was the worst offender

It was obvious from the coverage that Luis was pushing the limits more than anyone. At one point he was coasting in aero position. He’s lucky the penalty was only 2 minutes. A penalty in a IM sanctioned race is 5 minutes.

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I am not making excuses for Luis and perhaps his 20 meter violations were worse than others, but in fairness to the ITU guys whether or not they were blatantly cheating, the long course and middle guys have much more experience in the TT position and keeping the distance. This factor allows them to judge the distance a bit easier.
IT guys are always racing nut to butt which makes it counter intuitive to always be back peddling to being in a safe distance especially to 20 meters

5 minutes even for 70.3? 2 minutes is long enough in a 100k race.

i think draft penalties should be awarded via power meter monitoring. if you see person drops 50w for more than 20s behind a rider then bag him.

With big money at play they need to enforce the rules. And yes, there will always be arguments over calls by officials, but he was not robbed. He would have gotten the penalty from me even sooner. And saying "I am not used to the rules" means then stay in your own yard.

What about the rat packers in Kona? Shouldnt the draft zone be extended there to 20 meters? In my opinion yes so packs cant be formed and weaker cyclists arent rewarded for packing in and conserving energy

It is worse in Kona and I do not condone that either. But whataboutism is not needed here

Yes and many would argue, including me, 5 minutes is not enough. It used to be 2 minutes but that didn’t detract folks from drafting. Many would (and still do) blatantly draft and risk getting penalty. If they got caught, it wasn’t a big deal because they benefited more than 2-4x the penalty amount. 5 minutes has detracted some drafters but not enough IMO.

In the pro field, your race is over 99% of the time if you get a penalty. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.

Not everyone rides with a pm and your idea would be hard to account situations like grabbing nutrition or just getting out of the saddle to stretch for a few seconds. I do think we need to move towards a technological solution sooner rather than later to police drafting.

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The athletes were all explained the rules and that the cones were spaced at 20 metres to make it easy for them to judge distance. Luis had no excuse. He's lucky he didn't get 5.

He was guilty....by far the most guilty. No semi-objective observer could possibly deny that. People on this forum were screaming with their hair on fire for 30+ minutes until he finally did get a penalty. If anything, he was let of easy.

Yup. Big VL fan, but he was clearly drafting a bunch.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I can see on an open road calibrating eyeballs to 20 meters. On this track with the cones Luis and anyone had no excuse. It was not that tough. Those inside the cones knew they were in the grey zone at every cone pass which was once every 1.3 to 1.4 seconds at the speeds they were biking at!

You literally said "Vincent Luis - got robbed" in the subject title of your opening post.

That's a terrible idea.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

it would be a rule for professionals only, and a referee can be there viewing the results to see if its a nutrition grab drop

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