These are all reasonable precautions that I think will allow for the sport to remain watchable and allow for the athletes to prepare for the Olympics next year.

On the swim, it will be interesting to see how far back some of the poorer swimmers end up without being able to draft their competition.

From a cycling perspective, you would expect to see athletes down in the short aerobars a bit more. I wonder if they would be able to make their bike setup longer and lower as pack riding would be all put prohibited at these events.

The bike and run courses would also need to largely avoid the transition area as you do not want a runner or swimming getting flattened by a cyclist as they come flying through one of their cycling laps. It would be pure chaos.

I am looking forward to when we are able to watch these races again. Thank you for sharing

---

Ironman Lake Placid 2021| 70.3 Worlds St. George 2021

 

this is not racing anymore..... no penalty listed for breaking this either

2m of space in transition? So an event with 3000 participants will need 6km of racks? Yeah, that'll totally work. Guess I am not racing any time soon.

---

Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

I am glad the ITU have at least done something to give some guidance. They are however pretty hamstrung and a lot of that is just not practical. Triathlon is not a sport that is easy to run as a covid friendly group activity. Unfortunately I cannot see any events of any significance being able to comply with that lot. Roll on next year when we will all have a base fitness to die for and no speed!!!!!!

---

He who understands the WHY, will understand the HOW.

I quickly read it but it looked like the mention of non-drafting was in the bike section.

It's good that some triathlon governing body put some guidelines out. Maybe this will prompt USAT to publish guidelines as well so local races can start to plan their season re-start as well. With ITU publishing now, if USAT gets something out soon, optimistically, we may see racing in July!

The guidelines suggest exploring the possibility of organizing events under the time trial format for the elites and using rolling starts in AG events, both of which will make it harder to get a good draft in the swim compared to the mass start for the elites or wave starts for AGers.

The TT format totally changes who can qualify for the Olympics. Suddenly being a 130 lbs runner who can draft on the bike is a disavantage because you don't have enough top line watts to push a fast bike split. Think about what happens to Tour de France climbers who weigh 130 lbs when they get to the ITT stage. Same thing will happen to some of the smaller lightweight fast runners. Its the same reason why some of the smaller ITU athletes don't become good Ironman athletes when they move over to long course and some of the bigger ex ITU types do well. This would change who does well at ITU world cups (in my mind in a good way).

I'm not singling you out specifically, but I'm surprised by how optimistic some remain regarding a return to racing in the US.

I'm not alone in expecting Ironman Aust to be cancelled in September, and Australia isso far ahead of the US in having a level of control with covid.

I might be too optimistic but I'm still hoping that the ITU multisport world champs (Almere, Netherlands - early september) will be held. In the light of those guidelines, could it be that they cancel draft-legal races (sprints?) and still maintain the rest of them?

---

Instagram
Youtube Channel
Meta Endurance

This requirement may stuff up all those asthmatics and TUE abusers, those that have 'heart issues' requiring performance enhancing medication etc.

Pre-Travel and Pre-Event Health Checks for all incoming athletes and LOC staff are highly encouraged to ensure exclusion of those with potential additional risks (comorbidities, medications)

Not necessarily.

As a quick work around (very rough number below, but just an example of lateral thinking that would be required from operators) , say there are 6 bikes per rack. All of the recommendation point towards group waves with rolling starts.

Let’s say 6 groups, every 30 minutes, each group has its own rolling start.

You are allocated your rack location based on your wave, 1-6. Each rack only holds 1 bike from each wave, 1-6. (At least in Australian ironman events,
You are allocated a specific bike rack location based on entry number, not sure if it’s the same in US).

So by that theory, only 1 bike per rack would need to be accessed per wave, thereby managing 4m gaps within the existing transition floor plan.

Most Australian races are now rolling start, IMAus for example is self seeded based on expected swim time. So switching to this format would need some tricky work on spreadsheets prior to the event, but really wouldn’t ‘significantly’ change the event day experience.

The moral is, our events WILL look different for a while, regardless of when our individual restrictions are lifted. We need to prepare to accept some changes, and work with event organisers.

Every 30 mins? So for larger events some groups don't start til noon?

But in any case, for AG events this is all wishful thinking. There will be contact in the water, cyclists will have to pass each other in tight spots, people will (gasp) spit on the ground. No one is going to go out and race pretending to travel in virtual bubbles.

---

Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Non-drafting events only.
That's most Iroman races out then based on what usually happens 🤔

Replying to no one specific...

Maybe if we are lucky and there is a vaccine available in 2 - 3 years, racing can somewhat return to normal?
Right now it sounds like, if racing happens at all, the overall experience at a WTC event will kinda suck.
I assume:
- no more live athlete brief
- no more wide open registration
- swim starts probably grossly spaced out
- no wetsuit strippers
- scaled down expo?
- no more banquet?
- no more finishers tent (or rushed through?)
etc etc

Kind of a watered down experience.... :(

This won’t just be a triathlon experience though, it will be a ‘life’ adjustment.

Bars, restaurants, concerts, sports events - everything that has a high density of patronage will have their experiences altered in every country in the world.

Do we wait years until we can go back to 100% normal, or do we embrace the fact that once ‘adjusted experience’ events come back online, that we are actually allowed out in our communities again and celebrate that fact?

never have I seen wet suit strippers in an ITU race. for that matter wetsuit strippers should be considered outside assistance and never allowed in first place

I was referring to WTC races. I can certainly live without wetsuit strippers... :) Its just when everything is taken away and its just show up at your designated time, go around course, leave. Not the same. And yes, I realize that may simply be the new reality.....still sucks!

"never have I seen wet suit strippers in an ITU race. for that matter wetsuit strippers should be considered outside assistance and never allowed in first place"

First, The acceptable term is "wetsuit peeler"

Second, if the wetsuit peelers are official race volunteers then they are not outside assistance. They are a race "service" available to everyone. You can make your own choice to use the "service" or not.

---

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I can see this being very problematic in the US. I would think that banning asthmatics or those with high blood pressure from an endurance race could be a potential violation of the ADA.

Agree. I think a much more likely scenario is we go back to racing much like we did before, but people sign off on all sorts of waivers that make it clear the race is not responsible for the spread of viruses. People are making that choice to race. And then people are encouraged to self isolate for 2 weeks after the race.

Would cities still give permits for a race like this though? I think sooner rather than later they will. Most of these races are in towns that thrive off of tourism. Are these towns not going to want tourism period? A triathlon might not be much different than a regular tourism weekend, depending on the location.

Most of us just want our local races back, which are often under 500 or even much fewer people. Don't really care about Ironman or races of that scale, they are definitely a much longer way off.

---

-----

WTC will not be able to give away Kona slots based on all this !!!!

Definitely agree. Racing is racing. All the other layers of the onion that Ironman puts around the core act of racing, adds to the production and experience, but its useless without racing the three sports, splits and others to compete with. I realize that some of us while we are glad to take the Ironman packaging care more about core act of racing.

But I think we're in the minority now. Maybe if local racing is all we get many who never do that step will discover the simplicity of small local events.