Always. Be. Passing.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

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I tried but people were riding crazy inconsistently, sometimes I’d pass on a hill to be passed right back then there’d be a big pack...or I’d try to pass and ppl would speed up as I got close and I couldn’t get around them.

If you sit in behind someone, you're drafting.

If there's a line of riders, are they all going the same pace? Seems unlikely.
Pass those you catch spending the time permitted in the draft box. One you've passed them you're free to pull in and they are compelled to fall back out of the box. You can then hold that pace, far enough back from the rider in front until you're ready to accelerate and pass again. Or if you're fast enough, just keep overtaking the line of traffic.

I'm a relatively slow runner, a very slow swimmer but I'm pretty respectable on the bike. So in most races I'm well down the field getting on the bike and can spend the whole race overtaking. Still, I'm confident I've never cheated, either morally or technically, by drafting. You don't have to be alone on the road. You do need to be moving past people quickly enough not to spend the max time allowed in the draft box. I also stay further towards the centre of the road as I catch them rather than approaching directly behind. That way, I'm more confident my time reflects my solo ability and it also means I'm not swerving in and out the whole time if passing many cyclists in quick succession. Of course you need to try and leave room in case someone's trying to overtake you....

I've done plenty Olympic races, lots of sprint duathlons, a few middle distance races and an IM. I've never found it difficult not to draft. Occasionally frustrating perhaps, but there's always been a way to overtake or hold position without drafting.

Ride your race, do your best to avoid drafting, and don't stress out if you're occasionally in technical violation of the rules. One thing I've found helpful is when you find yourself in one of those lines/packs, take a minute to sit up, take some nutrition, stretch out, etc., and then either let the group pass or find a good place to accelerate and put a gap on the group. But in the MOP of big races, you shouldn't let the inevitable crowds stress you out too much.

I guess that’s basically how I was racing, so maybe not so much drafting...I somehow just expected things to be more spaced out. And I totally stressed out being in these packs and feeling like it was taking to long to get away.

Thanks, yeah I started doing that about halfway through, eating and drinking when it got crowded...so this is typically how it is in MOP riding?

I did this race a couple of years ago, before it was a WTC branded race. The bike course was not particularly crowded and not hard at all to avoid drafting. But of course, WTC has "improved" the race by putting a lot more people out there.... sigh.

A few ideas. First, you were policing yourself; that's all we can ask of each other. Your self-awareness makes me suspect you were cheating less than your worried mind thinks. (A moment re drafting v cheating: one is physics and the other is ethics, you have 15 seconds in the zone, it's okay to have a watt/time disparity at the end of the ride, that's just make making smart use of an unfortunate situation.)

Much of the time, you were probably either passing, which is good. Or falling back, which is good. On the occasions when you were truly were draft-cheating, your soul was adequately wounded and now we are processing it together. Just being in the vicinity of a stream of other riders does not a cheater make. Although it will cause paranoia and self doubt; and it clearly distracted you.

Second, you are describing a MOP problem. You were surrounded by "inconsistent" riders. They are not evil, but they are inexperienced and inadequately trained. They can't ride 56 good miles alone. So, they depend on you for stimulus. This problem decreases at the FOP. Because there are fewer riders per unit of road and because they are better riders in every sense. As you know, this problem is also worse when a lot of people share easy terrain.

As you get better at riding 56 optimal miles, you will move up in the pack. I think you will have a better experience. If not, you may want to consider your choice of races. A big seemingly important event with an easy bike segment will always be worse than a smaller but perhaps ultimately more meaningful event with a challenging set of features. (A metaphor for life?). Also, it may be helpful to think about who has it worse than you: The truly prepared truly committed woman/man 50+ who is riding a good solid race at your finish time 5:20 and has to navigate a field of clowns.

Is this how these races are?

Only the crowded races.

What do you guys do when it's this crowded?


Enter races that aren't crowded.

Thanks for advice/info! Hopefully in future 70.3’s I’ll be faster on the bike (was my slowest leg) and have less issues...overall though it was a great race, and I really enjoyed racing that distance

Is 5:20 considered slow? It's not fast, but it's certainly not what I would consider a slow time.

"Always be passing" is the right thing... and if you can't, it's the responsibility of the person behind you to either drop back or pass you. Just take care of the situations that are your own responsibility. I'm a slow swimmer and fast(er) cyclist - so I slingshot past a lot of people on the bike. My last 2 races were 5k looped bike courses. So dense bike traffic. I count 'one onethousand, two onethousand...' to make sure I complete each pass in 20 seconds from entry into the draft zone. Once my front wheel passes the front wheel of the person I'm passing, it's their responsibility to drop back.

This is Slowtwitch. Anything over 4:30 is slow...

x2 - Excellent race!

It sure as hell didn't feel slow! I was totally gassed by the end. My goal was about 5:30-5:40, so I was super excited to get 5:20...but on this forum it seems to be slow.

Not a solution but it can be interesting to see if you can get the race splits in some format you can import into a spreadsheet. Then plot a graph of swim times and swim + bike times. Then see where you are on the curve. Obviously where you don't want to be is right in the middle of the curve. It's too crowded. Obviously, once you are out of the crowd, the faster you swim the less crowded it is. People talk about following someone's feet in the swim, I just want to get a bit of space to myself. The same goes for space on the bike. The graph will just tell you what you already know but I find it motivating to confirm it. Seeing where a faster swim will put you on the curve and how that should translate to a race where you are less packed in.

It's not slow

There are always people who can’t ride a steady pace or are just jerks. No different on highway. They’re going along slowly and then when you try to pass they speed up. Or you do pass them and then they hammer to pass you only to get in front and immediately slow down to their slow pace.

Some people are just idiots and with 2k people at a race there will be a lot of them.

I was seriously considering this race for next year. I looked at the results and saw 136 finishers in the M50-54, 2250 total athletes.

I'm not so sure now.

This happened on my 1st 70.3 this year at Gulf Coast. I self seeded kinda far in the back of the pack for swim times in order to not be overtaken. The bike was crowded for the 1st half of the race. There were times where I was stuck in a group and I was freaked out. In real life, I do not ride in group rides. In fact, I have ridden a total of 20 miles in a group my entire life. So, I dont even know how to ride in a group :)

What I do know are the rules after hours of reading and watching videos. I would pass people - they would speed up, killing my legs - but dropping back would have put me in violation so I had to push to pass them. What really got me were the people riding on the left. I was in draft zones sometimes, but not on purpose, I was trying to to pass. I even had to pass inbetween bikes a few times.

My 1st full is coming up in Sept and I am afraid that once again, I will not be able to enjoy the event because I spend every second in fear of violating a moral or written violation.

Also, I am slow so also not competitive with a 3 hour bike split for the 70.3. Still, I train alone because I want to prove to myself what I can do. I do NOT want assistance during a workout or race, not even for a second. But, it seem unavoidable unless I self seed the swim at a faster pace... which I might do. Id rather get beat up physically than emotionally.

I raced Maine as well and it was also my first 70.3. I had the same experience, at least on the first half of the bike course. I felt like I was in consistent traffic and I was constantly either passing or consciously dropping back off the wheel in front of me. I agree with the poster above - if you're cognizant of it and you're making a reasonable effort to follow the rules you'll probably be fine. I saw a couple marshals out on the course and they seemed to be monitoring it without being overly zealous.

Once I got through the bigger hills on the first half of the bike it started to thin out and I was able to ride significantly faster and worry less about other bikes. I'm a pretty slow swimmer and I had anticipated the worst so I seeded myself in the 40 minute swim group, which didn't help. I ended up swimming 33ish and if I had been in that group I would've come out ahead of a lot of that bike traffic.

Overall I thought it was a great race and the bike course was really fun. My only real complaint is that the run was even more congested than the bike, especially the out & back trail section. By the second loop I was wasting a lot of effort picking my way around people, although it was nice to run on gravel with plenty of shade.

Sounds like we had a similar race, I also seated too slow on the swim, 35-40, and ended up with around a 31 (must have been a lot of current?)...I did feel the bike thinned out a bit after the hills but then I hit another big pack last 10 miles. And on the second loop of the run I passed a ton of ppl on that trail section that I assume were on their first loop, though the shade was awesome.

I’ll most likely do this race again as it’s the most convenient time/location for me, and I thought it was very well run.

Two drafting peeves:

1. The shameless packs that form and work together. Pretty obvious when you see that.

2. The type that occurs when someone passes you, gets right in front of you, and slows down below your original pace. Then, you have to pass them back, only to heighten their competitive instinct to repeat the cycle.

Only real solution to #2 is to really turn it up and challenge them to keep up the pace, or just slow yourself down. Either way it affects your race planning.

Side note: the Rev3 guys that run this race do a great job. I really hope they keep it going.

I don't know what others think, but I really think it's a bit dangerous allowing yourself to end up in a pack if you have no experience riding in a group. Tri-bikes aren't ideal for group riding anyway, but I think anyone who may end up riding in close proximity to other riders should be competent to not put them in danger.

It sounds like you take pride in never riding with others, and think training with others is somehow a cheat? Foolish IMO. I do much of my training solo, but group rides can be some of the hardest, most rewarding and most enjoyable sessions.

With regards to your fear of violating rules in your 1st long distance race, relax! You say you're slow, so you're not really going to any great harm if you were to gain a second here or there via accidental infringements. And seriously, how likely are you to cheat by accident in any meaningful way? The rules aren't that complex or hard to observe. And moral violations? If you didn't intend to cheat, you have not morally violated anything.

If you're going to worry that much about it, why bother taking part? Go do a hard solo training session instead!

It sometimes comes across in this forum as though people think there is some fundamental value in racing triathlons. There is not. Do it if you enjoy it. Don't if you don't. I realise there's plenty obsession going on around here, I can't say I'm immune, but really, let's not take it quite so seriously......