Oh yeah!..lol!!!
You can’t fix it, you’re right. It’s a broken record around here but you have a few options: a hilly venue, less competitors, or many waves with a lot of time between each. That’s about it. I can’t, in good conscious, sign up for a race like this, but if others want to so be it.
You don’t fix it, you either put up with it or don’t race.
desert dude rode 2:14 and is just ahead of Cid Jr, who rode 2:11, from Inside Out Sports.
How do you fix it? Easy, everyone rides legal and takes responsiblity for their own actions. Reading the rule book will show you how to do this correctly. Secondly, using effective draft busters will take care of those that feel the rules do not apply to them.
If you want to draft, go do ITU.
You really think is that easy… brilliant! (By the way I’ll be racing some ITU races this coming season ;))
And no I don’t want to draft; I am just asking how that can be fixed because it seems to be a recurring problem across distances. Yup, there will be always those who chose to cheat blatantly but I don’t really think all those guys are doing on purpose. At three out of the four 70.3 races I did this year it was something similar because of the way the courses were set up or the way the set up the waves, but mostly because of the number of competitors.
“you fly around the world for this? I´ll stay in the hills for shorter races.”
They should move it to a top destination, like Cincinnati.
Nah, we have the Duathlon Nationals here instead 
And now an IM from WTC just down the road. Thanks.
How do you fix it? Easy, everyone rides legal and takes responsiblity for their own actions. Reading the rule book will show you how to do this correctly. Secondly, using effective draft busters will take care of those that feel the rules do not apply to them.
If you want to draft, go do ITU.
Although I in general agree with you putting the responsibility on the athletes, having a top-event on a flat course is asking for problems. That is just stupid and has to do with WTC being from Florida vs. wanting to have a great race for the athletes.
It will be very intersting to see how this develops.
On history: Before short distance was called olympic it was not draftlegal… why was that changed? Because the olympic comitee pressured the ITU because they feared there would be scandal-races where the top-25 would all be disqualified (I remember a european-champs in the early 90s where pretty much that happened. i think it was Linz,).
So the deal was: If you can´t guarantee to control it…allow it.
WTC and Ironman have portayed themselves for a long time of the keeper of true Triathlon.
So what do they do with this now?
a) Ensure that the pro-races look halfway decent and just forget about the age-groupers (I think that is likely what is going to happen)
b) move the Ironman 70.3 world champs to a different location (would be best but 100% unlikely to happen)
c) Slowly creep over to the other side and allowing drafting on 70.3 … will be interesting to hear the twists…
I think a) is likely…but: If 70.3 becomes a reputation of being un-planable, unfair, draft-fest and age-group athletes are not wanting to go to the world-champs anymore… what do they do then?
Admit defeat and forget 70.3 altogether? Unlikely, to much money at stake. Make it pro-only world-champs?
The aftermath of this will be interesting!
Axel
Just checked my own Ag 35-39… at least 20 people off the bike in the same minute.
Axel
“you fly around the world for this? I´ll stay in the hills for shorter races.”
They should move it to a top destination, like Cincinnati.
Or Cleveland, seems to be the best tri city in the world these days.
“having a top-event on a flat course is asking for problems. That is just stupid”
On history: Before short distance was called olympic it was not draftlegal… why was that changed? Because the olympic comitee pressured the ITU because they feared there would be scandal-races where the top-25 would all be disqualified (I remember a european-champs in the early 90s where pretty much that happened. i think it was Linz,).
So the deal was: If you can´t guarantee to control it…allow it.
You are right, Axel. It is ridiculous putting so many athletes on a flat course, the hills break up the fields pretty quick. But athletes will still cheat if they want to, at Lausanne uro champs in 2004 3 swiss athletes in the 24-29 ag got out of the swim together and on the bikes together and got off together. They were holding so tight a formation on the course that they were credited with the exact same time to the second on the bike! So hills will break up the field but only if the athletes play fair as well.
I remember when I got into tri in '94 the distance was called Olympic distance then, some 6 years before going into the olympics. I believe it was because the distances were all Olympic events, can anyone confirm this?
We were restricted to a single lane of the road in most places, and that precluded some of the faster riders in the back of the packs from being able to get through unless they rode really aggressively, so yes, I saw some drafting, but I believe some of it was unavoidable without slowing way down.
It may have been approved for the Olympics then, though. But yes, with the 1500m/40k/10k all being the standard long distance time-trial events (marathon obviously being the only longer run) in the Olympics, your rationale could definitely be right as well…
Cheers, Jordan and congratulations on your great performance today.
“Disappointing that Heather said that it was unavoidable for the athletes, one can always make a choice”
Julian
Yes there is a choice to be made, but it’s a tough choise to make - get off the bike and wait for a few minutes.
The problem is that you can’t put that many people, on that short a stretch of road, in that short a period of time. This happens time and again in big, competitive races with unchallenging terrain. The rules are great, but they are asking the athletes to do something that at times is impossible to do. It really comes down to a physics problem.
Fleck
I remember when I got into tri in '94 the distance was called Olympic distance then, some 6 years before going into the olympics. I believe it was because the distances were all Olympic events, can anyone confirm this?
It became called olympic when the ITU started pulling strings to make this distance an olympic sport.
Axel
For those of you saying you can make a choice to draft or not, if you wanted to be competitive you have to play the hand dealt. go read what I wrote o the course is not short thread.
It’s not about choosing to draft, its about groups of 20-30 starting the bike together and everyone having the ability to ride with :90secs of each other.
Please explain to me how you would race? Would you choose to ride off the back and take yourself out f contention for a high AG finsih? Would you try to blow the pack apart.
It’s easy to armchair race the race, but if you were there, there was no where to go. Even riding 10m back, you started to roll through the pack as the front guys slowed, then you got rolled to the back. It was rather fluid, not just 2-4 people pulling and everyone else riding behind them.
Brian,
Thats’ it. There is no easy solution to this or one that at this stage is palatabe to any one.
This has been going on for many years in big competitive races. There is nothing new here. New comers who have the pure view of the sport are of course aghast, but there is little that can be done.
Indeed, someone please explain to me how it is 30 - 40 athletes coming out of the water in a big group or about one ever second are going to all of a sudden get in a single file line on the road with exactly seven metres between them and then keep that pattern/formation for 90K? A magic wand may be a good tool to use!!
Fleck
I think more waves is really the key. A wave for every age group, separated by 5 minutes. Even the biggest AG (M30-39) will get pared down enough (2 minutes difference on the swim works out to about a mile on the road). I’m just glad they decided to have some waves today. A mass start, as I believe was orginally scheduled, would have been awful. 12 waves at 5 minute spacing adds an hour to the race.
Jordan,
Indeed, wave starts are a way to possibly beat the problem, but they need to be thought out very carefully as to the start order of the waves or you will just move the chaos and congestion out further on the bike course.
Fleck