What happened to the thread about the ‘interesting’ bike strategies in the Geelong race? Thomas Vornach had just leapt to the defence of Yvonne, which prompted me to suggest “he doth protest too much”, when the thread disappeared.
If there’s an issue, let’s have at it!
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Clearly something was amiss if 3 other Pro’s felt strongly enough to come out and say so in public…
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The thread is still there, but minus the comment from Thomas - a comment that did sound a bit ‘strange’ 
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=2198909;search_string=frank%20day;#2198909
The comments of three other pro females on the race on their personal blogs make interesting reading.
http://www.teamtbb.com/lisbethkristensen/
I do not understand why drafting is still a problem.
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=34740&st=50
If the blatant cheating wasn’t enough, post 64 was the nail in the coffin that prompted Herbert’s article.
Interesting reading, all the blogs call out the exact same person.
This is an interesting thread.
To make up 4mins 40s in 30km’s ( all things being equal ) is quite a recovery ! Interesting to hear what the outcome is going to be.
Good job by SW to stay focused and seal the deal.
I watched her race an ITU event late last year after Beijing … she can really run off the bike that girl !
Terry
Terry,
I’m sure officially nothing will happen. If it didn’t happen during the race (draft marshalls) I doubt there’s any appetite for anything to be done now.
We can only hope that with now 4 of her Pro colleagues coming out and criticising her, or at least intimating that there was an issue, that this will force her to front up in future.
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Hey Dughall,
I’ve just never really understood the thinking of some event participants , whether it be in duathlon , triathlon ( OD to IM ) or whatever. Drafting is cheating , simple and clear. Like shortcutting the swim or run , it is cheating.
To train and dedicate oneself to athletics and cheat in competition just dumbfounds me.
Crossing the finish line knowing that you have given the best that you had on the day IMO is success in itself. The medals , times , certificates , whatever are all just added bonuses.
I agree that if nothing has been done yet , it likely will not.
Terry
True, but you and I don’t do it for a living, so our view maybe isn’t skewed by Dollars and cents.
What amuses me is that following a race like Clearwater you get 500 post threads about how disgusting all the drafting is, with fingers being pointed at everybody else, but here when we essentially have a pro being outed by her colleagues, there’s radio silence from the masses…
Oh well, onwards and upwards.
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I do take into account that it is their bread and butter and as much as much as I would be interested in attempting to understand their logic , from a working AG’er I wouldn’t even get close.
But back to the point , yes a very quiet protest taking place on this board if any.
Terry
The “costs” are more than you think. Like most race organization issues, people think you just wave a magic wand and it’s done. The real world of race and event organization does not work that way. My understanding with the marshals is that their is often not enough motorcycles for all the marshals to get out on the course. That’s often the limiter. It often comes down to the relationship that the event has with the local motorcycle club(s) and how many volunteer( note meaning of that word carefully) drivers they can get out on race day.
http://forums.transitions.org.au/...opic=34740&st=50
If the blatant cheating wasn’t enough, post 64 was the nail in the coffin that prompted Herbert’s article.
The interest was really in the Sam Warriner’s 70.3 experience, but yes I had heard from several folks about drafting and I also heard about that comment.
What a bullshit comment that is. I get a sense, especially in the womens Pro-pack, that they have a huge amount of respect for each other so a comment like that stands out even more. I hope that comment wasn’t made, especially by someone who looks very bloated and muscular for someone competing in a sport that’s supposed to dehydrate and break you down.
Woops!
Clearly something was amiss if 3 other Pro’s felt strongly enough to come out and say so in public…
Not defending drafting or people who draft at all. However, this is a common complaint in big races now. The issue is that when you are 20m or more back of a rider or a group of riders up the road, the riders up the road will “appear” or *“look” *like they are drafting to you. When in fact they are riding right on the edge of legality and are legal. To concretely identify that someone is drafting you need to be almost right up alongside them and then count 20 long seconds - as a an exercise do that right now. If they have not moved from that position for those 20 long seconds and they have spent the entire time within 10m( 7m for AG’ers) of the rider in front, then, “Yes”, they are drafting.
I saw this time and time again at IMH. Rider back aways. Get’s exasperated complains that those guys up front of him are drafting and have been for miles. Yet you get up to the riders in front and they are riding perfectly legal!
I don’t buy the cost issue, this is an issue of desire not dollars in my view.
As to the inherent difficulty in telling if someone in front or behind you is drafting, I agree, but now that 4 other Pro competitors have come out and flagged the same issue with the same competitor, that does suggest that there was a problem.
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I don’t buy the cost issue, this is an issue of desire not dollars in my view.
Agreed. But again, for the most part you are dealing with volunteers, and sometime they show up and sometimes they don’t. Our world may revolve around triathlon, but there’s does not.** **As big and as important a race as IMH is and even there they were short of motos - some did not show up on race day!
Clearly something was amiss if 3 other Pro’s felt strongly enough to come out and say so in public…
Not defending drafting or people who draft at all. However, this is a common complaint in big races now. The issue is that when you are 20m or more back of a rider or a group of riders up the road, the riders up the road will “appear” or *“look” *like they are drafting to you. When in fact they are riding right on the edge of legality and are legal. To concretely identify that someone is drafting you need to be almost right up alongside them and then count 20 long seconds - as a an exercise do that right now. If they have not moved from that position for those 20 long seconds and they have spent the entire time within 10m( 7m for AG’ers) of the rider in front, then, “Yes”, they are drafting.
I saw this time and time again at IMH. Rider back aways. Get’s exasperated complains that those guys up front of him are drafting and have been for miles. Yet you get up to the riders in front and they are riding perfectly legal!
Steve,
I think you need to review the drafting rules, because you are missing a key point to them. Once a rider enters the draft zone, THEY MUST COMPLETE A PASS. They can’t just back out of the zone. If they do not complete a pass within 20 secs, then they are in violation. Otherwise athletes can enter and exit all day from the back, effectively drafting about 20 out of every 30 seconds. In fact, they not even allowed to slipstream in the pro race.
I think you need to review the drafting rules, because you are missing a key point to them. Once a rider enters the draft zone, THEY MUST COMPLETE A PASS. They can’t just back out of the zone. If they do not complete a pass within 20 secs, then they are in violation. Otherwise athletes can enter and exit all day from the back, effectively drafting about 20 out of every 30 seconds. In fact, they not even allowed to slipstream in the pro race.
I just read the rules and can’t find this in either the AG or Elite sections. The only thing that says
you must complete a pass within 15 seconds is in the “most common violations” handout, and not
the rules themselves.
For reference I was reading 5.10 and 5.10A. Did I just miss it?
-Jot