The title sounds like one of my nights out but if there’s one thing I need to get off my chest at the moment it’s this damn stagger rule. are they going to retain it in IM long term ? The last bastion of true individual tri bike riding could be lost with this crappy rule in place. Can anyone think of a better way to manage drafting since I seemed to spend most of last season doing olympic distance races swatting wheel suckers off my back wheel.
Grrrrr it makes me mad… (nurse get my valium)
Man, I don;t know, it is frustrating. But you raise an interesting question: How to deal with drafters? Well, in my days as a bike racer I learned a lot of dirty tricks. If you know some basic tactics you can fuck with someone on your wheel big time and they often don’t realize they are doing more work to ride on your wheel. You can put them in the gutter, half-wheel them by gently decelerating and drifting back so your back wheel nearly contacts their front wheel, stand up suddenly to pedal and push your bike back a couple inches in doing so, ride them through the worst pavement and chuckholes by jumping or barely avoiding them yourself at the last second, initiate a subtle series of accelerations and decelerations creating a maddening “accordian” effect, force them to ride in a crosswind by not letting them in the “lee” side of your bike by hugging the gutter or the yellow line, make sure they are in a conspicuous drafting position as soon as you hear a motorcycle approaching so they draw a penalty- the opportunites are endless. If some is on my wheel and I don’t want them there I can make their life a living hell. don;t ever do anything dangerous, but there is nothing wrong with annoying them, distracting them (within reason) and generally making things difficult on them after you have politely asked, “Hey, could you please clear my draft zone? Let’s keep it a clean race!”
Lucklily for you, you just bought a new tri-spoke and disc, so hopefully you will blow by them faster and they won’t know what hit them.
As a generally bad swimmer, the people I pass early in the race tend not to be going very fast. Later in the race, the cyclists are better, so I just make sure I go by quickly as far to the left as legally possible and then take a quick glance under my arm to see if they were dropped. If the course is hilly, I like to use the hill to drop them.
In big races (like 1800 people with lots of waves) at Half-IM distance, this becomes nearly impossible, especially if the course if flat. If you are fast, you will attract a crowd and unless you are a complete monster on the bike, it is hard to get away from the packs because they are all riding together. Certainly Tom gave pretty comprehensive advice on how to ditch people if they are persistent.
My best advice, which I can’t always keep myself, is to enjoy the race and forget about the competition. Ultimately, most of us are racing our own PRs and will be satisfied at the end of the day with a good effort. I let all the drafting get to me at the Eagleman Ironman qualifier this year and it ruined my enjoyment of the race. So now I strive for peace of mind and enjoy the race, knowing at the end of the day that it was an honest effort.
Depending on who you talk to it has always been there, at least for pro men at IM events. Just for a point of reference, the stagger rule had no effect on you in olympic races, what you have described is blatant drafting behind you. The stagger rule is about maintaining 2 meters to the side (and previously 10 meters back.)
For age group athletes, it is pretty basic; 5 meters back and you must pass in a 15 second span, once passed you must drop back…blah blah blah. If someone is drafting off you, I think the easiest thing to do is sit up, slow down, drink some water and if the person in back does not begin to pass you since you have slowed down, just tell them to get lost and stop drafting. Be forceful, not polite. Chances are they will either pass or drop back.
Ultimately you need to depend on your ability and the race officials. If you are confident on the bike and if people are taking advantage of you, you need to put an end to it or hope that they get caught.
Tom is right, don’t do anything stupid or dangerous, but you can control the situation.
As I wipe water from my keyboard laughing at Tom’s post about flicking others, snepper does have a great idea. Just sit up and ask them to stop. Very simple and very cool. It also allows you a great look at their race number so you can inform an official next time you see them.
Me, I’ll still try to flick them nicely first but promise to try sneppers idea this upcoming season.