Quick newbie question. For a cold IM start can you discard gloves/arm warmers/wind west etc put on in T1 at an aid station as you warm up or does it count as abandoned equipment? No expectation to get it back…
You can throw anything you like in any garbage can, if you have no expectation of getting it back…
Some people cut the arms off a cheap sweatshirt or the front off a cheap pair of long socks as a way to keep warm, without having to sacrifice a good pair of arm warmers… also, Dollar store gloves…
Just tuck them under the back of your jersey/tri top, if you have a one piece this might be a little more difficult though.
You can always tuck things in your jersey. I rode more than half of the CDA bike leg this past June with a vest tucked in the front of my tri top. I wanted to keep it at the end of the day, so I didn’t drop it at SN or an aid station, etc. Turns out I would have been able to get it back if I left it in one of my SN bags however.
IMNZ has a clothing drop at the 45k mark where you can drop itmes marked with your name/race number and collect at the end. Any other discarding of kit would be against the rules, and people have been DQ’d for that.
Arm warmers you can roll down and drop over the aero bars. As mentioned, then a thin gillet can be stuffed into a tri top pocket.
Arm warmers you can roll down and drop over the aero bars.
But… but… but… that would negate the thousands of dollars I spent making my bike more aero!
The rules are ambiguous on this point, but I’ve never seen anyone penalized for tossing things in the trash at an aid station. Considering that you can dump water bottles, gel wrappers, etc. at an aid station (but not “out on the course”) I’d say these are safe zones. The problem is USAT never defines what constitutes “out on the course.” Jimmy?
This post by USAT seems to confirm it’s OK to drop stuff at aid stations: http://triathlon.teamusa.org/resources/multisport-zone/rules-education/race-conduct-abandoned-equipment
Are all IM run using USAT rules anyway?
Dropping something in the trash (or close to it) at an aid station is the right thing to do. You are not abandoning equipment, you are throwing something away.
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Are all IM run using USAT rules anyway?
The US based IMs are run using USAT rules with some particular modifications that WTC has negotiated with USAT. For example you can race a USAT race without a shirt, but not a WTC one.