So this morning was the Bronx Biathlon in good old NYC. Turnout was great and the competition was intense. The rules of these particular races is a standard 3 bike length distance between each bike and if you can’t pass someone within 15 seconds your supposed to drop back. Typically people are able to ride about 3 wide, so this is never really a problem. This morning however, a huge pack formed and while I don’t think anyone truly meant to form this pack or to cheat, it was evident that people who were in it weren’t making all the efforts they could to drop back as the rules stipulate. To the credit of a few, many tried to ride wide and ride around (including myself), but even if you broke away the pack was quickly on your tail, there really wasn’t much you could do…
So my question is this, do you drop back (20-30 spots), do you stay with the group and try to ride wide, or do you screw it and break the rules?
One age group winner was honest enough to reject his award and admit he was cheating.
“This morning however, a huge pack formed and while I don’t think anyone truly meant to form this pack or to cheat”
Well, that’s exactly what they were doing anyway…the rules are clear, aren’t they? They were cheating. period. If it’s not what they intended to do (to cheat) they had the choice to drop back as stipulated by the rules. they chose not to, so despite what you think, I can only assume that they did intend to cheat, otherwise they would have dropped back.
You had the choice to either
seat 15m behind the bunch
stay 10m ahead or attack like in a bike race
if you did stay in the bunch, you made the wrong decision and were cheating like the rest.
I guess that anwers your question as to what I believe you should have done…I’d rather blow up to pieces on the run and not draft than cheat.
I’ve been in the same position. It sucks. Same as this race it was a short duathlon. We ended up a group of about 15 and after 10 minutes of sitting 15 feet back I went off the front - got caught by the group and did it again (and again) with a couple other guys. it was a fun ride - and hard - but the 22min 5k at the end didn’t do much for my overall results.
i agree with the frenchie - if you aren’t going to get the race you expected you might as well make it a good workout and attack on the bike. It’s still April so you can chalk it up to a great bike training and an experiment in how shattered you can make your legs.
I’m doing a sprint next weekend and for all my races until June I’m going to push the bike as hard as I can to see how well i can run after a really hard ride.
I heard all about the ugliness today - sorry you got stuck in it. I’ve done that race and others with similar situations, and understand your frustration. It seems to me that part of the blame is on the organizers for not having any draft marshalls. Usually, NYTC only has one vehicle driving the course, and for those who are willing to cheat, it’s easy to avoid him. I like the NYTC and Dan Honig, but in 15 years of doing his races, I have NEVER seen a drafting penalty assessed. Racers know that, and those who don’t care about the rules take advantage of it.
Ultimately, I think the answer to your question is that you have to attack the group and stay ahead, or drop back, hoping to recover and attack them again. One year I attacked a similar group repeatedly. I finally dropped them, but they continued to ride in a pack and no less than SIX runners passed me within one minute of exiting T2.
but I’m there to have a good experience. What I do not do or allow to be done to me is “pairs” drafting. If you come up on me, keep going. Don’t make getting on to my wheel the goal. I, if coming up on someone of comparable speeds, sit back until I know I can get by them in a hurry.
I too was at the race this morning. It was the most blatantly disgusting display of cheating I have ever seen. After my mediocre run I got on my bike and blasted off, passing a lot of people on the 1st loop. As i made my way south on my second loop, i saw a huge peloton of guys - 25 to 30 deep - going north to finish their second loop. I was shocked at how big the pack was. Then, about a minute after making the last turnaround, I see ANOTHER pack of 25 or so riding south toward the turnaround, all people i had passed earlier in the race, and had seen much farther behind me at the other turnarounds. well, they caught me as i made the turnoff to go back into the park, and i almost got stuck behind them as they zoomed around me. I had to get out of the aerobars as it was really dangerous with all these people suddenly so close. I made the decision to attack and as I made my way through you may have heard me yell “Nice drafting skills you all have!”. I spoke to Dan after the race, and am pretty upset. The girl who won my age group got me at the end of the last run my 9 seconds and I know she was in that pack.
Moral of the story: If you see drafting, GET NUMBERS! If 3 people had confirmed that someone was drafting, that person gets a 2 minute penalty.
As for whether people “meant to cheat” or not, if they followed the overtaking rules there would not have been a problem.
How sad and sickening that people would choose to accept awards knowing that they didn’t do the race on their own. At least that one guy had the balls to give his award back.
I totally understand your anger. I’m curious as to how Dan responded. As I mentioned in my previous post, I like Dan, have done his races for years and brought several of my athletes to the race today. Still, his are the only races I’ve ever seen where NO ONE gets penalized and where the athletes are given the responsibility to report each other for drafting. Considering that he requires three such reports before penalizing someone, it’s clear that it’s not going to happen. I suspect that a few penalties and DQ’s would put an end to the blatant drafting, but until then it’s gonna be rough.
What I do not do or allow to be done to me is “pairs” drafting.
I didn’t realize we were allowed to make up our own rules in order to “have a good” experience." I don’t know if you meant it this way or not, but it sounds like you’ve decided for yourself that someone drafting you individually is bad, while riding in a big pack is OK, as long as you’re enjoying yourself.
I kinda like that idea. Personally, I don’t like pack riding, but I could have a pretty good experience drafting off Mrs. Vitus. I mean, I know it’s against the rules and all, but so what?
His response was to 1)ask me if I got numbers. I didn’t, although I recognized some people by their clothes. I honestly didn’t even think of trying to remember numbers as they caught me: my priority was trying to make my way through the pack and get back to transition. Should have looked at the numbers!
Also, he said 2) that he was in a truck going up and down the bike course and yelled at people to break up packs, and they did. However it doesn’t seem that any of THESE people got the 2 minute penalty.
This is also the only race I have done where there weren’t any drafting marshalls. I think even one marshall in the middle lane of the highway at the southern turnaround would have caught a lot of the cheaters. I just can’t get over the enourmous groups of people who cheated.
When racing, 99.2% of people get “caught up in the moment” and won’t allow people to pass. And/or when they do get passed, they will not drop back. It’s downright painful. Many newbie USAT officials only call drafting for an attack from behind rather than failure to leave the rear zone.
Drafting is much like a porno movie…nobody admits to watching them, but everybody seems to know what is going on.
I’m not sure that race was USAT sanctioned. If not, it can pick and choose whatever rules it wants, and whether it wants to enforce them.
Think of it this way: if you’re a race director, would you want to have to call a penalty on one of your paying customers? Sorta counter-productive. Much easier to say “a competitor who has three drafting reports filed by fellow competitors will automatically a four minute penalty”. So you and a few friends need to take paper and pencil out on course next time.
I guess things have gotten looser over the years, because my only drafting DQ came in 1989 at the Brooklyn Biathlon. The funny thing was I spent almost the entire race all alone, but I guess I got nailed coming out of Prospect Park. The inner cyclist took over, and I think I reacted to someone passing me, and jumped on his wheel like I do when training with roadies.
Back in the late 80s they typically would DQ between 10 to 20 people for drafting per race. They’d read off the numbers before giving out the awards. In that Brooklyn race I wasn’t even listening to the numbers as they were being read. It was only after I went to check my results, and couldn’t find my name that I decided I better find that list of numbers.
It would have been impossible to get the race numbers, there were so many people doing it! Ultimately the responsibility falls on the individual athletes. I bet it was just a few bad seeds that started the whole mess and as people where consumed by the pack they chose to grab on rather than to fall back. I too think that more needs to be done to control this, it would be very difficult though. As I understand, NYTC is pretty stretched for volunteers as is. I don’t remember Dan mentioning any drafting rules in the pre race meeting, and he should have said something to ‘remind’ everyone. I don’t know that it would have changed things, but I’d bet my new bike that he’ll be sure to talk about it at the pre race meeting next time.
Atleast there wasn’t any money on the table and only those $.10 placks.
For me this is an easy question since it happened this morning. As someone once told me, if you have enough doubt in your own mind that a decision is good or bad, then it was probably bad.
Myself I ended up playing leapfrog for five miles and never could shake the group off until there was about a mile to go. Then I missed a turn when there was a van in the middle of the road at an intersection and had to backtrack. The group caught me again and then spread out just enough going into T2. Luckily, I blew them away in transition and never saw them again.
When I walked up to receive my award I did not have an emotional baggage. I wonder if any of them could say the same? Most of us don’t get paid for this, so at the end of the day the only thing you take home beside a cheesy medal is your sense of personal satisfaction. Why jeopardize that with thoughts of self-justification (everybody’s doing it) or doubt?
“if you’re a race director, would you want to have to call a penalty on one of your paying customers?”
Interesting perpective. IMO…the difference b/w a race and an event. A race typically had rules. Perhaps you are on the something here. A triathlon WITHOUT the race, an event…for the folks who are only there to finish. Times optional. Works for long bike rides, 10/5ks and long swim events…why not bring that concept to triathlon?