So if drafting were legalized, what we be the drawbacks besides safety for the newbies? I like the idea as it even gives the swim a new found importance, and it would kill teh sports number one problem. Thoughts?
Worst. Troll. Ever.
Great response.
I don’t think that I want an experienced rider drafting me in the aero position with their hands off the brakes, either. Main reason other than safety would be negating good swimming and cycling in favor of running. If you’re a FOP swimmer, you will just get gobbled up by the pack unless you can get a FOP draft-group going. You can’t be so far back in the swim that you miss the main pack completely, but if you’re in the front, you’re just providing a rabbit for the pack. If you are a strong cyclist, you have your best leg (and usually the longest time wise) negated since people can go 1-3 mph faster sitting on your wheel than they would be able to otherwise.
Bottom line is that some people are going to cheat no matter whether the race tries to stop it or not. They have to live with themselves (and my insults being screamed into their ears). Does it suck for the honest people, yep. Is it potentially dangerous for the honest people, yep. I’ve gone up to someone more than once and congratulated them in front of their family/friends on placing in my age group…then told them to try it without drafting next time. Did it make them stop, probably not. Did it make me feel better about being snaked by their cheating, no.
Mike
Seems like it would make the swim less relevant, not more.
Because it’s an indvidual sport and not a team/group sport.
Not if you missed the main pack
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I agree with you rpoint and I do not want to see drafting allowed during the bike leg, however how do you then justify drafting during the swim & then during the run (since AFAIK I can run with someone but I cannot bike with someone)?
Fred.
You can just bury yourself for a couple minutes to catch up then sit on someones wheel
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Good points, I was looking at it from my own personal stance as what would benefit me. Enough said.
I agree…
Fred.
The two number one problems in the sport are the swimming and the running.
Once we legalize drafting, which is probably the other number one problem, after the swimming and running, we’ll have some really good races.
Worst. Troll. Ever.
No, not at all. I feel it’s a legitimate question. Improbable, that it would ever come to pass, but it’s at least worth while discussing and debating the possibilities. Perhaps, some genuine solutions would come out of that debate.
“Not if you missed the main pack”
That was my point, I have gone from top 5th to 25th in some races, where I know the winners (runners) could not have bridged the swim bike gap.
It’s different dynamics.
Triathlon is really the blending of 3 sports.
Swimming, Time Trialing, and Running - drafting is legal in 2 of those sports.
If you look at triathlon that way rather then Swimming, Cycling, and Running - it gives it a bit of a different viewpoint. Once they allow drafting in the individual time trials in the bike world I’m for it in Triathlons.
I’d actually contend that as long as you catch the main pack, it makes the bike irrelevant.
“Triathlon is really the blending of 3 sports. Swimming, Time Trialing, and Running”
Really? Is the bike really a time trial in the pure sense? Well, sort of? Unlike a real time trial you are racing head to head against the competition on the road. You may actually see the competition. In a real ITT, you may never see the guy that beat you by a tenth of a second! Lets face it. The bike leg of a triathlon is hybrid event that has no real equivilent in the sports world. Here’s the definition that I have come up with over the years. It’s sort of like an ITT, that is stagger started based on your swim time/fitness. However, you are racing head to head out on the road but on TT style bikes with modified TT rules. Are you still with me?
You can just bury yourself for a couple minutes to catch up then sit on someones wheel
Didn’t work that way in Athens. That first group of men controlled that race. The other packs were left in the dust. At least from what I remember.
I’m with you. It is that way at some triathlons, yet others it is a true time trial of sorts.
Memphis in May for example has a stagger and you really don’t know who has won till the dust settles.
Just this weekend I did a triathlon where myself and the guy who won the race were running stride for stride for several miles - but I started 3 minutes behind him so at that point I was winning. In that same triathlon a guy came from way back in Wave 9 and ended up just short of winning.
So which is it?
I’d actually contend that as long as you catch the main pack, it makes the bike irrelevant.
That’s assuming that you have the fitness to hang in with the pack. That you can surge to 50 kmh then back off a bit corner on a dime in tight confines and then hammer up a hill all-out for 2 minutes. Then recover in time for the next attemped breakaway. Then dive into another very tight turn with some guy almost leaning on you. Then try your own break away off the front with three others and get an echelon going and go absolutly all out for 10 minutes to get a one minute gap on the faster runners. Yea. The bike is irrelvant! 