If this was already mentioned excuse me. I looked but didnt see anything.
If anyone who was there stuck around for the awards they saw something pretty extrodiary IMO. Natascha got up on the podium and used a swiss expression to explain how mad she was at all of the cheaters (drafters). I thought that was extremely bold considering who she is but also necessary. As an emissary of the sport i think people like her need to stand up and speak out about cheating.
Yesterday the drafting was out of control. I personally followed (at a legal distance) a guy for 15 miles who was shamelessly drafting. I past him and asked him if a good time was worth knowing that he was cheating and he still continued to draft. He then pasted me again and i sat behind him pissed. A course marshall rode up, i pointed him out, he was STILL drafting at the time and they did nothing!!! I knew this because he didnt have to stand down at the next tent. I was shocked so im glad Natascha said something because the officials didnt seem to care.
I listened to the ironman.com interview with her after she won and she said that she must have raced really fast because she was so angry at all the cheaters. do you think she was she talking about other pros or mostly age groupers?
She is about the nicest athlete you would ever want to meet. Its just not something i would have expected from here in a winning speech. She just not the kind of person i would expect to get caught up in a Kona 06 style fight, you know? Its usually the same old stuff, thanks to the community, thanks to the RD, thanks to the age groupers. You could see that Vigo was exactly pleased with what she was saying but once again, she was right.
We have a local 1/2 here in Ontario held at the beginning of July that is notorious (at least from anyone I have spoken with) for the drafting from the pointy end of the MOP to the back end of the MOP. It is terrible and I have witnessed it 2 out of the 3 years I have raced it. And it only has about 600 people racing in it with a mass swim start. AND the course is pretty hilly so you would think that would break up the packs.
From what I understand of Eagleman, there were over 1600 in the race and the bike course was dead flat. Sounds like too many people in too small an area at one point in time. Doesn’t really sound surprising there was lots of drafting.
Drafting will continue until it becomes an automatic DQ (not a 2-minute penalty). I’m not talking about being blocked or seeking up on someone before a legit pass but any time directly behind another rider for more than 30 seconds deserves a DQ. Of course Natascha is pissed, she’s not a great swimmer but kills on the bike so its not fare that the good swimmers draft the entire race course. Hand out 300+ DQ’s one year and see what happens the following year.
I saw a pack of 150 at least. I hope they all had flat tires on the way home. Freeken posers.
Someone out there needs to invent a radio computer chip that will detect when you are with in 4 bike lengths of another chip for longer than 30 seconds. Then when you go across the timing mat at the end of the bike they get pulled from the race to the box for the appropriate ammount of time…or it would just explode.
I was there and I assumed she was talk about drafting among all ranks. But after readying this article, it seems she implying Pip and Desiree were drafting while leading the race. Mirinda also carefully talks about how ‘far ahead’ the the girls were. After the race, I was looking at the results when one pro (who will remain nameles) said the women’s bike splits were “too close to Natascha’s”. Hmmm…
I raced and didn’t see the top women, but I can say there was a lot of drafting going on around me. With 2,000 competitors, it isn’t until half way through the bike that people finally get spread out. In some cases, people are forced to ride to the left and risk a blocking penalty. It’s a reality in our sport and until the rules change, the waves get spread out, or more officials monitor the bike, it will always happen.
The conditions turned out awesome and race was perfectly run. Congrats to everybody who raced. Looking forward to next year.
If you did any research on Eagleman before signing up then you should not have been surprised to see drafting. It happens every year and the next year the race fills. I did it once, and after about 20 miles into the ride, I was never passed by a single individual. It was always groups of threes, fours, eights, whatever. The transition area was also the most poorly designed of any race I have done.
Vote with your money and don’t go back to races that allow that kind of behavior.
Frankly, after doing the World’s Toughest Half, I’m not sure why I have been chasing a PR all these years instead of finding the toughest courses out there.
Chad
Clearly you are being sarcastic but this is a hot topic for me especially yesterday. Some of you may have seen me, i was the person sitting at the side of the road a half mile from transition (going out) with a flat. By the time i got back on my bike i was way behind and yes i understand i need to practice fixing flats. I consider myself better than avg on the bike but in this race it was almost impossible to pass some groups as they were 4 bike wide and 5 deep. It was awful! Look, i realize that there will be situations where people cant pass because they dont have it in them and will sit on for a few until they do but 15miles of making every pass on the wheel of the person in front of you is wrong.
At this point in time our (AG) race is about the individual and until that changes, the rules need to be enforced like it or not.
Chad, yep, no drafting on races like Auburn. Real real easy to get a PR in a race. Just go to a race the RD has developed
that is a flat course with too many racers. Just like the 70.3 championship. The rules were developed when the fields were smaller,
and most of the racers actually raced. Now the RD’s put races in places that NO rules will EVER resolve drafting, and their only
goal is to fill their pockets. I love when folks take a large race, and calculate how many folks come out of the water in around
1:10 to 1:20. Just do the math. It basically is impossible to not have drafting unless you are going to stop folks from getting out
of T1.
I was there for the speech yesterday. She was clearly directing her comments to the PRO’s who were hanging around for the awards. The course is a one loop course where you never see riders coming in another direction. The PRO’s went first and would have never seen any AGE GRP riders on the course all day.
I only had to bouts with drafting all day. Within the last 15 miles there was a pack of about 30-50 riders riding 3-4 wide down the road. Some where taking to each other like out for a charity ride or something. I just put the hammer down and flew past. Nothing you can do when it’s that bad.
Now on the other side of the coin I was just past the 40K mark and kinda in between larger packs. I pass some guy and I instantly hear him shift down. So I look over my right shoulder and he is about 1 foot off my rear wheel. So I give him about 30 seconds and he is still there. Another 30 seconds and I took a big swig of my Infinit and blasted him right in the face. At that moment I realized that Infint had a dual purpose. Never saw that guy again.
All in all a great race with some amazing fast times.
Yes, I thought of that as well; however, it would me much more dangerous to allow drafting unless you change the specs on our bikes (to mimic ITU racing). This would end the ‘super aero era’ in triathlon which might not be a bad thing but the cycle portion would become essentially irrelevant.
Thats not exactly true, the last 10 miles of the bike are also the 1st 10 but i hear ya.
Ya know now that you say I though so but that section was more of less the tail end or the very beginning. But still I am convinced it was more a less a general broadcast to all but specifically to the PROs…
Drafting rules are interesting. When I was racing yesterday, we had a pretty strong head wind. Knowing the rules are 3 bike lengths,
I stayed behind folks at this distance. Now, I have heard even at 3 bike lengths, you get some drafting help? If this true?
For the few times I was able to hold 3 bike lengths with the head wind, was I drafting? Was I cheating?
Now, it is so interesting to hear folks bitch about drafting and how it is cheating on the bike. But, lets be honest, wet suits
are just as bad and why do folks not bitch as much about this cheating device? Even though it is legal in the rules, if one really really
wants to race ALL three events against the elements, how can anyone support wet suits on one side of their mouth, and bitch on the
other about drafting?