See the EXCERPT eport below from Desiree FIcker’s website…Looks like Desiree and Natascha have a little cat fight going…Natascha accuses Desiree of drafting and Desiree make a thinly veiled reference to Natascha’s “Amazing speed.” INTERESTING!
**Bob **
Eagleman 70.3
"At the awards ceremony Natashca, who continues to amaze me with her speed on both the bike and run, got up and on the microphone lectured the crowd for cheating, that she was upset because she saw people drafting. I have heard things about drafting on the Eagelman course because it is so flat and there are no hills to break up the packs of age groupers. There are several courses infamous for this, Hawaii, Cleremont, etc. Any time you get groups of strong riders with similar ability levels you will have this problem when there are no hills. I think the best thing to do as an RD is to have marshalls out on the course monitoring the packs and to have people sign a written consent not to draft out on the course.
**After the ceremony, Jay from Triathlete magazine approached me and asked me what I thought of everything that was being said about the pro women drafting. It was then that I started realizing Natashca was accusing me of drafting and not just the age groupers. This made me angry, she was accusing Pip and I of doing something based purely on how long it took her to catch us. I had one male pro in front of me for some time on the bike ride and was keeping more than 10 meters the entire time. **
The marshalls came by and saw the distance at least 6 times…I was playing by the rules. I was reeling Pip in at the end of the bike and could see that she was playing fairly as well. I have been working hard on my biking, going to Boulder for 10 days of completely solo training with the one goal of improving my bike power. I do not appreciate being accused of a bike split achieved not through hard work but by cheating, especially by an athlete I have admired for so long. I would like to think instead that these accusations are mainly coming from a blown out of proportion comment that the press (Inside Tri and Triathlete) are making a hot story out of. I have biked within range(if you call range 3-5 minutes!!) of NB many times in the past, I am having a hard time believing she would accuse me of such things. "
You might want to edit this post. Dan prefers you to give a couple of excerpts along with a link. I’m sure Des and her sponsors would prefer you link to her site as well…
I made the changes, but for all the blathering people do on here, I hardly see why it was necessary…And, I hardly think her sponsors or she care. But, whatever, people have to find something to gripe about I suppose.
Both Badman and Ficker are entered in the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon on 24 June 2007 in Lubbock, Texas. They will have the opportunity to work it out up there.
Doesn’t look like Desiree is making any veiled references to anything about Natascha except being unfairly accused of cheating. One of the articles quoted keat as saying that she told Natascha the others were drafting. That seems to be what started the whole brouhaha.
OK, not being there and reading all this stuff third hand, I have to ask myself, “why would Natasha bother lecturing the other pros about drafting…she beat them anyway”. I’d think that she was actually lecturing the age groupers about drafting. As a champion she certainly has the right.
Then some pro women who are riding the legal limit get bent out of joint. The reality is that if you are riding the legal limit, this is fair game and there is no reason to have to apologize for doing so. Macca did not have to apologize or speak up for himself, and Desiree certainly does not. Unless Natasha actually said, that “other pro women were drafting” and names them (like Norman did for Macca), then why is Desiree jumping to the conclusion that Natasha is speaking about her? Or deep down inside, does she actually really know that at times the “legal limit” got compressed and people inadvertantly ended up in the draft zone and were not caught. As we all know, this is the actual and moral dilemma that we all play with when we try to take advantage of the legal limit. The athlete who has his/her nose in the wind, will always end up with some kind of moral high ground in his/her own mind and those of the fans!
Nothing like Thu morning armchair QBing…oh well, as fans of the sport, I guess this is what fans do.
Natasha can say anything she wants, but there are certainly no rights or privileges granted to her simply because she has been a great champion. Drafting sucks, and as someone who prides himself on s strong bike I absolutely hate it. How ever, for her to go off on other athletes is really not right. We have race directors and draft marshals for a reason. Seems to me she needs to shut up and concentrate on her own situation. I am quite sure the referees are watching the pros very carefully and making sure they are playing by the rules.
The age group situation is what it is. There will always be drafting on flat courses in some form or another. It’s just inevitable with he number of athletes on the road. Hey, I try to ride clean all the time, but at some point in just about any race I could probably be tagged with a penalty-even if it is just for a brief second or two. It’s really about intent, isn’t it? I am not trying to cheat, doing my best to ride clean and play fair. Still, when the pace line goes by me at 26 mph it is very frustrating. I imagine it is even worse for an aging star.
I am sure Natasha is getting frustrated, but she needs to calm down and worry about things she can actually control. This problem is going to get any better…
If Des would read the article posted by Timothy Carlson yesterday, she would notice that IT is not entirely convinced there was drafting in this particular instance. The stories from the sources at hand did not make logical sense with the time gaps Taylor, Ficker, Keat, and Badmann had out of the swim.
…Unless Natasha actually said, that “other pro women were drafting” and names them (like Norman did for Macca), then why is Desiree jumping to the conclusion that Natasha is speaking about her? …
Desiree was a former ITU racer was she not? I believe in one of Natasha’s statements after the race she said something along the lines of ‘if so-and-so thinks drafting is alright then they should go back to the ITU and race’. I think thats where Desiree got the impression Natasha was talking about her.
Actually I disagree. A champion like Natasha has influence on the situation of drafting by speaking up about it. If she stands up at awards at a race that she just won and hammers the RD and marshals for the drafting in the age group ranks, maybe next year they space the waves apart more and nail people harder. So in essence, she is being part of the future solution. No RD wants the publicity of his/her course being a draft fest. Was she accusing the other pro women about drafting…well, I can only go by what I read, and I don’t believe she specifically mentioned any pro women.
The bottom line is that with tight waves age grouper will be put in a situational drafting position due to numbers spewing on the road after the swim. Most age groupers try to steer clear, while some blatantly have intent to draft. Pro women on the other hand choose to ride the legal limit or with their nose in the wind. No one is forcing a pro into a situational drafting context.
“At the awards ceremony Natashca, who continues to amaze me with her speed on both the bike and run, got up and on the microphone lectured the crowd for cheating…”
Maybe you read it as a compliment, but I read it as a bit of a jab. As in, “I am amazed and wonder why she’s so fast all these years, even after others have dropped away…”
I was there. I wasn’t sure of who she was talking about during her speech and I’m still not sure now.
Natasha did not say anyone should go back to ITU racing.
She said that 70.3 has a lot of potential but that drafting is cheating, cheating is hurting the sport, and if people want to draft, then they should race ITU.
The impression I get from the article is the journalist from that one mag is trying to turn Natascha’s statements into an attack on Desiré. Des and Natascha are both very nice and classy women. I doubt there is any heat between the two.
OK, not being there and reading all this stuff third hand, I have to ask myself, “why would Natasha bother lecturing the other pros about drafting…she beat them anyway”. I’d think that she was actually lecturing the age groupers about drafting.
So ask yourself this question: “Why would she lecture age groupers?”
Age groupers are the reason she makes a living at this sport. Why would she bite the hand? She has always been very gracious to fans/ age groupers. Why would she care what the age groupers do, assuming it had no effect on her race? She wouldn’t, IMO.
Seems much more likely to me she would be upset with her competitors. People at her level are most often fiercely competitive and even if they’ve won the race, they think they should’ve won by more. Stadler, for instance.
Anyhow, none of this matters. H20fun has already spoken on this matter…“If you weren’t penalized, it wasn’t drafting”
She said that 70.3 has a lot of potential but that drafting is cheating, cheating is hurting the sport, and if people want to draft, then they should race ITU. \
Since only pros can race ITU draft legal races, I would assume she meant pros…I doubt if she really cares about the 100 peleton AG packs, it doesn’t affect her personally. What she perceives as pro drafting does affect her, and I would guess that is why she got so worked up, and felt she had to speak to it. I have no idea wheather it happened or not, from what I can see in the splits, she could have not have witnessed it personally, and got it second hand, or just assumed it was going on. Neither of which is any proof that it happened. I’ve been in that spot many times in my career, and it is easy to assume there is something fishy going on up ahead of you. It always seems the leaders are drafting the camera trucks( they sometimes do), or the big packs are chasing you down, (they sometimes are) or riding away. It’s just a feeling though, until there is real proof, like marshalls giving penalties, video coverage of the situation, or you actually witness it yourself. It sounds like to me she may have been a bit hasty in her comments about the pro women ahead of her, and probably wishes she could take them back now…Heat of the moment kind of thing…
First of all, I see no issue with pros telling age groupers when they are being a bunch of drafting cheating posers on $5000 bikes :-). Maybe if more actually told us, we’d listen. Whether Natasha was pointing to the age group packs which she may or may not have witnessed, or pro women that she may or may not have witnessed is another story. Someone will just have to ask Natasha who she was speaking about…