At IM Fl on Saturday the pros were allowed to start 75m out in the water. They had a separate pen for them on the beach that they decided not to use and instead gave them the head start. I think they should be made to swim the same distance as everyone else (maybe throw an extra marker out there that only they have to swim around if they start in a separate location). Any thoughts on this?
I think that they do this for the safety of the pro athletes and also the age groupers. If you have a slower swimmer in the pro pack, they will have to ride through throngs of slower age group bikers. This has been an issue in the past especially with the women.
I don’t mind it. In the span of 141+ miles for an ironman, 75 meters is nothing. Besides, they had to swim to get out there and they had to tread water for 5 minutes or more before the gun went off.
Craig
I think they should start BEHING the AG’s!!! Then we as AG’s get to beat on them in the swim, cut them off on the bike (the Officials would indicate thier drafting penalties with a paint ball gun - Ted Nugent style)(well, of course the Officials would then need to ride horses). We as age groupers could have weapons that would not be able to be thrown at the Pros (whips, chains, cat-o-nine-tails and the like - but no grenades or other throwable objects). Lets turn IM into a contact sport…because with out that Pro lead…for the pros…it will be anyways.
Whip it…dun nun nun nun nuuu…WHIP IT GOOD!!
From what I know, the stagger rule has been included in the pro rules for sometime now. Just like the drafting rule only began to be seriously enforced in the '96 Hawaii IM, the stagger rule started to be enforced this year. So it’s not a question of “drafting is making its way into the tri world”, the rule was always there and was “invented” by the pros themselves.
The stagger rule is in fact an advantage and allows drafting. Even more because bike speeds are of the same order of magnitude of wind speeds, which means that you don’t need a 90deg wind for the effect to be noticed by the inside rider.
This effect can be responsible for example for the good bike splits of the top AG’s because when they don’t have to stagger and if the wind comes from the left and they’re riding with a pro, they can draft off him/her.
Paulo
It’s a shame
While I am certainly not in favor of drafting…is it really any kind of “shame”? I mean, is the result of the race somehow in question? Half the guys in the lead pack at Kona were on a suicide mission. Drafting or not, they died on the run because the pack was going too fast for them. Nobody sat in that pack and then pulled off an unusually fast run. The contenders were all in there.
I mean, look at Macca. He has proven that he can ride faster than that pack solo (did it last year), and run sub-3:00 (did it at Au and Roth). You would think that, by sitting in that pack, he would have blitzed the run. His race, and Cam Brown’s, give me a pretty convincing argument that that little pack didn’t help those guys as much as you think. That pack had plenty of strong runners in it that still got spit out the back on the run. To me, the only real surprise in the race was Zack with an outstanding run. But, that wasn’t because he drafted … it was because he didn’t try to ride 10 minutes faster than everyone else like he usually does.
Folks are assuming that the bikers in the group were able to ride easy. But, let me posit this: Riding solo and riding hard, let’s say they average 24.0 mph. Riding together and riding hard, they average 24.5 mph. They’re still busting butt and getting tired (an effect proved by so many disastrous run splits). If there was a “free” 10 minutes in that group, they all shared in it and started the run with the same relative position and “tired factor”. The guys that benefitted the most (finishing next to Reid when they would have finished 5 minutes back) paid the price immediately on the run. The way for a strong biker to punish a drafter is to keep the effort level up and make the drafter ride too hard. Eddy M. used to do this to the whole peloton if they pissed him off.
I think that the stagger rule and big groups are here to stay. But I don’t think they will ever make a difference in the podium spots. Peter Reid was far and away the strongest athlete at Kona this year. Since the beginning of time (early 80’s) there have been solo riders off the front that die on the run and complain about drafting behind them. When are they gonna learn that an IM is won or lost on the run, just like a marathon is won or lost in the final 6 miles.
The IM isn’t determined on the run because “running matters more” – it’s because the run is last. That’s all there is to it. If you blitz the first 20 of a marathon, you die at the end. If you blitz the bike in an IM, you die at the end (the run). It’s a race of pacing, patience and attrition.
I was about to post the below reply on a different thread when I read this one. I agree completely.
I raced the Blackwater Eagleman tri this year and I was miffed at all the drafting going on, but the comment made by Allan above has made me rethink my view.
I came to tri’s from a bike racing background where drafting was the single greatest dynamic to affect race results. If you made the break you might win, but miss it and you were done. You had to sell yourself out to get there, but if you didn’t then you were done. Not having to run afterwards makes all the difference.
I am now starting to think that drafting is not the “free ride to speed” in triathlon that I once thought of it as.
When I was bike racing we would ride about two inches from the rear wheel of our buddies and pacelines were well-orchestrated, smooth affairs that went very fast. You did it because you trusted the other riders. I don’ t think that is the case in most tri drafting. There is still benefit, but at what cost?
At one point last year in Eagleman, I was mad enough to jump in one three or four man group. We went faster certainly, but it was herky-jerky affair with surges and slowdowns. After about five minutes my conscience got the better of me and I bailed out, never to draft again. I can’t imagine that this is the best way to ride an even, well-paced race. I would imagine that the longer you go, i.e. Half-IM and IM that those little efforts will start to dip more and more into your anaerobic threshhold and start to add up. The bill will be paid on the run.
If I got my old cycling buddies together and we put together a nice, evenly-paced line then I’m sure I could both ride and run faster. I have seen some pretty good two-man time trials between people who were obviously in collusion, but by and large I think most tri drafting is inefficient and may be detrimental in the end.
Having said this, let me make my feelings clear. Drafting is still cheating!
I think race directors should still work on ways to cut down on cheating, but at least the rest of us can go back to training knowing that hard work, not drafting, will get us to the results we want.
For me, this sport has always been, and will always be about the age grouper…without the age grouper this sport is dead. The ironman swim can be a brutal experience if your in the thick of it…thats a part of the race…and a part i feel the pros should experience…if your not fast or strong enough to weed yourself out of the crowd, then your not of “pro” ability…my two cents. Wonder what would happen if the ironman swim was weighted as heavy as the bike or run…like a 4 miler? hmmmm