racing saturday, buzzing along, I get passed by a group of five, who then pull right and front of me and stay there. so easy to just blend in and get sucked along, I admit I did this for several miles. then I get bold, pull out and sprint past them. about a half mile from T2, the group sprints past me and pulls into T2, including one guy who passes me as I’m slowing down and then stops! WTF?
I’m on the fence now, either pull me back or push me over. what’s the point, gain an extra 15 seconds?
I have seen the same thing and been tempted too. If you place in the event you will know that you cheated, are you OK with that? Only you can make that decision. I run my own race and know that I will most likely not be on the podium, but I can come back next year and check my improvement. I feel good about staying legal.
Do the right thing, don’t fall into the trap.
jaretj
I saw 2 guys drafting the whole time yesterday… no officials, they didn’t care… I came by a pack, I said to the guys that I was sorry but I wasn’t going to draft since I was placing in the overall and that would be cheating… They let me go ahead of them… But why? why would you want to draft when you know it’s not legal?
ask Tibbs. It’s like bike porn. It feels so good and then you feel guilty later.
Why would you speed if it is not legal? It is an infraction with penalties MUCH more severe than drafting. I wish the officer who last pulled me over showed me a red card, asked me to step out of the vehicle, and do a 1 minute standing penalty.
To hell with the penalty! Don’t draft for safety reasons! On a tight course it is very dangerous to draft and is not worth the time savings. I was in a short race yesterday and had just completed passing a group of 6 or 7 drafting riders when I heard one (or two) go down hard. I want to finish the bike leg fast but also safely. I’ll give up a few seconds (or minutes) any day to avoid a crash. Don’t do it!
my question was more towards this - what’s the point? So you can finish several seconds in front of me? I’d like to have a fast bike split but I’m not sprinting into T2 and slamming on the brakes. I almost rammed the guy who did it. Now you’re getting me started - I got there early, picked a nice spot on the rack near the bike exit. Laid out all my stuff. Went for a warmup ride with my friend, got back about a half hour before the start, some jerk off had come in late and jammed his bike into my spot! His comment, “oh don’t worry, you have pleanty of room and you’ll be out of here long before me.”
move their bike somewhere else. preferably far away so they have to search for it.
yeah, but then I feel like a real asshole.
I agree with those that say don’t draft, ride your own race. But sometimes people make that really hard to do. They just don’t get the whole ride on the right pass on the left concept. So when they’re stacked 4 wide against the yellow line or curb, it’s difficult not to ride right up on someones tail as your yelling at them to get over. I’m sure we could all tell stories.
feelin’ your pain, frog. had to do the USAT Draft Zone Dance for a few miles yesterday with a couple of guys who were rolling up on each other without consummating the deal once or twice and then switching places to return the favor. kept them at roughly the same avg speed as me - so I probably was in violation of the gotta-pass-if-you-enter-the-zone-or-else rule a few times too…despite being a good 10ft to the right of them (closed multi-lane highway…heaven!).
and to WFO: wouldn’a worked yesterday at my race. there was a USAT official in the transition area and he was a HAWK! at the point where I DNF’d (see http://tinyurl.com/2hxx4 for why) I got to see the frontrunners roll in about 10 minutes later. not more than 10 had come thru before Mr USAT was jotting some notes (#s?) on his pad and walking over to specific rigs as he did so.
I don’t know how people can realistically avoid drafting AND be competitive in a crowded sprint race. I’ll bet a good computer simulation of the problem could be produced that would amply demonstrate that the no-drafting and dropping back rules cannot function IF the racer wants to be competitive. Unless you can blow everyone else away, I just don’t think the rules as constituted (and given the size of races) are fair.
-Robert
Just be like some of the pros and AG’ers I saw at my race this weekend (Steelman Duathlon in Dundalk, MD). Just ride 4 abreat on a downhill for 3 minutes straight, or 2 abreast on a climb for about 3 minutes.
If the pros don’t mind doing it then the AG’ers will do it, and then the numbers of us honest folk can dwindle to a silent (but very frustrated) minority.
howdy! I was there (for a little while…http://tinyurl.com/2hxx4 ) and I wonder if you saw as much during the 2nd loop of B1 as during the first? Likewise B2 vs B1? Despite the wave format and that gorgeous wide open highway I felt it was still pretty packed up on the first loop of B1 as everyone sorted themselves out.
FWIW, I never saw a draft marshal…but I wasn’t looking either. I know there was a USAT guy in the transition corral, and he was jotting notes (#'s?) as several of the leaders from B1 came rolling in.
good point…not a good idea to draft while in aero position. If have to make a fast maneuver or hit the brakes.oops…LOL
I heard about you!!! A buddy of mine who beat me (I’ll admit it too, he was on a mountain bike with road slicks) said he saw some guy biking without a seat. Amazing.
I was riding a yellow Softride, beyond that I don’t really stick out very much (I’m a middle of the pack kind of a guy). But if you saw a guy doing real well despite riding a mountain bike that’s my friend. And guess what, that was his first Du ever! I hate him, a lot.
I can’t say I saw as much drafting and non-passing by the pros during the B2, but I did see more AG’ers doing it. I also saw a lot of people go 10 feet deep into the dismount zone before heading the rules. However, since we had to run so far post-dismount I didn’t care as much about that.
In general I’d say the bunching was always around the bridge with the carpet and then turnarounds (no big surprise there.
Sorry about the equipment failure, sounds like you were off to a GREAT performance.
I think I remember your buddy. he was haulin’. I was kinda cruising back to the corral standing up, but I was in my biggest gear and still ticking over 19-20mph and he rolled on by me pretty smartly.