Just back form Brazil today. I was pretty disappointed with the race as a whole. The race director eliminated standard blocking, passing, and riding on the right rules. The bike course looked more like a long road race with groups of 20+ riders packed up for the entire duration of the bike. It was easy to identify repeat offenders due to all the turnarounds. I had to regulate several as I passed as well as those that attempted to hold my wheel. Fernanda K had a media circus that formed a crescent shaped wind block thru the entire race. Behind her were several riders enjoying the draft as well. What’s worse, was how accepting so many were of the situation. Many I spoke with laughed about it all or showed pics taken of themselves stuck in the middle of pace lines!
The bike course cones made the lanes quite narrow in places and cost a few riders the race via collision with cones or riders swerving to avoid 'em.
Right before the swim a bouy was moved and allegedly one was moved DURING the swim. It was definitely long by a couple hundred meters. The bike course was long as well.
For the water stops they provided gatorade which would fit a stadard bottle cage, and small water bottles that wouldn’t. Each water stop was littered with slick plastic bottles and caps. I know the sponsor wanted to have their standard bottles used but it simply wasn’t smart to do so.
I didn’t see anything like this last year. I’d contemplated a return to Brazil but now I’m not so sure it’d be a good idea. I’ve heard the stories about the drafting in Germany and Oz but always assumed they were exaggerated. Am I naive and foolish. This was my 2nd IM, both in Brazil. Is this the norm?
This year we payed considerably more money for a poorly run race. Who do we complain to, the race organization, WTC, USAT…?
p.s. Ken Glah’s endurance sports travel group did an exceptional job yet again. If traveling to Brazil, Pucon, Switzerland, or NZ next year. He’s your best bet. Kudos to them.
as you point out the race has changed a lot - have done it twice with none of the above issues 01 and 02 - got my one and only tag for drafting - claimed I was taking to long to pass on a climb! Was considering going back next year but if this is what it has become forget it…not drafting is not the norm - one way to get away from this is to pick races with tougher bike courses than that
I hope they come back to what it was when I raced there in 2001. It was the strictest race I’ve ever done - awesome! as pros we had to stay 15 (!) meters apart. and they watched us carefully… when I passed a guy uphill (slooooow) and moved only 5 meters behind him to the side, I got warned. that was a bit much, but rather like that than being loose with the rules. btw, it was glah himself who made those rules.
one must admit though that we were approx. 400 starters only. and the AG field was quite weak. both has obviously changed.
and, sorry, if you get pissed about an extra 5k: better relax…
I’d start with Ken. I am wont to believe he is a part owner of the race. At any rate his company uses IM Brazil as a large part of his revenue. If the race was unsatisfactory you should tell him.
USAT is the national federation (NF) / sanctioning body for US races. So, Kona and IMNA races follow those rules, with a few rules exemptions (e.g., unlike USAT, crawling IS allowed on the run).
For Brazil, there should be a Brazilian NF whose rules apply; a lot of them are probably derived from ITU’s rules (i.e., not the draft-legal World Cup/pro stuff, but the day-to-day age group rules), along with any rules changes to make it look Iron-like across the globe. Any complements or complaints should go to the RD, but you can also copy the NF, as well as WTC itself. I’m sure WTC takes a keen interest in how their licensees are running events that qualify athletes for Kona.
We are somewhat spoiled here in North America as we have some/many of the oldest and best run triathlons in the world right in our back-yards. There is a certain standard, that has become the norm. However, when we go elsewhere, the standards can be different and are often lower.
Ruthless drafting/blocking/passing rule enforcement has become somewhat of a standard in certain North American races. However, in other races or even in some big high profile events a blind eye is sometimes turned on these infractions or their is simply not enough officials to cover the course. Elsewhere in the world, Europe in particular, there seems to be a lassiez faire attitude to drafting and the rule enforcement is not as ruthless. Historically this has been the case.
Generally, there seems to be a rather blase attitude to drafting outside of North America. Of course in many of these countries, road cycling is either the #1 or #2 sport(typically behind soccer if #2), so there perhaps some confusion/affinity on the minds of participants. Whereas in North America, cycling is WAY down on the list of popular sports and triathlon has been able to build it’s own culture, which is very much against drafting.
My suggestion on helpful complaints would be to start with the WTC.
That being said there are some exceptionally run international events outside North America.
I also did the race in Brazil saturday. I was disappointed by the race. It was my 3rd IM.
Swim was ~7 to 10+ mins longer for fast AGers. Conversing after the race, I heard buoy drifting and currents being possible reasons. Also, the pros got a head start of a few minutes but I heard the clock did not start before the AGers started. So it seems you should add 3 to 5 mins to the pros swim and overall time. Is that confirmed?
Bike was ~2 mi long according to my computer (I had 114, P. Vabrousek mentions 183 km in his report) but the major issue was drafting. I was not in the chase for an Hawaii slot and I race for myself so I didn’t care, but oh my God it was simply ridiculous. I spoke with fast cyclists after the race, they told me (and I saw) how guys would jump on their wheel for 20k and stay there even though they were trying to go left/right to drop them. I saw a marshal twice (in 5:45 hrs) (s)he didn’t assess any penalty even when riding past a group of 20-30. Hard to believe but they could not pull over cyclists cause we were riding on the inside lane of highways with 2 lanes of fast traffic to our right. Can’t stop to pee, can’t stop to assess a penalty… While the police did a great job of stopping traffic for us downtown, the rest of the course was not safe compared to IMNA races.
That said, Ken Glah and EST were excellent IMO. I’m the guy who had food poisoning 2 days after the race and passed out by the pool of the Jurere and EST got me to the Floripa hospital and back and had a staff with me the whole time. (BTW health care in Brazil is dirt cheap and the hospital was pretty nice and clean!)
I don’t think I’ll do this race again in the near future, but the location is beatiful.
I saw you being escorted out by wheel chair. Yikes! Have any ideas on where you picked up the bug? How’s your post race recovery been hampered by the food poisoning?
“4. My suggestion on helpful complaints would be to start with the WTC.”
i’d agree. roth was a draftfest for years and the organization was flippant about it. they gave the tough speech pre-race and then hosted essentially a mass start race under cycling mass start rules with shameless arrogance. then david yates went over and saw it (around 1993), raised hell, probably threatened to pull the sanction, and it was cleaned up a year later.
the ironman logo needs to mean a few things, and fairness is one of them. this will be a good test for new WTC president ben fertic. send him a letter and let’s see if he’s got the same sort of attention to fairness that has been exhibited throughout most of WTC’s history (i think the same hell raising would’ve been more apparent and vocal in OZ except not so many americans go there; you don’t realize how draft-free american races are until you race in europe or, for that matter, most of the world).
unfortunately, the ITU does not care the tiniest bit about this issue, so there is no pressure placed on NFs regarding the integrity of age group racing. therefore, it’s up to other powerful entities like the WTC.
“Elsewhere in the world, Europe in particular, there seems to be a lassiez faire attitude to drafting and the rule enforcement is not as ruthless. Historically this has been the case.”
Did LC Duathlon Worlds’ in Austria in '02. Busted my ass up a 10k climb up an Alp, only to get passed by 5 europeans (country name withheld) pacelining on the flats, rotating precisely in 30s intervals. Unbelievable. But, they do not think they are cheating in most cases. Hell, most of them were on road bikes for the race, w/o aerobars in some instances.
We’ve been instilled with “don’t draft”, but it is very hard to not draft when confronted with this behavior. I’m going back to LC Tri and Du Worlds’ this year in Europe and have been contemplating whether I would draft or not.