This was my first trip to the Big Show and I have to say I was very impressed with the level of enforcement, esp given the reports of the draft fest at the 70.3 championship in MT. At the opening banquet the head referee aid they were going to crack down and I think they did. The motorbikes were a pretty constant presence and I personally saw a bunch of red cards flashed at even the smaller packs that formed. The first penalty tent was overflowing. I saw the head referee Saturday night and asked how many penalties they handed out and he said he was not sure but at least 150 to 200. I also heard that someone spoke to Messick and that he claimed 231.
I talked to Messick as he rode up the Queen K on the final climb back up to Palani and he told me the 231 number and said most of them were after the climb and descent from Hawi as we encountered the headwind all the way back–his thought was that people were pretty shattered with the winds at that point and either got sloppy or desperate…
My first trip too. I was concerned not to see any motorbikes for the first 15-20 miles(?), since the packs were already forming and flying by. I was relieved to see them after that, but I still think there could have been more. I loved watching one dude get nabbed after I had seen him go by twice in packs. He looked all shocked and tried to debate with the official.
A couple of other first-timer drafting observations:
- It was relatively easy for me to ride clean, since I really needed to ride conservatively. Every pack that went by was a chance to back off and take in some nutrition. It might have been more difficult if I was trying to keep the watts up more consistently.
- I was passed several times while passing. The “legal” thing to do would be to complete my pass, then quickly back off to drop out of the other guy’s zone. It’s pretty uncool, though, to just get your wheel in front of the guy your passing and then lift off the gas (forcing him to back off even more.)
- The best solution is lower density of bikes on the course at the start. Four ways I see of doing this: (1) wave starts based on AG , (2) wave starts based on seed time (3) hillier route or (4) longer swim
I saw tons of people carded on the first 10-15 miles out on the Queen K as well as a bunch on the descent from Hawi and again on the return on the Queen K. By far the most active enforcement I have seen in any race. Kudos to WTC on this one.
Sounds like enforcement was better than years past, which is interesting because I thought last year violations seemed less prevalent just eyeballing it. Seemed like the heavier winds compared to last year spread things out much earlier, starting at the headwind around 30 miles in. Also looked like the pro fields were much more scattered by the Hawi turnaround.
From my point of view, enforcement was better than years past - had the fellow in front of me get carded before Costco on the way out of town.
Thanks to WTC for giving away that many penalties…
Pretty please, I was lucky enough to ride a few days prior to the race with Andrew Messick and I brought the drafting issue we faced in Worlds 70.3. He listen and also said that WTC is working with ITU to increase the penalties times currently at 4 mins, which it has an impact on Olympic distance tri but not enough for long distance. I think they want to have a standard across the federation instead of having their own penalty systems after all the Ironman races are sanctionned by each federation during their event.
I think we are going to see something like 8 minutes in the future. That’s my own guess.
I got pass a lot on my way to hawi by small little groups 4-5 athletes but nothing like 20-30, I experienced in Tremblant. I think a lot of the athletes rode more cleaner… Crosswings after the 25mi made things also difficult for some to cheat.
Saw plenty of people in the penalty tents. I got chicked twice by ladies that started 10 minutes early then me!!! Saw one of them getting a penalty for not passing fast enough…
It made a huge different 2 age groups waves… Women swim and bike times were a lot slower in general than last year.