Got a yellow card at mile 48 of IM KS this weekend…
Due to the high participant numbers and wave starts (I went second to last, 17th wave, 60minutes after the MPRO) the course was packed with bikes.
At mile 48, on a flat stretch of two lane road I came up on a line of about 20 riders all going about 17 miles per hour and ALL of them were drafting off one another.
So I rode to the left a bit and went to starting passing them all. A marshall rode up next to me, took down my number and gave me a yellow card for blocking. She told me I needed to ride on the right side of the road.
They were all riding so close to each other there was no chance of me passing one, then moving back to the right with out getting within a few feet of the next rider.
There was no time penalty with the yellow, so I didn’t argue for fear of a DQ. I was pretty ticked off that I got a blocking call and none of the 20 people I was passing got drafting calls.
So…I am wrong or was the marshal wrong? did i deserve the yellow card?
I don’t know necessarily who’s wrong. I can verify that being in the last AG before the relays made it difficult to for me to judge when I had to get left, get right, not stay too close to the person I was going to eventually pass, etc, etc… It didn’t make it any easier when I felt like the motorcycle official was following me for about 20 miles. He would pass me, then I would pass him back, then again, then again. I felt like I was doing something wrong just being around the official for so long.
I sure didn’t see that many course officials out last year, so maybe there were some complaints?
WTC has a serious issue on their hands & they best deal with it before losing some clients. They are packing too many people on a course in trying to get the most money they can per race. The results are appearing as if the racers are getting beaned for traffic jams rather than legit drafting. Never did Kansas before but Cali 70.3 just had way too many people early on in the bike such as at the turn around about 10 miles into the bike.
"So…I am wrong or was the marshal wrong? did i deserve the yellow card? "
Without having seen the situation, nobody can really tell you but from what I’ve noticed people on ST never draft or break any other rules…it’s only the other dirty A-holes on the course who do that stuff.
If you were staying to the left while there was an opportunity to move to the right side of the road (which you say there wasn’t) then you were indeed blocking. It is possible that someone quicker than yourself may need to pass you.
I do think it is a weak call but technically correct if you did have an opportunity to move to the right.
Did you go up to the official after the race and politely ask what you should have done instead?
How close to the “single file pack” were you riding? Perhaps you were blocking those behind you from coming around if you were all the way to the left.
When I find myself in this situation, I pass fairly close to the person on the right. There is no need to swing out way to the left to pass someone.
20 riders all going 17 mph? That’s awfully slow if they were drafting. Even so, even a somewhat decent rider should be able to rocket by 20 riders on a flat road. Either something is off in your story, or you were passing going 17.1 mph. Either way, the marshal didn’t think you were attempting the pass quickly enough.
The whole drafting, penalty thing comes down to intent. You have to prove intent to the marshals. Since you saw the marshal, why not pick up the pace a bit to show your intent to pass the 20 riders? Get out of your saddle and push the pedals.
Ditto. Plus, with 40km of FLAT at Kansas, its more difficult to get caught not drafting. Not like that is any excuse… but seriously, whenever I saw someone drafting at Rev3 Quassy, I just laughed to myself, because I knew at the next climb, they’d get spread out.
From your description the lined up drafting bikes were approx a bike length apart…say 7 feet per bike and 7 feet between each? So, about 280 feet. You decide to go by, and presumably don’t yet see the marshall in the vicinity. If you did, a prudent strategy (even if you shouldn’t have to do it) might have been to get the attention of the marshall and tell her you were about to pass this group, and could she, for example, make sure that none of them jump on your wheel…again, you should not have to do that, but it would certainly have shifted her mindset away from popping you for blocking. Anyway… You know you’re going to have to throw down pretty hard to get by them all, especially without any of them jumping on to your wheel, and you’re already catching them, so let’s say you’re going to go by at 23mph (flat road)…perhaps harder than your preferred steady state TT pace, but that’s life. So, a 6mph differential, over 280 feet. That’s about 32 seconds from the tail to the front, assuming the whole pack does not somehow lift the pace in unison to hold you off. Under those circumstances I’d have to say the marshall was in error, since it should have been pretty obvious that you were actively and emphatically passing. If on the other hand it took you 2 minutes to work through the pack (eg 1-2mph differential), it might be much less obvious. You still would not necessarily be wrong, as long as you were clearing each of the passed riders fast enough. It would be harder to tell, but she should have had a watch on you for each individual pass. And it does beg the question, as you lamented…if they were so blatantly drafting, to the point where there were no gaps for you to legally get to the right, why wasn’t she penalizing them? Were any drafting penalties handed out at all?
WTC has a serious issue on their hands & they best deal with it before losing some clients. They are packing too many people on a course in trying to get the most money they can per race. The results are appearing as if the racers are getting beaned for traffic jams rather than legit drafting. Never did Kansas before but Cali 70.3 just had way too many people early on in the bike such as at the turn around about 10 miles into the bike.
Yeah, because all those ironmans are not selling out.
WTC has a serious issue on their hands & they best deal with it before losing some clients.
Kidding right? For every person (like me) that stops doing branded races they gain 3 more. WTC is about making money not about rules of fair play or even racer safety.
Maybe a better question to ask rather that “was I wrong or was the marshal wrong” would be…what was the right thing for me to do?" Since there wasn’t enough space b/w riders for me to pass one, get right (legally, not drafting the person in front) Should I have just sat in behind them and slowed down my race so I didn’t “block” when I road by and therefore avoid a penalty
I am not sure how fast I was going as I began to pass them all, but it sure wasn’t taking me 15 seconds to over take each rider.
Someone mentioned people behind me trying to pass me…there may have been, but I don’t think I was preventing anyone from doing so. If I was, then I would agree that the yellow would be justified.
It was on a two lane road, with the opposite lane open to traffic. The riders I was trying to pass were far to the right and I was probably 2-3 to their left when passing
And to answer one of the other questions - I didn’t see anyone else get tagged for blocking or drafting by that marshal. after she got me, they left, they didn’t hang with the same group of athletes.
In situations you describe, I just pass a person move into the draft of the person in front of them, pass them and move into the draft of the next person and so on. Pass each person in the alloted time and slingshot through the group. As long as you don’t sit-on a person in their draft you are OK because you are in the act of passing.
That is riding within the rules and is the only way to get through without a blocking penalty.
From what I read you were doing is trying to stay within the spirit of not drafting (by staying out to the left slightly out of the draft). While I feel that is commendable it’s not the right thing to do in that particular situation.
Apparently you aren’t familiar with the KS70.3 bike course…it may not have as much climbing as Quassy but it is definitely NOT flat : )
I thought, compared to Racine, the amount of drafting was significantly less. Although when I did see drafting it was very blatant. With the amount of hills it was hard to make sure you were legal all the time, especially starting in the 14th wave. Overall a great race and venue, thankfully we didn’t get hit with Saturday’s weather.
Kansas does not have a mandatory race meeting before it’s event. It is optional and I think this is problem. There are a lot of different levels of athletes on the course and while the experienced athlete might not like a mandatory meeting, the information helps the newer racers. I saw a lot of slow riders yesterday riding all over the course (or should I say all over the road, not staying to the right). With better instructions or being remided from the Race Directors these issues could more easily be resolved. I raced Ironman New Orleans 70.3 this year and they had a mandatory meeting and really hammered home the rules on drafting & staying to the right. Got out on the course and I did not see any drafting in NOLA and after all the talk about drafting at flat course races I was really suprised. So I think part of the issue falls with the RD.
The KS bike course is pretty tight (it’s a two lane road) for the entire course and the course is not closed to traffic. There is also a lot of the course that is out and back so you have a lot racers coming at you in the opposite lane of traffic. I am not sure there is anything they can do to change this, but it causes these bottle-necks with all the rolling hills.
I know they want to send the older (generally slower) divisions off in the earlier waves and the bigger divisions which I would say are 30-45 men and generally faster off later. Well the younger faster group is generally going to be closing the gap and a lot of the passing takes place on the bike course. I think they need to maybe re-evaluate sending the big groups off last and maybe send them earlier for this race to help with traffic flow on the course.
This obligation I put on the rider attempting to make a pass. Do you ever call out and say “on your left” or something similar. I raced yesterday and averaged 21 MPH so I got passed and I did a lot of passing. It amazed me how little was ever said by the guys who would pass me. I yell “on your left” a ton, because I want people to get the hell out of my way. Maybe if you had started saying something those 17 people or a portion of them would have moved right and you could have passed more quickly and avoided the yellow card.
Interesting observation about the older (generally slower) groups going first. I was in wave 4 (M55-59) and I only saw 3 riders come through (all 40-44). We caught the back of the Pro W, although there were probably some of the M55-59 who got caught by the younger groups. Good news that you rode 21mph, but you might check the speeds of the older (generally slower) groups. You would have been dropped…
When I’m passing on a crowded course, I surge 2-3 mph faster than my steady pace to minimize the time I’m “blocking”. When you do that, it becomes really apparent that you’re making a good effort to pass. Also, I stay alert for fast closing speedsters. 17 mph for a pack seems pretty slow (at least on a flat course)…
I’m a little confused by this. If you come upon a group of riders, particularly those who are themselves violating the draft zone rules, is it not OK to simply pass them all at once? As long as you do not violate the 20 second rule on any of them and are consistently going by them, do you really have to slide over to the right with every gap that might appear between riders?
He would pass me, then I would pass him back, then again, then again. I felt like I was doing something wrong just being around the official for so long.