Front pack was terrible as well. There was a drafting official the entire time, and from looking at the results, I think he gave out 4 penalties, out of like 15 guys. Could not believe it, all I could do was stay back out of any slipstream.
I didn’t know Army’s cycling team showed up to race a triathlon…
http://www.usma.edu/committees/honor/info/main.htm
A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Last time I checked, drafting is cheating.
On a more significant note, a competitor died of apparent cardiac arrest in that race. It happened on the bike leg - which I suppose is a bit different from most of the other cardiac-related tri deaths we’ve heard about lately. The deceased was a 59 year old TnT coach according to the article, so it stands to reason that he was not a first-timer. RIP.
I saw both those packs go by and it looked like there could have been some drafting from my view on the other side of the road. I saw one official trailing the second pack.
Did the race yesterday…it was worse than any IM Florida race video I’ve ever seen. There was one guy way out on front front by himself and after that two-three HUGE chase groups. It wasn’t even close to a non-draft event
bear in mind the swim was canceled. considering he went into cardiac arrest 5mins into the bike, the same probably would have occurred on the swim.
regardless, its terrible.
That’s a serious accusation. Got any proof?
I’m not quite sure why they started people on the course at the same rate as if there was a swim. I’m assuming the permits for the roads were until a specified cut off time, meaning without the swim they had more than an extra hour of time to play with. Spreading it out a bit more could have helped out a lot.
The winner got 6:00 in penalties to strip him of the win and take him down to 20th place. Seems pretty crappy considering how few actual penalties were assessed for the leaders. From what I saw, nearly everyone in the top 50 on the bike could have been assessed a drafting penalty. There was a motorcycle following the lead group for most (all?) of the bike, so it’s not an issue of them not seeing it in that case. Though for the later waves, it is not possible for the moto officials to safety get through people, so much of the course is not monitored.
I watched the race and cheered on the finishers. Curious question: How crowded was the bike course?
I competed in 2009 and spent most of my time dodging water bottles and passing bikers? Fun course, but a bit stressful!
I ended up barely finishing top 50 overall, so I was in the second main bike pack, but I kept dropping off and trying to break away. It never worked, but at least I knew I was following the rules as best I could. As I said though, in that pack that probably consisted of pretty much placers #30-60ish, more or less, we never had an official with us, and the pack consisted mostly of the B-level open elites and cadets, who started in the first two waves.
The bike course was extremely crowded and exceedingly narrow at points. It was 3, maybe even 4 abreast at some points in the race. I didn’t see any crashes and most everyone was aware enough to let people squeeze in when the road went down to 1 lane at points.
Glad to hear there were no crashes. Thank you for the update. I will try and sign up next year!
At least one guy in the elite wave had his carbon rim blow out in a pothole close to the turnaround on Clara Barton, but I think he kept it vertical and got off the course unscathed. I was on the bike course and saw the same groups coming and going. At least 3 main packs of 15-20 guys each, assuming they corresponded precisely to the waves that went off. There were a couple lead and trailing riders in each group, but almost no separation in the middle. The rest of the age groups was a constant stream of riders, often 3-4 wide going into the tighter turns.
Thank you for the details. I’ll rethink the registration and just spectate the “Tour de Washington.”
Yesterday, I was at the finish cheering and noticed the 2nd place finisher was 48 years old. Looked at the results today and can’t find him. Do you know how he placed?
One of these days I hope the RD can get the Park Service to agree on closing down part of the GW Parkway for the bike course; I know they’ve tried. THAT would be awesome. I’ve done various permutations of the current bike course for both Nation’s and the DC Tri in June, and as a local I’m not hyped to do them again. Too narrow in spots, too many turns with such a volume of athletes. With the swim-less wave start this year there was no hope to spread things out.
In the past for both Nation’s Triathlon and the DC Triathlon (same organizer), they’ve only requested USAT officials for the ‘AG Elite’ wave on the bike - and not for the subsequent waves (rest of the field).
Using the GW Parkway would be awesome. I’ve raced the GW Parkway Classic Race – nice venue!
I noticed the elite peloton as well. With the AG’ers I didnt see much drafting at all considering how crowded it was out there. I’m assuming the huge prize purse was to blame for the obvious whocaresabouttherules attitude of the elites.
Nations Tri needs to go back to mandatory rack spaces. Some asshat moved my bike tfive rows away from where I racked it. Got there at 5:30 and found my bike a minute before transition closed. While searching for my bike I found 6 or 7 others who’s bikes had been moved. First come, first served is great for racking at the local tri club race, not so when there are 7000 people hoping to gain any advantage.
Were there 7000 participants yesterday?