At HalfMax last week, they started the waves in a very strange order. Men 30-39 went first, followed by women 30+ (I believe the oldest was Madonna Buder at 70+). Third was men 40+. I forget the 4th wave, but 5th was women <29 and sixth (last) was my wave, men <29.
The day before, the race director told me it was a new thing they were trying, leading up the nationals in August, as a way to get rid of drafting. Apparently the idea is that if you catch another wave, you’re not going to want to draft off. For example, the men <29 aren’t going to see any men 30-39 until the run at the earliest, and the men <29 are probably not going to want to draft off many people in the waves in between.
I think it’s a pretty solid idea in theory, but as someone in the last wave who finished pretty well (30th overall of 500+ starters, 338 finishers), it meant that I experienced a lot of congestion on the bike course, and that I was literally passing people the ENTIRE ride (and run).
So I was wondering what other think of the idea, and if you think it’s going to pan out.
-Colin