we just had the itu world champs on the weekend yet more people seem to be speaking about some ironman?
wtf?
ITU = Drafting
End of story.
Ever notice xtri.com doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of ITU. There aren’t the only one’s that feel that way.
ITU = Drafting
End of story.
Ever notice xtri.com doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of ITU. There aren’t the only one’s that feel that way.
agreed…
we just had the itu world champs on the weekend yet more people seem to be speaking about some ironman?
wtf?
Cervelo/tubulars/ironman… there are things that are holy on this forum…
What sport is ITU?
the tdf is ‘drafting’ 
the ironman swim is ‘drafting’. at least with itu if you have a crap swim you’re not gonna get anywhere. in ironman you can be a pretty crappy swimmer yet still do ok…
Uhm… maybe that’s why they call it “da” distance. Fun (seeing and racing) for a more extensive period of time.
I’m always amazed at how narrow minded some people are on this board to draft legal triathlon. It’s not like they were around when tri started. Times change. If it wasn’t for ITU racing the growth of this sport would be much slower. WTC would probably still be using USAT. I personally think it’s exciting to watch once you realize how tatical it is and how strong you actually have to be to do well in an ITU race. For 96%, IM just getting to the finish line without blowing a gasket.
It’s not enough to be able to run a 30:20 10k in ITU racing but be abe to surge recover surge recover, same tatics on the bike. Different demands in training and racing. Most here have no experience watching or racing draft legal, so they don’t truly understand how hard it is. Racing a draft illegal oly tri is easier than a draft legal race. (although with all the complaints on this board about drafting , maybe we all are ITU wannabe participants)
Desert Dude, I think the main issue is that we age groupers cannot relate to draft legal ITU racing, but we can relate to ironman. Let’s face it, the fans of this sport are the guys who do it. Not the guys hanging out at the Steelers-Titans tailgate party. So due to the fact that very few of us do draft legal racing, the ITU has very few fans. Pretty simple.
I kind of agree with Brian. I coached at the RADC camp this year and we prepped these kids for the ITU races. It was a ton of fun, the kids were super tough…and guess what, they can go around a corner at 25mph on a bike and not crash! Some of the IM folks I work with can’t even ride a straight line or ride 2-up. It is scary. Don’t get me wrong, IM is tough and I respect folks who do them exclusively, but don’t poo-poo ITU racing, it is very exciting to spectate!
Kurt
IM= drafting. see all the previous posts regarding
St. Anthony’s = drafting
HFP races = drafting
and probably about 15 other posts this year whining about drafting in non legal draft races. So your point is?
I agree, ignorance of = dislike of
.
We should note that some of the most promising athletes in non drafting triathlon have moved up from ITU. I think these athletes have the greatest running talents in the sport and as they start to move up to 1/2 and full Ironman distances they will be a force. Check out Simon in Huntsville this year.
It’s not enough to be able to run a 30:20 10k in ITU racing but be abe to surge recover surge recover, same tatics on the bike.
The thing that gets me about ITU isn’t so much the drafting as it is the fact that there is so little incentive for riders to not sit in on the bike. Breakaways in cycling are rarely successful but breakaways in the ITU are almost completely futile from what I have seen. Being able to run a 30’ 10k off the bike just matters far more than redlining for an hour to gain 1’ on a pack of wheel suckers. I can understand the ITU wanting to make the event more spectator friendly by doing the bike crit style. Maybe they need to take it even further & offer 1’ primes on the bike. Even a plain old crit would be pretty boring without the primes.
this is not correct. That is what they said after Sydney/athens that there would be a whole whack of ITU studs move up to Ironman and clean up. The reality is, that the guys dominating Ironman have been pretty well the same folks. The diesels who can do a solid bike and still run a solid “not slow run split”. Vukovic is one of the few ex ITU guys who has done anything useful in Ironman !
i think itu guys could be the better athletes, more well rounded anyways…
I agree, ignorance of = dislike of
I disagree. Ignorance of = no opinion of
Hey,
The guy asked a question. I gave him the answer. You don’t have to like the answer, but that is still the reason the Worlds weren’t mentioned on Slowtwitch.
30 guys got off the bike together today at Worlds. Draw your own conclusions.
If it wasn’t for ITU racing the growth of this sport would be much slower.
Really?! And what can you provide to back up that claim?
As a triathlete who got into the sport from a running background and being blessed with swimming abilities similar to a rock in my early years in the sport, I enjoyed the challenge and excitement of racing against the “fish” and bike studs and seeing if they could hold off my 32-33 minute 10k. This makes the sport exciting and challenging. I used to love seeing guys like Richard Wells and Mike Pigg battling and then Welch and Simon Lessing who were all awesome athletes but usually with one real strong leg. The addition of drafting changed the sport so that you had to be able to swim very well to come out with the right group (but of course punished the mega-fish since it would be useless to ride alone) and in the early years, the draft-legal bike courses reaffirmed everyone’s opinions that a big part of the race was being removed. They chose a whole bunch of relatively flat, multi-loop courses where being a bike-stud became irrelevant. Of course you have to have good bike handling skills but swim hard - pack ride - run fast contradicted everything that anyone racing in the sport had ever done. I was glad to see that in Athens they put together a course where being a strong rider was of benefit. Cornerbrook is another ITU race where a great cyclist can win. There is no doubt that the ITU competitors are great athletes but like Dev and others have said, we don’t relate to that style of racing and for many of us, it doesn’t match the idea of what a triathlon was when we started. As for growing the sport and owing the ITU … since no one other than pros race that format, I’m not sure what impact it has had. I know that after Simon Whitfield won in Sydney there were more kids doing KOS races in Canada but he didn’t medal last year and the fields are still pretty solid so who knows? The “average Joe” is probably more influenced seeing an IM covered on TV than a taping of some draft-legal sprint in Gamagori without the required dramatic John Tesh comments and descriptions of the challenge.