Nobody has made mention of this to the best of my knowledge, and it occurred to me rather late in the game as well, but the road surface at Clearwater, for the most part was some of the smoothest, and therefore I believe, fastest I have ridden on all year. For the most part, triathlon races are on rural roads like Wisconsin, which can often be rather bumpy. However, for those who were there this year, if you recall that new stretch on Timber Lane, it was like glass and just wickedly fast.
Now, part of the reason I didn’t examine the road surface more closely during the race was the presence of all those packs and riders. One didn’t dare take ones eyes off of what was happening up ahead of you for a huge fraction of the race. As I recall, though, the only “rough” type surface was the concrete section on the Bayside bridge and on the causeway out and back (not sure if the causeway was asphalt or not).
The fast surface would help explain why Belcher southbound was so fast in sections, even wiithout a group in front of you.
However, as I discussed in my long post, it is next to impossible to work out the road resistence factor effect with the presence of so many lagre riding packs. Perhaps, in a few years time, when they work out the spacing and if they retain most of the same course, the true nature of the course can be ascertained.