You didn’t imply that: if you look I’m asking the Q.
“Is it unreasonable to hope that Riccitello would demand a seat at the World Tri rule drafting table?”
I suggest that he absolutely ought to “want a seat at the table” - if IRONMAN wishes in principle (and World Tri vice versa) to align their rules.
Who has draft-illegal rules implementation expertise? He does, or is there a ‘higher being’ in the IRONMAN fundamentfirmament that has this lead?
Are we going to act like IRONMAN cant create their own rulebook? Seems nobody at World Triathlon or T100 is following this set of rules. Guess we will see what the bikes look like this weekend at Hamburg and San Francisco
You need to decide if you want a consistent rule book or not. Bc you have gone off the rails bitching about the 20 meter draft zone and how it should be unified across all races but now you are saying you don’t want harmony in rules. So damned if you do or damned if you don’t.
Nobody is following the hydration rules that is what I am getting at… There is no reason why we need the hydration rules, if someone wants to carry 6 bottles and a spare kit on their bike just let them… 20m draft is something that needs to be consistent for the professional athletes in the sport.
The important draft-illegal races, raced under World Tri Rules for a World Long Distance Tour Championship, is T100, and that specifies a 20m draft zone.
PTN have lobbied to get IRONMAN to go to 20m: a “consistent rule book”.
I’m in favour of harmony as far as the attachments/hydration/fairings rule is concerned. And the RULES are aligned, it’s the lunatic DTU-driven ‘interpretation’ document/protocol which has screwed things up.
Rule interpretation around the World Triathlon fairing rule (Ajax Bay revision)
World Triathlon has developed a rule interpretation document on the World Triathlon Fairing rules. The new rules will be in place from January 1, 2026. Key changes and clarifications are:
Handlebars – Handlebars and clip-on bars (including extension grips and levers) may not extend beyond the leading edge of the front wheel.
Attachments
Top tube
Any items attached to the top tube may:
These updates aim to provide clear guidelines on fairing and equipment regulations for IRONMAN Triathlon events. Please refer to the official Rules for the specific rules.
$ Is this enough? If not (Shiv): set it to allow current integrated ‘wings’.
Ahhh so drafting needs to be consistently measured in the sport but bike safety for the pros doesnt matter. As long as Joe Skipper is 20 meters back it’s totally fine that he lock his arms inside his front end descending in Nice. Feels like a weird stance to take.
Within reason. Obviously the Joe skipper thing is ridiculous because it is unsafe. but if you want to have 2 bottles on your frame, 2 bottles behind you and BTA double bottle up front that should be legal. Or just hire a camel…
That’s my contention. This is entirely at IM discretion. Kyle, if you look at our threads on this topic, there are two videos of the 30cmX30cm rear box in action and you can’t fit a tool kit box AND a BTS system within that space. This is in response to Mark saying we were getting carried away trying to interpret the rules. The update rules as applied would ban this set up.
Good news, that is legal. If you’re advocating for WT to continue to refine the rule than I think almost everyone will be 100% on board with that. But if you’re long term solution is for Ironman to enforce some rules and ignore others than I think a lot would disagree. Good news also for AGers is IM isnt enforcing the WT interpretation as a short term solution. Hopefully WT comes to their senses and listens to the noise and comes up with a better solution.
You have my number….
You sure about that? DTU is one. If there was a WT non draft race this weekend, I bet the new rules would be followed.
Have you talked to the PTO/T100?
Can a race director overrule an Ironman rule and/or USAT official?
Who has ultimate authority?
As was mentioned on the podcast, for IM races, IM rules are the default when there is a delta between IM, WT, and the local federation.
What does mean for my question?
I have in writing from a race director that something which is stated and prohibited by USAT and IM will be allowed at his race which has insurance from USAT and is an IM branded race
In your case, I would think no. IM rules should apply.
But is there any controls in place to prevent them from doing something different? I doubt it
interesting interview, I appreciate that jimmy highlights that its best if world tri and ironman get along and be as close as possible with their rules.
at the same time one can not stop the feeling that he should be more interested to sit on the table when the rules are made rather than reacting to the rules , and prolonging rule changes even more (for ironman ) .
the key point it that the talks about rule changes should start in July August and not December, January after the prepared people have done their changes on the bike already.
Does anyone know what day this email explaining the change to Pros was supposedly sent out?
Don’t think I received anything about it, and should be on the list for stuff like this. Wonder if many others did not get it. Hence, Jimmy saying so few seem annoyed about the change.
Thanks for doing the podcast Slowtwitch team.
Seems pretty clear Ironman didn’t really think before implementing this. I find it crazy that one of the main argument about not having the 20m draft rule for Pro’s is that they don’t want to split the rules between Pro and AG. Then they split the bike setup rules. Seems so hypocritical.
I think this was the first mention of the email, April 28th.
Wetsuit temps, slingshot drafting, mass/TT start, Race Ranger. The rules are already different in a lot of ways.