I’m sick of the packs of riders legally drafting in WTC races. 7 meters from front wheel to front wheel means bikers can ride ~5 meters from the rear wheel of the guy in front of them. I know WTC did some wind tunnel testing to validate this distance, but their testing must have been flawed. You can get a huge draft 5 meters behind another rider.
Has there been any serious thought within WTC about changing this rule for amateurs? Personally, I’m not going to do any more WTC races until this changes as the packs just take the fun away for me.
Do you honestly think they can even consider this for the amateurs with packing 2200 people into races nowadays? i think it should be that much for the pros, but logistically, I don’t think it could work for anyone but them.
they already do a poor job of enforcing the 7 meter rule… why would changing it to 10 meters be any better? They could change it to 100 meters and it wouldnt make any difference as long as you keep allowing races of 2200 or more with an inexperianced field.
The RD has no business reason to worry about drafting. As has been stated many times on ST, we all know the races with drafting
issues, and folks keep giving their money to the RD. So as Dan stated, folks need to quit complaining!!
I’m not complaining— I’m offering a solution. I did Eagleman in 2004 under similar conditions to 2007 and there were no noticeable draft packs in 2004. Same course, basically the same field size, only difference is 7 meter versus 10 meter drafting zone. The packs were night and day worse this year.
Even if you do get a draft at 10 meters, if you fall back to 12 or 14 meters you’re out of the draft and can get dropped by a stronger rider. If you fall back from 7 to 10 meters you’re still getting a benefit and can get back into the best drafting position. But there is no need to rely on theories— Anyone can witness the increased number of packs at WTC sanctioned races since they changed the rule.
There was tons of open space at Eagleman. The packs were separated by hundreds of yards and I spent significant time with no-one in sight. That course— Single loop with ~7 minutes between heats, had plenty of room on it.
Anyway, that was my last flat WTC race and maybe my last WTC race. It’s a shame because I love Eagleman but it’s no fun anymore.
Best solution is get a hilly course, or adjust wave starts or anything other than put thousands of folks on a flat road
within a short amount of time, IMO.
I was not saying you were complaining, but many many others have here, with no solution ideas.
But, I agree with ya, I will not do races that only offer flat draft packs. Whats the use?
Luckily we do not seem to have any race like that in Northern Calif that I have seen over
my 10 years of racing. (there are course that could be, but they do not have thousands of racers)
People who draft - draft. Changing the zone from 7 to 10 meters changes pretty much nothing since the people who are drafting can get right up on the wheel of the guy ahead with relative impunity. The packs are not 20 deep of people strung out 6 meters apart; they’re a PACK.
People who care about not drafting will make reasonable attempts to sit back, but most people (as evidenced by the packs) will sit in and draft because they’re not getting caught. The size of the zone changes nothing about either group.
When you sign up for a WTC race, these are the things you can expect: 1) You will share the course with at least 2,000 other people. 2) the course will be easy enough that any Joe Schmoe can have the wild urge to sign up for the race a year in advance and still walk the last 15 miles of the marathon to finish. 3) it will have lots of swag, be well organized and cost you about 1/3 the price of a new tri bike.
If that is what you want from a race then keep giving them your money. I can tell you there were certainly not any draft packs at the World’s Toughest Half a few weeks ago and there were portions of the run course that were downright lonely.
And let’s get real, using the word “huge” to describe the benefits of drafting 15 feet behind another bike is ludicrous.
Riding in a “group” may be easier mentally, but everyone has to turn the pedals themselves.
Chad
WTC races like Clearwater are no brainers. My question is that I’m thinking that the OP was referring to Eagleman, and I don’t think Eagleman is a WTC race. Yes, no?
Interesting… You say you’re not complaining yet you start your thread with:
“I’m sick of the packs of riders legally drafting in WTC races.”
In addition, as someone already pointed out, I believe you’ve not interpreted the rule correctly. WTC is doing the best they can. It’s a very hard problem to solve. I know, many of you think it’s easy but my suspicion is that you’re failing to look at the challenge more holistically.
My suggestion is that you just worry about yourself, don’t worry about what others do or don’t do, and just lead by example. Do everything reasonable to avoid drafting…
For IM distance, I still think the best solution is to divide the whole field into 2 groups. Those doing an event and those racing.
“Event” folks have a window to start between 6:30 and 7:30. Their time starts when they cross the timing mat to enter the swim. They wear yellow numbers and have to finish by midnight. All rules are the same, but minimal resources are used to enfoce.
“Racers” start in mass at 9:00. They wear white numbers and still have to finish by midnight. Same rules, but more resources are used to enforce this smaller group (no qualifying needed, the group will be smaller by default as one timers/slower racers will elect to start early and have more time to finish).
I guess I wasn’t really clear in my other post. The problem is not that packs of AGers are riding 7 meters apart. The problem is they are riding as if it were a group ride, because they do not drop back when overtaken. Enforcing the current rules would be step in the right direction. If we get to a point where AGers are legally drating 7 meters apart, then we have really accomplished something. Yes there is still a benefit at 7m, but it sure as heck is better than a peleton.
I honestly think that’s a great idea. It’s those who are racing who are the biggest offenders - those who are doing it to finish are generally trying to follow the spirit of the event, and if they violate that spirit some then no one else is adversely affected. The only drawback is having to pass all those event people, but they should be pretty spread out by then.
I would also say charge the even people $100 less, and the racers $100 more to encourage those who are really just doing it to finish to not clog up the race portion. I would pay an extra $100 to have a more fair race.
Can you point me to the WTC rulebook that says this? All I could find was Empfield’s column that said handlebars to handlebars, as well as the explanation that was given to me by a friend who races pro. In any case, it’s too close.
Here’s the rule they’ve had the past couple of years:
“Riders must keep a 7-meter distance (approximately 4 bike lengths) between
bikes except when passing.”
So it is 7 from rear to front, not front to front. Now, that’s as its written; you still need to enforce it.
You see!! That’s the benefit of being a total brick in the water like me! By the time I got out I was a wave back (I’m 36 and all the green caps were passing me) that I just got to put it in overdrive and motor past everyone avoiding the front runners and any drafting that may have gone on.
Honestly though … I averaged 23.4 and not once did I have someone sucking my wheel. I was passed by a few people, but the majority of the time I was flying past others and only two or three times did I need to slow down to avoid a small pack that all seemed to be trying to maintain their correct distance but just having a hard time because of the amount of people and the width of the lane. And they always let me by when I “on your left”-ed them.
The waves were about 8 minutes apart and the road was a big loop, not multiple loops on the same course. This is about as free and clear of a course as you will find, so if people were drafting it was totally and completely on the racers, NOT on the course or on the director.