I have a sprint this weekend and in looking through the athlete guide they have changed the swim start from waves to a time trial start with each person 5 seconds apart. I was wondering if you guys thought it would be better to start more towards the front or the back? I’m thinking the back as it would allow me to get the slingshot effect on the bike and I should always have people to try and chase down. Obviously there is only so much you can do with position as you need to self seed properly, but if there are 8 guys shooting for a X minute swim, should I let them go ahead of me or try and get in front?
Do you expect you will be drafting off them, or them drafting off you in the swim? I’d err to go with someone slightly faster than me, so I could draft off them. 5 seconds is not much and you can sprint up to a foot probably.
How fast a swimmer are you? If you are FOP stating from the back do you really want to be doing around slower swimmers that may not sight to well? Best to seed yourself by your expected swim level and have a clean swim, as opposed to swimming around folks or being swim over.
there is no slingshot effect if you are going 25 mph and the ones in front of you are just happy to be
out there and riding their mountain bike 16 mph.
I am certainly not a fast swimmer, but as it is a small, local race I should be at the FOP. I definitely plan to draft off of the people in front of me. I’m not talking about starting way back, but if there are 8 other guys that plan to swim 12 minutes, should I let them go ahead of me and have them to chase down on the bike and run or should I try to start as close to the front as possible?
how tight is the course for passing on the bike? how many people? how good of a swimmer are you? you could also go with the approach of being chased and if someone is faster than you trying to stay with them. i think i made a mistake this past summer in going off the front on the swim in a TT start. should have gone may 15-20th spot instead of 2nd. i’m not a great swimmer but found that I was out on my own for most of it and that faster guys started later who I could have maybe gone with.
There is plenty of room to pass on the bike, probably 150 people or so. I’m an ok swimmer. This may be the answer as my starting position question could have been better asked as follows: should I aim to start around the 5th position or the 20th position? Based on your experience, it sounds like 20th may be the better place.
check last years results and try and see if you could find what the fish at the race did.
This is a new starting format, previous years have been wave starts …
as you can see my retention is pretty low…
good luck!!
check here to see what people were doing
http://rev3tri.com/wisconsin/results/2014-results/
Looks like 15-20th start seems optimal…little traffic but enough to see where people are going…
It’s a Sprint. I wouldn’t rely on bridging up. Go for the front of your swim group. Why give up position?
I have seen sprints lost in t1 and t2. If it were longer you could make a case for conserving energy by grabbing some feet in the swim- but with only 12 minutes our so in the water I would think more strategically about position from the git go.
Agreed, if you are aiming to place get up front with your rivals so you know the gaps, instead of risking hitching some slower feet and losing time. Also, leaves little question about chip/versus gun time when there may be some last minute passes…the closer you cross to the gun there is little doubt of your standing when you pass or get passed.
I would try to start ahead of the swimmers you plan to draft off of. It’s easier to jump on their feet as they pass you than it is to try to bridge up to them.