I just got done looking at IMC results. There wasn’t a single drafting penalty listed. Maybe, they haven’t updated that part of the program yet. Maybe, nobody was drafting…
I just got done looking at IMC results. There wasn’t a single drafting penalty listed. Maybe, they haven’t updated that part of the program yet. Maybe, nobody was drafting…
Ahem… NO one drafting 
They might have been stand down penalties? So they would have already been added in to the bike splits and not in the penalty column. Sometimes IMNA has done that in the past…
I think they must have added the penaltys to the bike split as I heard a number of ag’ers were in the penalty box in T2.
I followed the pros the whole bike course and the only marshal I saw was with Tom Evans (who was by himself)…
Joel
As others have mentioned, there may have been a penalty box in play. Remember that even though it is an IMNA event, it’s not in the US. In the US, the basic rules come from USAT, which includes adding penalty times at the end for age groupers. In Canada, the rules come from Canadian Tri, which are derived from ITU rules. For example, you’ll see that the Canada IM website talks about “only traditional drop handlebars are allowed”, and the draft zone is 5 meters from the back wheel (instead of USAT’s 7 meters from the front wheel).
With Canada’s ITU-style rules, it’s either a yellow card stop-and-go stand-down (with a mention of “The official may assess a time penalty or a deferred penalty under the preceding paragraph, for practical or safety reasons.”), or a red card DQ. So the a stop-and-go followed by a T2 sin bin makes sense, with no separate time penalty added at the end.
I did IMC - was out of the water in the top 40 and thus had a chance to watch a lot of ridders go by me on the bike.
There definately was a ton of drafting on the first 40 miles. At one point I was ridding next two a couple pro women and three groups of 5 to 8 ridders went past us over a mile stretch. These folks sure looked like they were working together to me. Both the pro women go pissed and made comments about that being definate drafting. A few minutes later I was a course marshall on a motorcycle drive up to one guy (how looks guilty to me) and have a brief conversation with him. No stand down, but they were talking about something.
After Ricter Pass the pack thinned - so my guess is that there was far less drafting from then on (at least within the first 150 riders).
This is the typical scenerio at IMC: For the first hour or so on the bike, there is quite a bit of close riding even drafting. Problem is, there are too many athletes on too little road. The hill up McLean Creek breaks things up a bit and then the climb up the Richter Pass breaks things up even more. After that there are fewer close encounters.
A friend got a penalty but we are not exactly sure what forr. She was an AG.
It’s amazing the differences in the persepctive when you range through the field at a big IM race such as IMC.
Mid-pack on the swim it is complete mayhem. Meanwhile, right up front all is peacful and quiet. I recall one year I was in the lead Kayak and both Chuckie V and Mitch Dean flipping over and doing back-stroke for a bit and asking me how I was doing!! I had a great conversation with each of them.
Same on the bike. At times it can resemble the Tour de France peleton, yet I have spent entire hours on the IMC bike course and not seen another competitor when I was in the top 15 - 20 places.
I saw the officials calling out two people - flashing the yellow card and calling out numbers. I assumed they were drafting penalties as the riders seemed to be quite close and the official had been watching them ride there for a while.
IMC used a ‘sin bin’ in 2002, so age groupers stand down between bike and run (I was a course marshall). I believe there were something like 65 penalties in 2002. It wouldn’t appear in posted results. I am assuming the did the same thing for 2004.