Drafting in the Olympics

ITU rules.  Those races are all draft legal and they use different bikes with restrictions on how far the aero bars can extend.  The really "fast" races where the best of the best slug it out are the ITU races and the fields are separated by seconds usually, not minutes like in long course stuff.

There have been quite a few threads in the last few weeks about draft legal ITU racing.

Actually you need the caveat of "except the Olympics and any ITU elite race."

Also, depending on where you live, there may be a draft legal series of races; here in Canada we have an elite junior series where the athletes get to race the sprint distance under ITU rules.

Shane

I personally don't like ITU and Olympic drafting. I feel that it takes away the advantage of being a strong swimmer and puts too much emphisis on running. It seems that at the elite level with these ITU races that it comes down to who is the best runner.

 Just my opinion though.

I once overheard someone make a great point that they don't want age groupers drafting for safety reasons. Imagine a bunch of amateurs riding that close together.. it would just be one crash after another.

I'm sure this isn't the only reason, but it makes alot of sense to only let the elites ride that tight

amiine - 2008-08-05 4:23 PM

hubcitytriguy - 2008-08-05 3:19 PM

I personally don't like ITU and Olympic drafting. I feel that it takes away the advantage of being a strong swimmer and puts too much emphisis on running. It seems that at the elite level with these ITU races that it comes down to who is the best runner.

Just my opinion though.

yeah I agree, those elite ITU are just posers who can only run, I mean come one; who can call him/herself an elite triathlete when they can only swim sub 18 min for 1.5K and ride sub 60-55 min for 40K just to able to run sub 32 min for a 10k... Posers I am telling, it is what they are, POSERS! (yes, that should go on red italic font )

Did he say that they are posers, or that they are poor athletes?  I thought the claim was that drafting "puts too much emphasis on running".  This seems a fair issue to raise.  I don't know whether drafting really does do that, but it isn't stupid or silly to wonder whether it does.

mdickson68 - 2008-08-05 7:59 PM

amiine - 2008-08-05 4:23 PM

hubcitytriguy - 2008-08-05 3:19 PM

I personally don't like ITU and Olympic drafting. I feel that it takes away the advantage of being a strong swimmer and puts too much emphisis on running. It seems that at the elite level with these ITU races that it comes down to who is the best runner.

Just my opinion though.

yeah I agree, those elite ITU are just posers who can only run, I mean come one; who can call him/herself an elite triathlete when they can only swim sub 18 min for 1.5K and ride sub 60-55 min for 40K just to able to run sub 32 min for a 10k... Posers I am telling, it is what they are, POSERS! (yes, that should go on red italic font )

Did he say that they are posers, or that they are poor athletes?  I thought the claim was that drafting "puts too much emphasis on running".  This seems a fair issue to raise.  I don't know whether drafting really does do that, but it isn't stupid or silly to wonder whether it does.

People tend to believe the swim/bike are not as important but that is just a misconception about ITU racing. This guys are the best swimmers in the sport (fact) very strong cyclists and amazing runners, IOW the most complete TRIathletes around.

A fact of this is the results of these ITU guys/gals jumping onto long course scene and dominating the 70.3 distance and even IM: Potts, Alexander, Carfree, McGlone cleaning the 70.3 distance and guys like Lessing, Macca, Jones that began and exceled at ITU racing and now are IM champions/winners, plus Alexander, McGlone finishing 2nd on their 1st visit to Kona.

Furthermore this 'poor athletes' also dominate the non-drafting short course races against the 'true' triathletes who don't do draft-legal racing Examples of this are Kemper, Reed, Potts, Snowsill, Bennet, etc winning Alcatraz, lifetimefitness, St. Anthony, etc. Now, based on the information presented would you still believe think that ITU racing is just a swim/bike warm up followed by a 10K race? (an usual description of this format by some)

Wow ....... I hate to sound like this, but you really just don't get it .......

Jorge pretty much summed it up in his posts, so no need to elaborate.

Isn't that the definition of exciting... a close race??  Would you rather than they had been spaced out evenly, a minute apart? 

amiine - 2008-08-05 1:23 PM

hubcitytriguy - 2008-08-05 3:19 PM

I personally don't like ITU and Olympic drafting. I feel that it takes away the advantage of being a strong swimmer and puts too much emphisis on running. It seems that at the elite level with these ITU races that it comes down to who is the best runner.

 Just my opinion though.

yeah I agree, those elite ITU are just posers who can only run, I mean come one; who can call him/herself an elite triathlete when they can only swim sub 18 min for 1.5K and ride sub 60-55 min for 40K just to able to run sub 32 min for a 10k... Posers I am telling, it is what they are, POSERS!  (yes, that should go on red italic font )

Dude, you seem really angry lately.  Just sayin'

Nah it would have been better if someone won by 5 minutes, with second coming in 10 minutes ahead of third.. now that is excitement!! 

Thanks.  That answers the question nicely.  It wasn't my post, but I was having similar thoughts, and you explained it very well.

Just to be clear regarding some other posts:  questioning whether  the structure of the event emphasizes one of these athletes' AMAZING athletic abilities over others, does not in any way question the AMAZINGNESS of their AMAZING abilities nor the need to be AMAZING in all three areas in order to win.  I think we all get that they are AMAZING athletes. These are just two separate issues, and I'm pretty sure OP was asking the structure question, and not the "don't these guys just suck?" question.

Seems like the folks who aren't exposed to ITU races routinely don't really get what good triathletes these guys are.  For some reason, bike drafting = bad automatically in the mind of some because of the rules we adhere to in nondraft legal races.  I'd encourage you guys to find some ITU races on TV and record them (if you have a DVR, just search for triathlon and you'll find some).  Watch the Olympic race too.

They HAVE to be good swimmers, or they're not in the front pack of bikes.

They HAVE to be good cyclists given the technical courses they face and the speeds they ride them at.

They HAVE to be good runners as the race comes down to a 10K between those who survive the first 2 together.

cadmus - 2008-08-05 10:01 PM

amiine - 2008-08-05 1:23 PM

hubcitytriguy - 2008-08-05 3:19 PM

I personally don't like ITU and Olympic drafting. I feel that it takes away the advantage of being a strong swimmer and puts too much emphisis on running. It seems that at the elite level with these ITU races that it comes down to who is the best runner.

 Just my opinion though.

yeah I agree, those elite ITU are just posers who can only run, I mean come one; who can call him/herself an elite triathlete when they can only swim sub 18 min for 1.5K and ride sub 60-55 min for 40K just to able to run sub 32 min for a 10k... Posers I am telling, it is what they are, POSERS!  (yes, that should go on red italic font )

Dude, you seem really angry lately.  Just sayin'

But seriously, we could debate whether someone likes the ITU format or not, whether someone believes IM athletes are better than ITU athletes, etc and that's cool, we can like different things. What is risky IMO is to present uninformed opinions about ITU racing when it is clear some of those providing such opinions are not really familiar with the format, the capabilities of these athletes and what it takes to win one of these. Stating something like "ITU racing diminishes the advantage for strong swimmers" is just plain silly...

He raced in Vancouver but I think he was then planning to spend the rest of the season getting ready for the Olympics.  He pretty convincingly blew up the field in Vancouver so it appears he is (was) in good form.

However, here's hoping Simon Whitfield can pull it off!

Shane