Calling them out for cheating

It's not your role to officiate, you're a racer, so race and don't worry about it. If you care about people drafting then become an official.

If someone is drafting off you, then in that case I'd say it's OK to look back and tell them to get off your wheel. Otherwise just do your own race.

So far... pretty much what I thought.... if you ever called someone out, it would probably look pety. 

I throw tacks and oil behind me "Wacky Racer" style.

I think in the olympic distances they are more strict.  I did a triathlon that had both a sprint and olympic distance.  I saw 3 penalties for drafting in the Oly but none in the sprint.

Also if you did tell an official it becomes your word against theirs.  My guess is they can just say "That wasn't me".

I don't think it's petty to mention something.   I don't report people, but when a pack passes me I always say "nice pack guys" or something similar.   Just to let them know.

Drafting is illegal onthe bike (IMO) primarily because it's dangerous.  Not so much on the swim 

It's just kind of triathlon tradition not to draft on the bike - if we were on road bikes, then drafting wouldn't be any less "safe" than in a road race, but triathlon was always supposed to be kind of an individual effort.  However, it's almost impossible to do that in the swim unless you have a time trial start (such as in pool swims).  As far as calling people out, do remember that to an extent there is "legal" drafting, i.e. anything goes as long as you're not in the 3 bike zone for more than 15 seconds before you pass, so obviously a legit pack would be illegal, but sometimes it's hard to distinguish what is and isn't legal - leave it up to the officials regardless.

I always thought drafting was illegal on the bike because a triathlon is really an individual time trial run by many people at the same time. I figured that drafting was legal in the swim because of near impossibility of preventing it with a mass start, and legal in the run because of the smaller benefit provided (some estimates are 1 second per 400m). But I guess I really don't have any idea why they made drafting legal in some legs and illegal in others.

This thing got me thinking about the benefit of drafting on the different legs of the triathlon and here is what I found after a quick search on google:

(I found it on the internet so it must be true right?)

Swim:
Drag Reduction of around 50% at .5m 15% at 6m (this study recommended that swimmers at practice should wait 10m before following the lead swimmer.) I couldn't find what percent of energy was spent on overcoming drag, but I would guess it is pretty high.

Bike:
30-50% reduction in energy required to maintain the lead biker's speed. Plus the lead biker experiences a slight increase in speed because of the disturbance of the air behind them. (at 12mph around 50% of your energy is going to overcome air resistance, at 20mph around 80% is)

Run:
60-80% reduction in air resistance at .5m, but since air resistance is a smaller part of your energy expenditure in running and the difficulty of running that close to the other runner this results in only a 1 or 2 second per 400m benefit. When you are sprinting this will have a larger impact since air resistance becomes as much as 16% of the energy required to run (at an average pace it's is around 6-7%). Of course when you have a strong headwind even the average pace becomes like sprinting. a strong headwind can have around the same effect on effort as a 8% grade.

I would like to see drafting illegal in all three events, but i doubt that will ever happen. a friend of mine was competing in his first olympic and the last 2 miles of the run were directly into a strong head wind. he is 6'2" and over 200lbs and during the this stretch he picked up 3 runners who ran directly behind him and matched his pace and refused to lead even when he slowed down. once the course made the final turn and the wind was no longer an issue they passed him and thanked him for the draft. to me that is a jerk thing to do although perfectly legal.

You tell the person's kid after the race and then add, "Oh and Santa? It's your dad and mom. He ain't real."

I accidentally drafted a bit in my last race but wasn't caught. Pace booty got me hypnotized. Perhaps it happened to the group you saw.

When I've seen egregious cases (where there is not really any room for misperception) I've said something to the riders (as I pass them!).  I wouldn't report it to officials unless I thought that they were systematically negligent in trying to catch it, and even then I wouldn't mention specific racers but only that it was happening.  I'm a racer, not an official, and my interest is in seeing the officials run a good fair race to the extent reasonably possible, not in doing their job for them.  But yeah, the pacelines can be extremely annoying, because they can cause you problems that would not have been caused by any of the individuals involved, riding fairly.

I made someone work really, REALLY hard to cheat. She was pretty hard up on my tail, though I wasn't counting bike lengths, and then she went to pass. I laid that hammer down and wouldn't let her by, so she finally had to drop back. Next time she tried it, I laid the hammer down again, and was holding her off, but she just held on right next to me, her front wheel at my back. My watch was set to go off every 30 seconds, and it went off twice while she was next to me. I called out, "30 seconds, drop it!" At which point, we came to an uphill, I had already blown myself out screwing with her, and she finally got her wheel in front of mine. She was a much faster cyclist overall, but damn, I made her work hard for that pass, and I was so hoping an official would see it and call her on it!

Oh, yeah, and she was on a pretty nice roadie, and I was on my decade-old beat-up mtn bike. Cheater? Yep. Sorry she picked on me? I'm bettin'!

I raced yesterday and caught a guy cheating. He drafted me for about 2 minutes, and was getting really irritating. Then, when I had to slow down a bit because of someone in front me, he took the opportunity to blow right by both of us. He ended up finishing two spots ahead of me.

Personally, I don't care that he cheated. He knew what he was doing and he is one that has to live with knowing that his time isn't real and was only achieved by ill means. It didn't make my time any better or worse. I still know I raced the best I could and I did it clean.

I don't say anything to a drafter.  Even if I think it's obvious they are drafting I figure that I am not getting a long enough slice of time to really be sure.

But you can be sure that if someone passes me on the right or is blocking I make sure to give them a "friendly reminder" that there are rules against those two things....

I don't know if this sounds like she was cheating. Maybe she was trying just to get around you (since you do admit that she was faster than you overall). Or were you trying to make it look like she was cheating even though that wasn't her intention? Or were you just screwing with her because she was trying to pass? I'm not sure I understand.

Is it considered good form to see someone passing you, then pour it on so they can't? I thought you were supposed to let them around, then make a passing move yourself if you wanted to get around them again down the road. At any rate, this sounds like it wasn't worth it in the end, since you eventually blew up and she passed you anyway.

I suppose the only time I'd probably say something is if someone was drafting me specifically.  Riding with roadies on Wednesday nights has introduced me to the world of pulling a group and the luxury of sitting behind someone and conserving lots of energy.  BTW, the roadies banned TT/Triathlon bikes from their group rides for safety reasons.  A few years ago there was a pretty bad pile up as I'm told.  I imagine the rule is there for the individuality of the sport and safety. 

Personally, I think it's in very poor form.  She obviously had to get close to pass (i.e. stay to the right until passing), and admittedly she was going faster, why not let her pass?  I don't see the point in not letting someone pass if they're going faster than you anyway.  All you do is burn yourself out trying to chase someone that you can't keep up with.

http://davidglover.net/2009/04/rules-of-engagement-on-bike/

If they break your front wheel, you have to drop back, which some people have a problem with because they either have to slow down or break their rhythm while they pass.

If you want to be a complete jerk, you can surge and not let them pass and make them assess penalties.  It's a one-way road while passing, and if you have to drop back you didn't successfully pass, and therefore could be assessed a varying penalty.

Well, as described, she was drafting.  You do NOT have to let a 'faster' cyclist through by slowing down.  (You may not block them, but you do not have to slow down or drop back UNTIL they actually get their front tire in front of yours.)  It is the passer's responsibility to make the pass within 15 seconds.  If the passer fails to do so, the he or she is drafting, and that's against the rules.

[hairsplitting]
I think I'd want to distinguish, however, between 'cheating' and 'breaking the rules'.  Rules are broken for all sorts of reasons that do not include prior intent to break the rules.  I do think that 'cheating' implies intent.  So, a paceline -- that's cheating.  A person thinks she can pass, tries, and fails -- that's breaking the rules.

On the third hand, apparently she sat there for a long time, continuing to try to pass.  That's cheating (unless she didn't know the rules, in which case it is willfull ignorance which is just as bad).  If she had just tried to make the pass, failed, and dropped back, she broke the rules, but she didn't cheat.
[\hairsplitting]

Because it's a race?



It might be bad pacing strategy but I just can't see how it is 'bad form'.



Isn't that their problem?



I guess I'm a complete jerk.  If I don't want to be passed and I feel like I've got the energy to prevent it, I'm gonna do what I can to prevent it.  If I fail and they get by, I'll say 'nice acceleration' or some such.  So at least I'm a friendly jerk!

I see what you're saying. I agree that you shouldn't have to actively slow down/apply brakes to let someone pass. But I guess my next question would be: Should you speed up when you see someone trying to pass and try to punish them/prevent them from completing the pass? What constitutes "blocking"?

I guess it's one of those unwritten rules that people will disagree on. Some will say that you can/should do all you can to win and stay ahead. However, when I've gradually been approaching someone from behind, and I know my general pace is faster than theirs, it's kind of annoying when they see me and speed up to stay ahead. It's like on the interstate when I'm on cruise control and I have to keep passing the same car who speeds up/slows down constantly. On the other side of the coin (which is more often for me), if someone is passing me, I find it a better strategy to maintain my comfortable pace, rather than risking burning myself out just to "beat" someone in that 30-second period.

Blocking is physically impeding their progress -- basically not staying the right to allow a lane for them to pass.  No, I am NOT advocating this!  I'm not necessarily advocating accelerating either, but I don't see anything wrong with it from a rule or etiquette perspective.



The interstate is not a race (though sometimes it's hard to tell...).

Yes, clearly people will disagree.  For me, part of the enjoyment of the race -- in fact, THE enjoyment of the race -- comes from the fact that it is a RACE.  I actually would enjoy it LESS if I knew that people were letting me by just to be nice, or friendly, or indeed for any reason other than that they cannot prevent it, or choose not to for strategic reasons.

By the way, when I pass, I try to avoid these situations entirely by accelerating past the person if I think there's a chance that they will try to prevent me from passing.  If you aren't drafting in the first place, by the time they hear you coming, it will often be too late for them to react (you have already accelerated) and they will have to drop back and try to pass you later.

So is the bike portion is sort of like European soccer... wait, I ll make the connection.  SOME players seem to grab their calf or ankle every time they hit the grass, attempting to "draw" a foul.  Others will foul on purpose and not get called.  When they do, they take the penalty and move on.  Its part of the game within the game and everyone including the officials knows it. 

So if you can get away with drafting a bit, and you can live with yourself for the rules infraction, and you don't get caught, is it just part of the game within the game? 

My grandad showed me at a very young age (when he was teaching me to golf) that you are just cheating yourself and dishonoring all those who play fair if you don't call yourself out if you don't play by the rules. 

Seems to me like there are 2 camps: 
1) Go ahead and get away with whatever you can
and
2) Follow the rules and be proud to know it was your best honest effort

Im in camp 2.  

Absolutely not, IMO.  Breaking the rules is never a good thing, and never 'part of the game'.  I was just trying to distinguish between intentional breaking of the rules ("Now I shall slide tackle this guy and take him out with my cleats, because I can't beat him fairly") versus unintentional breaking of the rules (in a fair fight for the ball, I slipped and fouled the other player).

IMO:  One shouldn't feel GOOD about the latter, and one should do what one can to avoid any breakage of the rules, but I do think that they are, ethically speaking, two different categories, which I was calling, perhaps arbitrarily, 'cheating' and 'rule breaking'.