The reality is, SOMEONE is ALWAYS disappointed with where their wave starts. We break up the traditionally "Fast" age groups, to AVOID the logjam on the bike course. It also helps with the drafting issues.
If you stack all of the faster age groups together, you'll get ALOT more folks getting out of the water all close together. They also have alot of folks that are similar bikers. It causes more congestion, IMO.
We have a really clean race, with little drafting. This is a part of the reason.
Having a bunch of waves also eases congestion on a course, as does time between waves.
I suppose we could have fewer waves, closer together in time. And it'd be alot more crowded on course......
And, yes, I do have a sympathetic streak for the older age groups. Putting them at the end compounds the issues for them. They're starting later, they're slower
(yes, I know, in GENERAL, not ALWAYS
![](https://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/images/emoticons/smile.gif)
), so they're out on the course at the end of the day by themselves.
I always await with great excitement the emails and phone calls from folks upset about their wave start. It's not something I can win. BUT, I can, to a degree, work to create a safe, fair race for EVERYONE. That's what we try to do.....