draft or no draft

Unfortunately it is hard to enforce on some of the larger race. I just raced Chicago three weeks ago, so much drafting going on. Most of it was the simple fact that there is only so much space on the road. And I was a late wave!

Another example from IM Moo. Too many people, too little road...

(MooDraft.JPG)

It certainly is enforced here in large events.  There were a lot of penalties handed out at the NH Timberman 1/2 IM.  Here is the referee's report, 2 pages long.  Note the fact that one guy got penalized for drafting twice...4 minutes for the 1st offense, 12 minutes for both combined:

http://www.lin-mark.com/special/timber04penalties.xls

Edited by max 2004-09-15 8:22 AM

I agree with you 100% in that drafting should NOT be part of Triathlon. A perfect example of how this hurts the sport is Team Kinesys. If you have not heard of the them, they are a team of Pro Triathletes, whose single goal is to work together during ITU races with the goal of getting on of their own to the finish line first. They race the races like US Postal races the TdF! (Even though I disagree with their methods, I should note that they ARE racing legally for ITU races.)

IMHO, Triathlon is an individual sport and true test of individual accomplishment. In an ideal world, drafting should be enforced. But how do you differentiate the guy (or gal) who is drafting vs.the racers that just got "caught in a pack" because of the race size? Very tough call for the referees.

At the half IM I did in Lake Geneva I didn't see ANY race officials on the bike course...and it was USAT sanctioned event.  Of course they could have been masquerading as racers.  The honor system did seem to be working quite well, I saw very little drafting and only one pack...and to be honest the pack seemed to be unintentional. 

I will add my opinion that drafting DOES NOT belong in triathlons. 

There were two pages worth of penalties in my race on Sunday, and it had less than 400 entrants.  My feeling on drafting is that it should not take place in triathlons.  I wish that the ITU would abandon it, and that the Olympics would as well, because it turns the race into basically a 10K run. 

Now, I am very conscientious about positioning on the bike during races.  (I got penalized during my second sprint race this year.)  I am going to do my very best to make sure I don't break any rules, because if you are not playing by the rules, you're playing a different game.  Also, I got a little perturbed (but I let it pass) when someone re-passed me on the left after I had overtaken him.  Where's that motocycle?