Drafting at IMFL (Page 3)

"SAY WHAT" HUH

I did Steelhead in 2006.  I came out of the water at 38:XX, so I was right in the MOP lump.  Were there a lot of bikes?  Sure.  Were people riding too close together?  Yea.  Was it blatent?  I didn't notice pelotons, nor did I pay much attention to onsie/twosie riders hanging on another rider's wheel (I'm sure it happened *Some*). 

I did play leapfrog with a couple of riders over 5-10 miles, and there were a few places where I lightened up because faster riders were overtaking me and I had a slower rider in front of me. 

For my race in 2006, drafting wasn't enough of a problem for me to swear that race off.  I volunteered in 2007 (driving ahead of the lead cyclist, so I didn't see the packs). 

I'd say a good race director ought to do (or hire someone) a more rigorous analysis to determine what the maximum field should be from this perspective rather than a $$ perspective.  This kind of shows that an M-dot race with 2000-2200 participants is really "at the limit" for a mass start.  (It'd be a little more complicated to analyze wave-start races, but the RD for huge triathlons--like Chicago--ought to try before beefing up "enforcement".)

The math says there's (marginally) enough room, so I'd argue that the packs/drafting that was observed is due to lax enforcement of the rules rather than (theoretically) too many riders trying to get onto the course at the same time. 

As long as you're actually passing, it's not drafting.  A slingshot is perfectly legal.  In fact, a couple of riders constantly slingshotting each other, as long as they complete their passes and drop back within the specified time, is legal and smart racing.

It's only when you tuck in and stay there that you're cheating.

This is from Amanda Lovato's IMFL race report.  It's an interesting strategy for the official and, at least, it's an attempt.

At mile 60, a peloton of about 20-25 guys caught up to me. My friend Alex was in the pack. We chatted a bit and I realized that there were other pro women in the pack. The decision was go with the pack or get left behind. The last time I decided to let the pack go, I was bitter. I was bitter because I felt like you had to play the game in order to compete. So I joined the pack. By mile 80, there were about 70 people in the pack. It was CRAZY!!!! We finally saw a Marshall and wouldn't you know it....He gave me a red card. He gave another pro woman a yellow card...What was the difference. We were both doing the same thing???? What about the other several people in the pack???? (After talking to the official the next day, he said that he picks 2 from the back, 2 people from the middle, and 2 people from the front of the pack in order to scare people into breaking it all up...guess what...It didn't work). Anyway, at mile 90, I stood my 4 minutes down in the sin bin.

They gained probably more than 4 minutes and were fresh for the run.  THAT'S the difference.

It's easy to draft in a pack for 112 miles and maintain 25+.  In my USCF road races back in the day our average speed for my level was 25 - 27 mph.  And that was for up to 100 mile races.

These guys/glas were all doing 4:50 - 5:05 splits which would be 22 - 23 mph averages.  That's nothing in a group.  Hell with average fast riders on a flat course that is a leisurely Sunday ride .....

Have you ever sped on a highway as part of a group?  Why?  Is it because you play the averages that a cop will not single you out b/c you know that there is no way a single officer can pull over an entire group of drivers?

When you speed past a cop car sitting on the side of the road, what is your first instinct?  You slow down.  Why?  What happens when you get past the cop and know that you're safely out of range?

It's the same situation on race day. 

I'm not defending the practice, but I'm just trying to draw parallel to emphasize the absurdity of stopping EVERYONE that is breaking the rules.  At least the course official was trying to do SOMETHING.

I'm not saying that a single cop can't pull over multiple speeders, but has a single cop ever pulled over all of the cars?  What you've stated is exactly what the course official did; picked 6 riders from a larger pack.

In your second statement, you're utilizing a 2nd resource in a circumstance where everyone agrees resources are already known to be lacking.  If there are 6 officials on the course, do they roam in 3 packs of 2?  1 pack of 2 and 4 singles?  You're still just playing percentages that you (or your entire pack) won't get picked off.

Again, I'm not arguing that drafting is cheating.  I'm countering your statement that the official's tactic was "moronic" and that something more should have been done.

Just like fighting in hockey, if they want to eradicate it, they can. 

USAT can give course officials additional resources (I'm not saying additional people) to record race numbers.  They can change the penalty protocol.  I've seen cops motion for a whole line of cars to pull over as he catches up to the first car.  Everyone stops behind that lead car.  The cop can grab the license plate as he drives by, so he'll know if one of the cars drops off the back.  Race officials can video/voice record the offending numbers (or a description of the bike and rider if the number isn't prominent) as they ride by. 

Race official can drive/ride by and motion for the rider to pull over.  He can ride by the whole peloton recording numbers and impose the drafting penalty on-the-spot with an immediate DQ for anyone riding on.  Under these conditions, if you're riding along and everyone around you is getting flashed with the red-card, you ought to expect you got one too.  Eliminates the "I-didn't-know-he-meant-me!" argument.  Can be a varying time penalty (the peloton riders wait longer than a single offender since the official is clearing race numbers on-the-spot in addition to the fixed X-minute penalty). 

I'd also have some officials set up as spectators.  Again, a discrete video camera to capture the rider.  Penalties can be assessed at a holding pen or T2 (with a longer penalty).  Riders then can't just watch for the motorcycle as ANY spectator could be the official. 

USAT can (if they don't already) specify a minimum number of cycling officials based on the maximum possible number of riders as part of their accredidation/certification of a race/results. 

Athletes, if you're grousing about drafting and the lack of enforcement in races, do something about it!  Go get certified as an official and work (volunteer even) some races!   Maybe NASports can come up with an entry spot (you still pay) for volunteering as a bike-course official.  Volunteer in '08 and race in '09, or volunteer at IMMoo and race IMFL. 

Amen to that, brotha.

You don't want 2000+ inexperienced bike handlers riding tri bikes to form draft packs.  Carnage waiting to happen.

And yes, it significantly changes the race dynamics.

Bill - 2007-11-06 11:40 AM

I don't get the "they don't want to pi$$ people off by enforcing the rules" arguement. The race fills up in a matter of hours. Even if they enfore the rules with an iron fist, that sell-out would still happen.

From what I observed this weekend, the RD's do care.  Last year at MiamiMan HIM and International (field of about 1000) there were a number of complaints regarding drafting.  This year, in response, the RD increased the number of USAT Officials to 6.  The field increased to 1500, and it still sold out.

This would indicate to me that even while people were unhappy with the lack of penalties being called during the '06 race, they still turned out in force-plus for the '07.  The RD responded by putting on extra officials.  Bear in mind, two of us were unpaid (below Cat 3 level), but there was still a cost for our motorcycles.  Doesn't seem to be incentive for him to pay for extra Officials if the race continues to sell out.

From what I observed from the back of my motorcycle escort - a number of athletes don't care.  I passed, in the opposite direction, a group of girls swarming the back tire of a male athlete.  I don't know if he is hot, or rich, or fast, but it was like watching an episode of The Batchelor.  He was waving to me for assistance.   We turned around and by the time I got back, there were four girls commiting drafting, blocking, positioning and overtaking offenses.  And I wrote them all.  And these chicks were snarling at me as I was dictating their descriptions.  BUT!  Not one of the penalties was challenged after they were posted.

This is one example of just some really arrogant riding that I saw in my two hours on the course yesterday.  FWIW, I submitted 25 defendable penalties, about 1/3 drafting.  I called about 34, but in the melee didn't get enough description to be able to defend should it be challenged. 

I'm almost of the mindset that if you want a new or to renew your USAT membership,  you need to pass a small test.  Fill in the Blank quiz on the top five penalties.

Yeah that doesn't surprise me. The arguement I fail to understand though is when people say drafting penalties are not imposed out of fear that too many penalties will drive people away from a given race.

Is digital imaging allowed in lieu of a written description? 

Just curious b/c athletes only have 'x' hours to dispute their penalties, so you wouldn't need to keep the photos for very long.  Just long enough to clear those that want to argue.

Yes.  I could have taken a digital camera with me yesterday.  I just wasn't sure how accurate the pictures would be since it's not all that great at action shots.  We had to do a lot of defensive driving yesterday to stay out of the way of bikes and cars.

I purchased and used an Olympus hand held voice recorder to note each penalty.  Much easier t han trying to write.  One of the HR's I work under down here has a nifty penatlies chart that he uses to transpose his verbal descriptions to a written penalty sheet.  It was beautiful watching the few penalties that did get challenged.  Great system for aiding the athlete in identifying themselves and describe the penalty for the HR.