Whats the point of the bike leg of a triathlon any more…?!?! (other than falling over!)

I used to take part in the early days of triathlon and used to volunteer to help out during some of the early iron man races – particularly ‘draft busting’ – caught drafting – lose time or DQ’d..

From watching the weekends race, the commentators were saying that drafting is now legal, and indeed that some riders use the stage to get dragged along and have a bit of a rest before the run… Whats the point of that ?!

The original idea was for three individual types of racing, not two races and a bit of a rest…

Quite glad Im not involved in it now…

From watching the weekends race, the commentators were saying that drafting is now legal

It has been for some time – only in pro races though for all others (including international age-group categories) it’s not.

IIRC the problem was that as the athletes became more professional and competitive, the timegaps were shrinking to the point where it was near impossible not to draft at some point so a pragmatic decision was taken to allow it rather than have the impossible nightmare of trying to police it and to have unfair/inconsistent DQs

It has been draft legal at olympic distance for the pros (and the odd other race) since 97. Still non drafting at ironman/middle/long distance and all age group racing.

I agree to an extend but you might find watching this morning will change your opinion. There is a new generation of athletes that will try to blow it up on the bike. There is also quite a lot of tactics with trying to remove the poor swimmer/great runners from the race by getting groups of bikers to work together ahead of them so they can’t close the gap to get back on terms. There are still races where it all comes back together and looks like a procession but even then some of the big boys (the Brownlee’s for example) are capable of winding the pace of the pack up sitting on the front to trash the legs of those in the pack and take them out of the foot race.

IIRC the problem was that as the athletes became more professional and competitive, the timegaps were shrinking to the point where it was near impossible not to draft at some point so a pragmatic decision was taken to allow it rather than have the impossible nightmare of trying to police it and to have unfair/inconsistent DQs

This was a big problem – the likes on Spencer Smith got nailed on this a few times in big races(although ironically the change in rules basically ended his standard distance race career).

I didnt know about the rule changes, but glad to hear its still the case in some races…

the reason its a big deal for me is that Im an awful swimmer, the bike I coudl actually get back into contention on as I was usually a lot better cyclist than a lot of the others. Got out of when I realised I could do 4 or 5 mtb races for the price of one triathlon..

Ill be watching this morning, hopefully they’ll remember wet white lines dont hold a lot of traction..

From watching the weekends race

Did you really? In which case how did you miss that the gaps between some of the women were far larger after the bike than after the swim? You’re really not paying attention if you think the bike leg has no impact on the result of a triathlon – if it’s so unimportant, why do you think the Brownlees spend so much time training on the bike to make them amongst the strongest riders in triathlon.

I’m not a huge fan of drafting legal races reducing the importance of the bike, but as clubber says, given how close they are on the swim they’re inevitable unless you want tri to change to a time-trial format.

A long running controversy – makes the sport little more than a swim and ride to the start of a 10K race. Kind of shows up in the physiques of the top guys/ladies as well. But frankly (as a triathlete) I find it a cr@p spectator sport any way.

Drafting is almost endemic in amateur stuff as well and frankly almost impossible to avoid and regulate properly. The idea of dropping back after someone has overtaken you always annoys me, especially when you are on a steady pace and some muppet decided to sprint, slow down, sprint, slow down etc…

Good luck to the boys this week though – lets hope for Gold & Silver!

aracer – yes I was watching it and it was the BBC’s commentator (presumably racer) that stated that there would be riders deliberately getting into the draft to save energy.

Looks like we just might see an important bike race now – it will be interesting to see if a bike group does actually go for it. Answers to be seen in next few minutes……

Gomez and the the Brownlees all out together. Gomez needs to get a gap on Al and Johnnie on the bike.

And they’ve started crashing already

now thats more like it – 5 guys working together chaingang style to pull them forward… No one resting there… 🙂

Well this bunch are all working as a team!! Thats interesting.

Still think its not about the bike? They might not stay away, but it looks like it will and more importantly they are trying to make a bike race of it and the group behind trying to close it.

No, you’re right. No point to the bike leg at all.

wth helmets are the Brownlees wearing (the fugly Giro aero with a helmet cover?), it looks like the Vetta monstrosity I had circa 1989. Looks like Hayes has the GB helmet at least.

The Brownlee’s in a small breakaway, got a good chaingang going at the moment.

Er, bit out of date aren’t you, MSP?

wth helmets are the Brownlees wearing (the fugly Giro aero with a helmet cover?), it looks like the Vetta monstrosity I had circa 1989

They are proper Yorkshire lads – why throw owt away if it still works?

So if JB gets a 15sec penatly why not the girls who dismounted at the wrong place?

what time is it likely to finish?

Well if anyone can take an extra 15 seconds out of the field, its the Brownlee’s.

What did I miss – they’re busy talking about a penalty for JB (AB’s OK though?) but not why he got it. What did he do wrong? Is he the only one with a penalty?

Just realised my live feed is about 8mins behind, I better try to restrict commenting on current happenings.

got on his bike too early

penalty for mounting bike a fraction of a second too early – yet to see video replay of it.

Yep, transition penalty.

Oooh, helmet cams! Shiny!

I noticed several women dismounting too early but nothing happened.

Wonder if Stannard can swim, would be nice to have him on the front and then bail on the run but I guess Hayes is doing a decent job :p

Does he know he’s got a penalty?

Apparently, yes. So should change the tactics a little.

Stannard is a very good swimmer and swim coach

http://www.openwaterswim.co.uk/

Richard Stannard aka ‘The Shark’ or ‘The Fish’ is a six time World Champion in Multi-Sport has been leading the triathlon world out of the water for over a decade. Originally a swimmer Richard moved to triathlon and became British Champion. He lead the London Triathlon swim for ten years straight and continues to lead out of the swim all over the globe.

A break….! Great coverage, great racing!

I presume FuzzyWuzzy is talking about a different Stannard…

I was thinking more Ian Stannard 😉

Just noticed that he bought his bike from Halfords.

sorry apologies!! Hides embarrassed! (edit, no you guys are joking aren’t you. Does Ian do tri?)

On the helmets, they do look odd versus the road riders versions. But when you look at all the head movement, you can see why the long tailed helmets are dying out (even for Wiggo). Why put that big sail in the wind when you are looking down so often.

this isn’t great really, there’s just a load of wheel-suckers sitting on.

POC Tempor helmet, anyone?

😉