Drafting During An Ironman

A while ago, I wrote a post following the saga of “Finman” aka, professional douche-bag, Frank Cardia. Frank is a cheater because he used fins to complete the swim leg of an Ironman. The article I wrote got quite a few comments discussing what difference cheating makes, as well as what exactly defines cheating.

One of the things that came up several times was the practice of drafting during the bike leg of a triathlon. Drafting is the practice where a cyclist rides close behind a fellow cyclist in an effort to save energy by allowing the leading cyclist to create a “hole” in air resistance. This gives the cyclist in the drafting zone an energy savings of approximately 33%, and thus, a huge advantage. USAT defines the drafting zone as follows:

Definition of Drafting Zone. The term “drafting zone” shall refer to a rectangular area ten (10) meters long and two (2) meters wide surrounding each bicycle. The longer sides of the zone begin at the leading edge of the front wheel and run backward parallel to the bicycle; the front wheel divides the short side of the zone into two equal parts.. With respect to a moving motor vehicle, the “drafting zone” is a rectangular area extending one meter to each side of the vehicle and fifteen (15) meters behind the vehicle.

There are such things as “draft legal” races where professional athletes are allowed to draft in a peloton style of racing, much as you may see in a race like the Tour de France. However, an Ironman does not allow drafting in any form.

All that being said, the following video was taken during this past weekend’s, Ironman Florida. To be fair, I do believe that the person doing the filming would probably have been penalized under the rules as well, but this is about the drafting.

I commented on this video asking what could be done to prevent drafting and got the following response.

You can set it up so it’s certainly more difficult t draft: (a) Time trial start (they do it at IM Lou, so possible) on flat courses or (b) Wave starts; (c) more marshalls; (d) as noted by someone on ST, forget the time penalty. Have a “penalty loop” out of T2 where drafters run 1 extra mile out-and-back to T2 for 1st offense and 3 miles for 2nd offense. That alone would make most folks think hard about drafting.

While I don’t want to discount this persons opinion, I think that the idea of a “penalty loop” is patently absurd. Any added distance, in any type of triathlon, would negate the prescribed distance of the event and therefore render it pointless. As for wave starts, as I noted in my race report from this year’s NYC Triathlon, drafting was rampant! This also created the additional problem or ridiculous traffic issues due to the fact that after the professionals went, the waves then went with the older (and no offense at all, but mostly slower) racers working backward to the younger racers.

I think the best solution would be a few more and more strategically placed officials. However, it will still happen. This is not to say that, with the right traffic jam we don’t ALL get stuck in some accidental drafting from time to time, but this is just blatant!

What do you think?