Sportsmanship & Triathlon

This past weekend, I experienced something that I am not certain I have really seen in my years of racing. Blatant cheating. Every race has some degree of cheating but most of it is innocent and typically subjective. But what I saw this weekend certainly appeared to be concerted and steadfast.

The sport is governed by USAT who develops the rules for competition. Most of the rules concern safety--wear helmets, no headphones, put your stuff where it belongs. Others are directed at preventing cheating--people helping you, illegal equipment. Occasionally, you will here about blatant cheating--someone cuts the course or in the case of IM Florida, a guy using fins on the swim. But the reality, the logistics of a race make it kinda difficult to cheat and not get caught. Unless, we are talking about drafting.

There is no subject that gets athletes riled up more in this sport. The USAT rules clearly state that you must keep 3 bike lengths (21 feet) and must pass within 15 seconds. Otherwise, you are drafting. The benefits are substantial to the second rider as they aren't required to expend as much energy to hold the same pace. This is why the peloton often catches the sprinters in Tours. The stay fresh and alternate hard pulls before sinking back into the pack.

In a sport that doesn't end with just the bike portion, it becomes even more benefcial to the second rider. I would love to ride at 40 less watts but still maintain my speed. That would be a nice recipe for a quality run. While illegal, it is sometimes difficult to prevent. I contend that there are four types of drafting:

1. Inadvertant drafting--Sometimes you just find yourself within the 3 bike lengths of a competitor that is your same pace. You have no intention of drafting but due to the effort, you are unable to pass within 15 seconds. Or if you do, he passes you right back. You get stuck in a situation where the only option is to drop back but you certainly don't want to do so.

2. Too much volume--In large races (Ironman), sometimes there is too much traffic on the road to prevent drafting. Ironman Florida was this way for about 5 miles. There was NO way to avoid it minus dropping off the very back of 100 riders. It sucked and I hated every minute of it. We were riding 5-6 wide and 15-20 deep. You couldn't even maneuver your bike out of it. The sad part was that while my heartrate was in zone 1, I thought the pace was slower than what I would be travelling.

3. Paceline--You see this occassionally in big races. It starts with one guy latching onto the wheel of another and as they make passes, others climb aboard. Typically it is 5-10 people. These are less common mainly because they are hard to form and they are easily identifiable. In fact, my favorite thing to do when I see one is to yell "REF." It seems to break them up.

4. Direct drafting--Athlete "A" passes athlete "B" so "B" decides to suck wheel and go with him for an extended time period.

On Saturday, I experience a combination of #3 & #4. Around mile 8-9 of the bike, Tony, Marc, Doug and I were passed by two people who were a bit too close to one another. It is quite unusual to be passed by two people at the same time without thinking it is cheating. And to make matters worse, they belonged to the same triathlon group/club....so they were likely training partners.

Over the next few miles, what I saw shocked me. They stayed 25-30 meters ahead of me and it almost appeard to be one unit. They were clearly working together. I saw Tony and Marc move closer in hopes to break it up but they couldn't even hang with these guys. The teammates were trading positions more often then I change underwear. One would pull, then switch. This went on for the remaining 5 miles. All I could do was keep pushing the pace because I couldn't catch them. I am sure if all the EC guys rode like that we would have blown them away.

So I entered transition pissed off. I asked the guys if they saw it the same way, all were in agreeance that it was blatant cheating. I offered $20 to any of the EC guys who tripped either of the guys on the run (jokingly). I ended up running down the guy at mile one. As I approached him, I debated what to say if anything. I chose to speak my mind and basically tell him that was bullshit cycling and he was an f'ing cheater. Needless to say he didn't take to kindly to that and had a few choice words back. Fortunately, he was somewhat reserved but I could tell I got under his skin. He came back up to me after the race trying to provoke me and I stood my ground. I had 3 others that saw the same thing. He just didn't want to admit that he was cheating.

So the question is what do you do about blatant cheating like that? I don't believe in complaining about the officials. While it IS their job, they can't be everywhere at once. It does no good to talk to them after the race because the official can't do anything about it. Do you just suck it up and let it go? Or do you confront the person? How should situations like this be handled in the future?

And don't worry, I got his name and tri club. I will certainly be watching for this in the next few races.