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TriAthy - complaint by proxy
PC_67
Posts: 196
in General Chat
Did anyone do this at the weekend?
Only asking because my mate did his first ever tri, the sprint race and did a very good 1:14 but was gutted when told he had to take a drafting penalty, one of only ten handed out on the day (versus none last year). He says the whole experience has been ruined for him as he has never cheated in anything in his life. He said there were peletons all over the place and as he was acutely aware of the rules he did everything to avoid breaking them.
He said he has tried to appeal but nobody has got back to him.
I'm gutted for him. He says he is now not going to do his first OD race, in his home town in West Cork in the summer. I've been banging on for years how great this tri lark is and how great a sense of fun, achievement & cameraderie it generates and he has seen none of it.
If anyone did this race I'd be keen on hearing your thoughts on how much drafting there was and how well it was policed.
Only asking because my mate did his first ever tri, the sprint race and did a very good 1:14 but was gutted when told he had to take a drafting penalty, one of only ten handed out on the day (versus none last year). He says the whole experience has been ruined for him as he has never cheated in anything in his life. He said there were peletons all over the place and as he was acutely aware of the rules he did everything to avoid breaking them.
He said he has tried to appeal but nobody has got back to him.
I'm gutted for him. He says he is now not going to do his first OD race, in his home town in West Cork in the summer. I've been banging on for years how great this tri lark is and how great a sense of fun, achievement & cameraderie it generates and he has seen none of it.
If anyone did this race I'd be keen on hearing your thoughts on how much drafting there was and how well it was policed.
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.....i felt a little pissed off.
i don't cheat.
If I a going flat out, I have all the power down and can go no faster and I am gaining on someone albeit slowly - at what point am I drafting.
I am making an effort to overtake so what's the problem ?
It makes me not want to overtake incase I get thumped with a Disqual
A message to race organisers and officials - cut the bullshit and lighten up a little!!!
Every sport has rules, and, before you undertake them, you need to understand what they are. Rules are there to promote competition, to enable fair play. I'm pretty sure that most judges/marshall's give the benefit of the doubt in most cases. Offenses have to be pretty egregious to get a DQ. It's a lot harder than you think, and it is unpleasant to have to DQ or penalise somebody. You're very aware of the how upsetting it is to a competitor, and how disliked you will be.
Of course, no one here knows the facts in the case, so it's pointless to speculate. Of course, it would be interesting to see if there were an unusually high number of penalties awarded, and if by one particular judge.
However, more to the point, if your friend wasn't on the podium, winning an age group, then they've not lost out much! They know what their own time was, after all. They've not been banned from other events. Yes, it is annoying, but, in they just need to take a step back, and think of their own performance, and how it can be improved. If they were truly "unlucky", then, like lightening, it's unlikely to strike in the same place, again. I quite sympathise with him wanting to find out what the evidence was - so that he can understand and learn from it.
There are going to be all sorts of challenges and obstacles to overcome - dropping at this first, and very slight hurdle, might just mean that they don't really have the mental toughness for the sport that is required.
My advice: Take it on the chin, learn from it, and be more prepared to cope with adversity in the future!
"No Drafting" is a challenging rule - the hardest one to understand and cope with, and I am all for as much education in pre-race briefings etc, pointing out pinch points in the course, and where people are likely to bunch together, making clear how the marshalls/judges are going to police the event. But I think "no drafting" is better than having a road race. If for the only reason that it makes for safer events.
PC_67 I have a lot of sympathy for your friend if there was a lot of drafting going unpunished. On hill sections in particular getting bunched up is sometimes hard to avoid. Plus if you are on open roads it may be dangerous to stay 1M wide of another rider for too long, due to oncoming traffic.
Did your friend get told where his offence was meant to have occurred, or just that he was drafting at some point?
I presume this was an officially sanctioned BTA or TI event? It might be worth your friend writing to them to complain about inadequate/inconsistent marshalling and application of the rules. That might mean the race organisiers get contatcted by the governing body at least to query the issue. If The race organisers don't respond to his appeal he should mention that too.
I knew what drafting was but didn't realise the extent to which it applied. Now I do and from that it seems I've drafted a few times especially on my first tri.
Now I know the rules I shall be keeping a watchful eye
I hate seeing teams of people drafting off each other, it really does make a different race for those who follow the rules vs those in a 6 man group taking turns pulling. I hope your friend hears back about their appeal soon.
As far as passing people though, if its a crowded course, there's really no way to avoid being in the 'draft box' for a while. I never intend to get pulled along by anyone in a race but when there's a literal queue of people all along the course like you'll see in Blenheim this weekend... well don't even consider the draft box otherwise you'd be better off waiting til the last wave leaves and have a bit of space on the course.
Yes there were peletons on the bike section and a number of them. It was so hot that it was hard enough
go past people to worry about drafting!
Was a great well organised event and would recommend it to anyone.
Drafting,like speeding,we do it without noticing,it is down to time compression and expansion depending on the circumstances.You think it is only 5 secs that has passed but it is more like 20 secs,as we are too busy concentrating on the race.
''I didn't do it'' Bart Simpson.
''Hell no,I'm innocent'' most of the prisoners in the Shawshank Redemption.
I suggest it to be a learning experience.
Drafting is inevitable,but verbal abuse should not be tolerated,and I am happy to say that more athletes are Dq'd for that than drafting.
Don't let it spoil his enjoyment of the sport and next time just make sure he just blasts past any other bike !
here's a (US) website that explains it all (?)
http://www.triduo.com/articlesPage/draftingrules/drafting.htm (for RIGHT read LEFT of course ;-)
didds