London Triathlon

[Beebo]

I watched the triathalon on TV, I was surprised to see the bikes looked distinctly normal, no one had a wierd looking triathalon bike with tri bars etc. Just normal road bikes, I even spotted a few Boardman's.

Reading the Ironman thread has shown that drafting is allowed in the Olympic distance so is the need for a special bike negated or is there are a rule that says what bike you can have?

 

[fimm]

As you say, drafting is legal for elite racing at standard/Olympic distance, but not at distances longer than this (Middle distance/Ironman 70.3 and Iron distance). For draft legal racing they use road bikes as you saw, sometimes with a set of clip-on aero bars. I think there are rules about the lengths the bars can be.

The thing about time trial bikes is they are not very safe in bunch racing for various reasons.

Drafting is very nearly always illegal for age groupers (triathlon-speak for amateurs) whatever the distance. So although you can race triathlon on any bike (and people do - I did my first Sprints on a £200 mountain bike with slick tyres), people who do a lot of triathlons often use a time trial bike, because the aero position is useful, and you are not riding close to anyone for any length of time.

(My boyfriend and his mate did do a draft legal standard distance race while they were in Mallorca, which they found to be an interesting experience.)

 

[Ravenbait]

What fimm said.

I disagree with drafting in triathlon full stop. I think it kills the competition. But YMMV.

Sam

 

[sheddy]

The rules are all wrong, they allow mass cheating. Competitors should swim and run with their bikes. And their shoes.

Ok, maybe the ultra light floating folder has yet to be invented, but only when it is can the Commutors Triathlon be run.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

What fimm said.

I disagree with drafting in triathlon full stop. I think it kills the competition. But YMMV.

I agree. They'll be allowing swimmers to get a tow next...

 

[lejogger]

...Just normal road bikes, I even spotted a few Boardman's...

Yep, Boardman's finished 1st and 3rd! At £5k though they don't have a 'normal' pricetag!!

 

[Arsen Gere]

Actually in the swim you get a drafting effect too. Its worth around 25% of the effort and its legal.

So in the swim and the bike leg you have to be able to keep up and then its all down to how fast you can run. The bike leg can be boring to watch if no one attacks and it turns in to a club run.

Some of the amateur stuff seems a lot fairer to me. If you are in a pool set off at regular intervals and no drafting allowed on the bike - they have draft busters on route and on motor bikes, its more down to you.