Help with bike tactics for IMFLat (i.e. how to deal with the drafting!) please??
Team,
I come from a land of many hills, so drafting at races is not usually an issue I need to worry about. But, I've been concerned about the infamous IMFL draft-fest since the day I signed up.
Now that race-day is almost here, I'm hoping to gain some wisdom from you guys on how to best deal with this during the race (i.e. limit surges, stay calm, etc.).
And, I'm also wondering if there is a way to use it to my advantage within the legal limits. I certainly don't want to break any rules, but if there is something I can and should be doing, I want to know about it.
For example, I found this video of Rich and Patrick talking about drafting and legally passing in the draft zone of someone else, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CALafcre1Q. To me it looks like everyone is drafting in that video, but to the more trained eyes it looks "pretty good" and "pretty broken up". Maybe I just need to get used to what 4 bike lengths looks like (?).
Looking to approach the day with appropriate tactics and strategy as part of my race/ride plan rather than to try and figure it out when I'm out there. If I do that I'll probably just get all pissed off at people and start launching snot-rockets at them and pushing the watts because I think they are too close, when in reality they may be legal...like if I am passing someone and they are following.
FWIW, my race rehearsal says I will probably swim about a 1:20 and bike around 5:10, so I expect to see a lot of crowds on the bike and I will probably be doing quite a bit of passing.
So what are some EN Ninja bike tips for flat IM racing?
Gracias!
Comments
Just stay 4 bike lengths behind the bike in front of you and don't worry about what everyone else is doing around you.
what if i want to pass the guy in front of me?
in the video i linked to above you say the second guy in the line doing the passing does not have to obey the 4 length rule, no?
if that's true, then why would i not want to latch on to somebody who passes me to pass the guy in front of me so i don't blast my watts doing it on my own? then once we get by the original guy we go back to the 4 length rule. that's the message I got from your video.
thanks.
Assume the average bike is 6 feet. Then the bike plus 4 bike length separation requires 30 feet per person out there. IMFL is pushing the numbers up every year. Assume 2800 people show. 2800 x 30 feet = 84,000 feet = 15.9 miles. So the entire field spaced properly would take nearly 16 miles of the course. But hundreds are going to come out of the swim in the MOP and be right together until the second half of the course. I am not advocating drafting, but it is simply not possible to follow the dropping back rule (sort of like being stuck behind a slow car as the fast lane is going by on the left and you can't get over), nor is it fair to put so many folks on the course and then say you can't be within 4 bike lengths and you have to drop back 4 when passed. I tried passing some pelotons to stay legal when I did it in 2008 but unless you want to burn every match in your book they are inevitably going to take you down along with the peloton behind them and the peloton behind them. Welcome to the IMFL gran fondo! I am going back in 2014 to do it with my son and I expect the problem has gotten worse and will continue to do so unless WTC wakes up one day and caps registrations at 2000.
The lesson is, don't try to draft. And if you find yourself stuck in a group, don't be an obvious offender riding the guy's wheel in front of you, and hope for the best. Try to stay 3-4 bike lengths back. Try not to spike your power, but sometimes you must to stay legal, do the best you can. And don't let others around you bother you, you can't change them, so don't get yourself worked up over it. If you happen to get a penalty, do NOT get stressed out. Only worry about the things you can control and sometimes you can't even control that. Take the 4 minutes in the penalty tent to eat something and get hydrated. Or go to the bathroom (just not in your shoe if you can avoid it).
If you're a ~1:20 swimmer and a ~5:10 biker, you will be passing A LOT of people throughout the day. Aim for their back wheel as you enter their draft zone. Get very close before you "slingshot" around them and immediately get back over to the right in front of them and find the next wheel to aim for (even if it's only for a few seconds). Don't just stay on the left and pass everybody if they are 4 bike lengths or more apart. Use each off these legal draft opportunities to weave your way through traffic (but stay safe and aware of other people not paying attention or doing stupid things with their bikes). All of these little mini drafts are absolutely legal and will make a big difference in your average speed per effort throughout the course of a ~5hr ride. Think of every person you pass with this method is worth about a second or so in your total bike split time. So if you pass 500 people like this, that's about an 8 minute faster bike split than you would have had at the same overall average power had you ridden the whole thing by yourself without seeing another person (like your RR might have been).
Good Luck!
Yeah, this is an opportunity to vent. I've made all the mistakes it's possible to make here, one time or another - two drafting penalities, and twice I burned too many matches early in the bike getting involved in draft fests. The biggest gripe I've had is what John alludes to. You're in steady mode, and come up on a group riding quasi legally together. You slowly get around all of them, and they find it's a bit easier on your tail, so they follow you going, say 2% faster then they were before at 5% less effort. This is too "easy" (although they are going faster!) now, so they decide to pull out and get around, seeing you as "slowing them down". Then one or more gets in front, find they really don't like all that wind in their face, and slow down again to their previous speed. (Or worse, they decide after all that work getting around, it's a perfect time to sit up and take a drink! That's how I got one drafting penalty.) Result for you: either a penalty, or you have to back off, or you have to go around again. It's kind of like "half-wheeling", where you and another guy are talking while riding next to each other, each trying to stay half a wheel in front of the other. Before you know it, you're engaged in an all out sprint. 10-15 minutes of this nonsense, even without a penalty, has been enough to bugger my run, if the work effort rises from IM to HIM levels.
This is the dilemma caused by you coming up on a group who are going just a *little* bit slower than you, which is probably what you'll run into a lot, given your relative slow swim/fast bike. So what to do? Don't even think about trying to get away from them - not possible, even with the 4 bike length rule. That provides enough of a draft so they can follow you at a reduced effort level to facing the wind alone. And don't speed up to try and lose them once and for all - 6-7 hours , you'll regret it. Number one rule: you are not racing these guys - they are slower bikers than you, they are stupid and will not run as well as you.
I suspect you should just stay in passing mode pretty much for the first 1/2 of the bike ride, by then the field will be thinned out enough you wont have to worry. Do your best to be in obvious passing mode, always either getting closer or farther away from the bike in front on you. If worst comes to worst, use the aid stations which appear every ten miles to mix things up naturally.
OTOH, if a group goes by you, don't be tempted to latch on, even if it's a little easier - keep your speed steady, and accept the lower watts for the time it takes them to get far enough ahead.
1. what Rich said dont worry about behind you.
2. what Paul said impossible to ride clean the entire race period... anyone who says differently is fooling themselves... just do the best you can and keep eyes open for marshalls in those situations
3. what John and Al said... with your swim and bike times.... you will NOT be passed by many bikes... most guys who can outbike you are already in front of you.... you will have an endless supply of legal slingshot passing the entire race... do your best to complete them legally and pay attention to marshalls
4. Don't burn matches
5. Ride your watts , do the best you can to stay legal and you will have one hell of a bike split at IMFL.
My only drafting penalty was received in a Rev3 70.3 Venice Beach race where they cancelled the swim and started the bike via TT, I started the bike in 274th and finished in 38th in 2:25.... That is 236 bikes passed and the equivalent of passing 1 bike every 37 seconds for my entire ride (of course it was more at the beginning and much less at the end)... I couldnt tell you where or when I received my penalty (it just showed up as a 4min discount on my time).... I was in full passing mode the whole time ???
Having just finished KONA I can tell you that it was nothing but a huge DRAFT fest... Again periods of time where it was impossible not to draft... NOBODY is going to drop back if there is a string of guys behind the person passing you ... Your surrounded.... Riding the Queen K was legal riding if you tried but UP and DOWN Hawi was groups and strings as far as you could see... I would say it helped me on the climb but held me back on the descent... My stats for KONA where 274 bikes passed in 5:25 or 1 bike every 71 seconds.... Thats pretty crowded no matter how you look at it!
Wow! I am really glad I asked the question as each of your responses have really helped me get a handle on this and what I should and should not do. I sincerely appreciate the thoughtful replies.
I've looked up past years results of guys that have the splits I anticipate and, yeah, they passed like 600+ people, which is like 2 per minute. that seems crazy to me. but knowing that I should expect that ahead of time, and how i should deal with it, is huge...and your suggestions have me feeling a lot more comfortable with my approach.
thanks guys!!
It looks like we may have a pretty good headwind the first part of the bike going north up 79. That might break up the packs earlier than normal as weaker riders will get dropped as wind has a similar effect as hills. The ride coming home on 79 might be absurdly fast if we have a 15 mph tailwind.