1st ever USAT Age-Group Draft Legal Race...and that carnage thing.
USAT came to Clermont for a day of racing including the first ever sanctioned age group draft legal race. Many of you thought this format would lead to lots of carnage, but the only carnage was my overall place...47th out of 52. By comparison, our local sprint races with over 1000 triathletes (typically including 300 first timers) are far more dangerous than this very controlled draft legal format. USAT intends to take this unique format around the U.S. so let me tell you about it in case it comes to a town near you.
The first major difference was the very small field limited to only 75 men and women...and in completely different races. They only had 14 women registered with 11 finishers; and 62 men registered with 52 finishers. I'm not sure why the women didn't go for this format. The professional women's race followed mine and had a very deep field that was about 3 times the size of the age group women (2012 Olympic hopeful Helen Jenkins from GBR easily outdistanced Sarah Haskins). The men's AG race started 90 mins after the women's AG race. What got my attention in the men's race was that the median age was only 23, and half the field was from out of state. Many of the young racers were from college teams getting ready for collegiate nationals on April 9. So these kids were in prime form while I'm just starting a long season, not to mention that I was spotting most of the field three decades. 
This was advertised as a draft-legal race, but a better description would be an age group race adhering to ITU professional rules in every aspect. That means no wet suits for age groupers if the water is over 68. Going into transition they checked to make sure you had a legal road bike, checked brakes, checked tightness of your chin strap, and if you wore a 2 piece suit that didn't cover your midsection then they covered the gap with duct tape. Fortunately, I wore a one piece suit. A race belt was not necessary. Everyone was issued three Tri-Tats so you had pro numbers on your arms and one leg.
Although it was an "age group" race, there were no age groups. It was a single field, one wave, top 3 event...no age on your leg. They had a long, position marked, timing mat at the water's edge and kept us back 30 yards from the mat. Each athlete was announced by order of their number (assigned by how early you registered) along with name and city. You selected where you wanted to start, jogged up to the position, and could not move from that spot. So everyone is standing side by side at the start.
The race was a 750m swim, 20K bike, and 5K run. If you were lapped on the bike you were out, so I knew I had to swim fast. The kids took off like a cannon shot and I was quickly near last and losing ground. I swam the 750m in 11:01 giving it everything and was demoralized to be one of the last into transition while gasping like a dying fish. I think the fastest swim was 8:14. A little after a mile, one of the few guys I beat out of the water came up on my wheel and then passed me on a climb where I proceeded to...drop my chain...FRICK! All I wanted to do was to be able to finish this thing. I quickly fixed it but had to bike the entire way on my own as I watched a front group of about 6 followed by a train of about 20 or more eating into my margin on each lap. I had to get on to lap 3 before they finished their bike. I relaxed a little on the 3rd lap and picked off a couple guys and then suffered through the 5K.
So I finished in 1:11:26. Although I didn't get the opportunity to draft, and was left behind like yesterday's news, I did compete in the first ever sanctioned race of its kind against some very fast young men...or at least motivated them to pick it up lest that old guy catch them from behind. 
Comments
Paul - Props to you for getting out there and mixing it up. I know from watching you in two IMs last year - you are not slow. But, you are an OF, and we do tend to lose the high end snap somewhere north of 29, so on to bigger (longer) and better things as the year rolls out.