Cheating in triathlon
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I was poking around on the Internet, and I found a few interesting stories about triathlon cheaters. Here's a particularly impressive case:
http://www.everymantri.com/everyman...inman.html
And I'm sure we've all heard of at least one marathon cheat in our lifetime, but apparently there have been numerous incidents (some of them pretty creative):
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/109907
Anyone here have any personal encounters with cheaters on the race course? I know drafters are pretty notorious, but I'm wondering if people are willing to get sneakier than that.
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Something fun to do is look at different people's qualifying bike ride at a 70.3 and then their Clearwater WC 70.3 ride time, if it is more than 5 minutes (depending on course terrain), ask them if thety drafted! I promise you they will flatly deny it or rationalize it in some method. Lots of people magically gained 10+ minutes in Clearwater and swore to my face they didn't draft!
If you hooked them up to a lie detector, some would probably pass it b/c they don't perceive what THEY do as cheating/drafting. Narcissistic! Plenty of 'em around.
@ Jeff - I raced Clearwater in 2009. Due to my age group starting almost right after the pro's there weren't any draft packs from the younger age groups coming by me until about halfway, and I did not draft until the last 5 miles when it was impossible to do otherwise due to an enormous group that came up on me that left me nowhere to go. I wasn't about to park my bike and let half the field go by me. 2009 was probably the worst year for drafting because they moved the swim to the bay and had to do a time trial start. They ended up getting the entire field started in about half the time as the original wave schedule called for...thus bunching up the entire starting field on the bike. My time WAS much faster there than other 70.3s, but it wasn't because of bike drafting for the last few miles, it's because of CAR DRAFTING for almost half the course. Clearwater had a long northbound stretch on McMullen Booth road and even longer stretch southbound on the same road. It's a virtually pancake flat 6 lane highway. The lane they used for the bike was the center lane, so you were riding to the right of the center lane with 2 lanes of cars (and a lot of them) constantly passing you just to your right. It's not like this was a rural course...it stays entirely in the Tampa Bay metro area on a Saturday morning when everybody was out and about. If you've ever been riding by yourself in a bike lane with 2 lanes of cars just to your left and were passed by 100s of cars and trucks, tell me that your speed doesn't immediately jump up. Now put over 20 miles of that into the middle of a 70.3 and you are going to get a major improvement over any other ride you did. So yes, I had my fastest bike leg at Clearwater, but it was clearly due to the constant car traffic...I've never ridden any course remotely like it. When I finally was caught by a huge pack after 50 miles, there is no doubt that I benefited from drafting for those few miles...just couldn't avoid it...but that same stretch was on another 6 lane road with the same car fest cutting the air for you. So while I saw several draft packs during the race and was absorbed by the mother of all draft packs at the end, I know from firsthand experience that it was the cars that were responsible for the big assist. You could have soloed the course on an off day and still had your best ride. So, in my opinion, it is wrong to assume that everyone's bike improvements were solely due to illegal bike drafting as opposed to legal car drafting because of the course layout.
My brother's ex-gf once received this email the day after a race (she came in second - got passed on the run during the last km)
@Paul Probably some validity to your argument but some of the guys I talked to had crazy improvements and they are known to be pretty competitive if you catch my drift...
@Craig, I've had that happen to me before. I'm very strong in the swim and bike. Apparently race officials can't figure out why I'm such a lousy runner
. Two years ago I came out of T2 in a 70.3 with the women's race leader, and finished 34 minutes behind her. Another time I came out of T2 in 1st place with a 5 minute lead on the next woman, and still came in 4th. Yep, that's how much I suck in running. So I've been "audited" a couple of times. Luckily (or unluckily I might say), all of my race splits reflect the same thing, so it's easy to clear up. Hopefully this OS can change some of that, or Santa can bring me some new running legs.
Still, some of these force me to chuckle: right now on the JFK50 site a runner is credited with finishing this year in the top 50 overall, who was 10 minutes slower than comparable runners at the first mat, nearly an hour slower at the second mat, then mysteriously missed the third mat before making up that missing hour by the finish. Hmmmm.
Finman. Hmmm. I fantasize of having the speed of fins and paddles. But don't think about using them in a race.
The bike drafting thing is tough. I have lost a fair amount of time being nice and sticking to the letter of the law. Illegal drafts packs getting ahead and slowing down. Frustrating as we all know. The 10 meter/four bike length thing can be a bit subjective measuring with our eyes. Thought obvious drafting is obvious drafting. I think I need to start sticking up for myself and be more aggressive in pushing the limits of the bike parameters.
At one of the local tris here, I watched a guy ride into transition where a friend was on the other side of the fence holding his shoes. He dismounts, hands off his bike, puts on his shoes and runs out the other end in maybe 10 seconds. Wish I could have put up a video on Shame on YouTube!
Now that would be worth an audit from the refs. Let's see, everyone's transition time is >60 seconds and one guy is 12 seconds. Hmmmmm.....
Vote with your feet and your wallet and don't patronize races and race directors that turn a blind eye to drafting. When a race director puts thousands of athletes on the course (like here in Washington, DC), or doesn't want to hire officials, he's telling you something: that drafting is really not a concern and he doesn't care if the rules are enforced or not.
This is not always a bad thing, but if a competitive race with a fair outcome is important to you, you need to let them know.
Agreed. I wrote to IMFL after getting run off the road there by a 70+ bike peloton and seeing the penalty tents completely empty. Will not do the race again until that situation is better. I would hate to do a race like that and try to KQ as it's probably not possible when you see several people from your AG go by sucked onto on someone else's wheel into the headwind as you slog along.
Best thing in that race was one female AG'er who was hollering at the top of her lungs: "Cheaters!!! You're all a bunch of cheaters!! How do you look in the mirror and call yourselves Ironmen? How do you sleep at night knowing you're a cheater?" It was great!
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/08/news/in-search-of-relevance-a-cat-3-turns-to-epo-and-hgh_232611/3
apparently this guy has a "history"
read on....
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4060842;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;
Chrissy Wellington in her book says that she uses peeing on the bike to get people off her wheel.
@ Penny: I would TOTALLY do that out of principle, but I'm too self-conscious.
While I don't condone the posting of personal information (besides names of the accused) I do think Dan shuts down the witch hunt threads too soon. Those people should be a constant source of mockery and disdain.
My favorites over the years:
Good times!
For some reason in my mind, drafting is "less" evil than trying to carry swim fins into the water. I'm doing IMFL, and I am anticipating getting caught up in drafting type situations regardless of what I do or don't do. As patrick says in the 4 keys video, if you keep dropping back you'll end up back at T1. I have no plans to try and draft but all the videos I've seen of the bike course seem to make it hard to get any space out there.
Someone tried drafting off me at IMLP in 2011 and I simply stopped pedaling and sat up. Gave the dude a shake of my head as he went around me...
1) the swim course cheater at this year's IMLP...looks like he successfully cheated in 2011 and 2010. Congrats to Jiimmy R for throwing him out. The ST sleuths even found that this same guy fabricated legitimate results and posted them to a different web location for his friends to see. His reputation needed to be ruined.
2) Melane Eulorge - DQd for cheating at Eagleman in 2012, DQd for cheating at Ironman Canada back in 2005, successful cheater in many other races, and a Federation representative for triathlon in his home country.
I agree that Dan should not shut these threads down. These folks need to be embarassed out of the sport since WTC doesn't have the nads to permanently ban them from their races.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:
Pick any 5 of the following...
1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
@ Nate: I've had the same problem around the beginning of Full Vineman. For the first ~30 min, I was basically slipping in and out of people's draft zones because it was so crowded (I had a pretty slow swim split). I tried my best to avoid it, but I didn't want to spike any watts this early in the race, and it was hard to drop back with people coming up behind me and entering my draft zone. I suppose raising my FTP would help with passing more people.
I personally know a few people outside of tri whom I suspect to have Narcissistic Personality Disorder (or at the very least, displays said characteristics), and it just drives me up the wall having to deal with them. Seriously, the amount of hubris/drama/BS that surrounds them is just appalling. I make a point for myself not to associate myself with these folks just because it's so frustrating; I won't even be Facebook "friends" with them just because the stuff they post is so obnoxious. I remember one of these individuals getting all hissy when they found out I had "unfriended" them on FB, because apparently being rude/snarky/personal towards me all the time still entitles them to "friendship" and attention. Sigh, people are weird...
what was the Newbz and the kona course cutter...??
Kip Litton is the subject of a very long article in thie week's New Yorker Magazine. I'm not quite sure that ANYone deserves such a prolonged and public scrubbing, considering he's obviously got a screw or two loose.
I think (my opinion) this is what happens in a lot of professional sports, and apparently happens tons in age groupers in our sport...which stinks. I bust my butt and will always have to wonder if the guy ahead of me playing by the rules!
Guess that's the world we live in now.