Ironman - you can't avoid the draft

I had just finished an article on the problem of drafting in the Irish National Series races when, out for a spin with my club, the extent of drafting at Ironman events was discussed. They all felt it was bad, but unavoidable. The conclusion as to why everyone achieves their long distance pb at Ironman events and not regional long distance races was: ‘drafting on the bike’. Ironman events are hard, but drafting has made them less hard than they should be.

Ironman events do try to deal with drafters, but, in my view, Ironman events might as well be draft legal as everyone drafts. The races are so long that the benefit from drafting far outweighs any time penalty handed down in the unlikely event of being caught in such a massive field of triathletes. There are just too many people out on the course not to get a draft effect, even if you are trying to avoid it. Some do get caught, but most are simply rolling along on the slipstream effect created by the mass of bikes. If you can gain over thirty minutes across 180kms by drafting, who cares if you get a time penalty? This is especially bad in wave based Ironman events. The authenticity of the times achieved at most Ironman events these days are, for this reason, questionable. If you can conserve energy for the run by sitting in others’ slipstreams you are cheating.

The advantage you gain by riding in the area of low-pressure air created by the rider in front is huge. For experienced riders it can result in massive time gains. The energy saving made by sucking on someone’s rear wheel is estimated to be as 40% when compared to cycling the same speed by you alone. Even if you are being drafted off, this causes a small benefit in reducing the destabilising effect of the disturbed air flowing off you. The more riders on any given course, the more there is a drafting effect. Ironman events are gigantic.

As a result of this, some of the bike split times posted by Irish Ironman competitors this year were just plain silly. You had men and women whose fastest ever middle distance bike split multiplied by two were slower than their 2015 full Ironman 180km bike leg times. The bike leg at some Ironman races is like a giant sportive where everyone whizzes along in one continuous slipstream, except people are mostly on TT bikes allowing the slipstream effect to be maximised. People are now choosing their Ironman race based on times achieved by drafting.  On this criterion, next year Barcelona is likely to be booked out.

Anyone who took part in Ironman 70.3 Dublin this year knows all about the effects of drafting. People who were not even on racing bikes posted speeds of over 32kph. Those on a racing bike barely had to pedal to achieve a 33kph+ average and anyone on a TT bike who did not hit a 35kph+ average needs to take a long look at himself or herself. Yes it was a fast course, but what everyone who took part learned was that Ironman bike splits are faster than those achievable in other races. The number of trains of riders each taking turns on the front during the race was simply silly. Coming into every bend there were bunches of riders such as would be seen in a normal cycling race.

If you ask me (with my tongue placed firmly in my cheek), every person who posts an extremely fast Ironman time one year, should have to do Ironman Lanzarote (where drafting is less of a factor due to the hilly and windy course) or a regional long distance triathlon somewhere in Ireland (where drafting due to low numbers taking part is not possible) and see what time they post the second year. Then the total time should be averaged across the two events. This would give a fairer reflection of someone’s true ability. 

In the end, when it comes to Ironman events, who really cares? You are only competing against people who have the money to afford to take part and who were lucky enough to get a place in the race. Every Ironman course is different and the conditions on that course from year to year are always different. It is not really possible to compare Ironman results against other Ironman results, let alone compare them against other long distance triathlons. Ironman events are simply a bucket list item. Once you have done one, you have ticked it off your list. You can then go back to competing in triathlon races which provide a more accurate portrayal of ability.

Finally, well done to everyone who did an Ironman event in 2015; this article is not aimed at diminishing your achievement but rather on trying to preserve the status of Ironman events as truly tough endurance tests. If it gets easier year on year and triathletes are spoon fed fast easy, draft-friendly, courses, this takes away from the achievement of every person who has ever done an Ironman event.