Do all Category 1 triathletes have
the bike skills needed for the Super Series draft legal races? The two draft
legal Super Series events of 2015 – Dublin City Triathlon (Olympic) and Pulse
Port Beach Triathlon (Sprint) – have shown how there is work to be done on
basic bike skills, cycling safely in a group and on tactics.
Dublin City Triathlon provides the
best example for review here as it was a soaking wet day and the roads inside
and outside of the Phoenix Park were slippy; the corners lethal in places. Such
miserable conditions can be ignored in a non-drafting race. The drafting rules
should serve to ensure riders keep their distance from one another, allowing
each rider a good view of the road ahead (potholes, oil on the road, etc.) and
overtaking will occur when it is safe to do so. Draft-legal racing is radically
different from non-draft racing. Drafting puts riders very close together,
requiring them to have quick reflexes, controlled of their nerves, and
experience in reading the road and the pack.
The Cat 1 Dublin City Triathlon bike
leg dropped a large group of non-draft racing specialists into the thick of
draft legal racing. To avoid crashing while wearing only a tri-suit and a helmet
(no gloves, no jersey, etc.), riders needed to be skilled on a road bike and to
know how to cope with the conditions. Those riders who had chosen tyres and
wheels specifically for the wet conditions had to hope their competitors had
also done so. Those used to racing in cycling sunglasses (clear lensed) or
those who wear prescription glasses for racing had to do without due to the
heavy rainfall. Poor visibility and poor sight made the race even more dangerous.
Once into the bike leg, groups
formed. This meant each rider ideally needed to know how to cycle in a group;
to work together. While in a group you need to be constantly alert. Ask
yourself whether the group is too tight together getting too tight together? Is
one person causing problems by failing to ride steadily? Is everyone in the
group looking out for each others’ safety? What will I do if my back wheel is
bit by the rider behind? If you come off your bike in a group going at high
speed, it is an unpleasant experience and will most likely end your race.
Based on my experience, some of those
taking part were not used to riding in a group and most were certainly not used
to racing in groups. In a group you each take a turn on the front in a
continuous cycle of take your turn, go to the back; take your turn, go to the
back. In my group it was difficult to
get this going. Riders were not volunteering to go to the front on the
difficult stretches and then there would be attacks on the easier sections and downhills.
That some riders attacked the group makes no sense. It is close to impossible
to drop decent bike riders from a group of similar ability. The best tactic for
all in a group is to share the work to maximise the group’s speed. This race
showed how the days of the rider capable of scything his way through the field
are gone. If you are determined to work hard you will just be allowed to stay
on the front of a group as all of the riders behind enjoy the draft. Even if
you are a monster on the bike, you must now adapt and work with the group.
Working together in a group also
improves safety as it means everyone is following the line of the rider whose
turn it is on the front and that rider has the best view of the road in front
and should take the safest line into corners. Riders should stay as close to
the wheel in front as possible to maximise the slipstream effect without causing
a crash. Watching riders sprint from past me from the back of the group and
plunge as fast as possible down any available descent on each lap caused me to
shake my head – what was the point of that? These are slippy roads and the rain
is still pouring and these lads are causing us to go around bends three or four
abreast. It was madness. My back wheel fish-tailed a number of times even with
winter tyres on, so the lads causing breaks to form in the group were only achieving
this by ignoring the safety for themselves and the group. It made no tactical
sense and showed poor biking nous.
Inevitably the group kept coming back
together but into the last two laps fewer riders wanted to take their turn on
the front. They wanted to sit on the back to conserve energy for the run. For
an individual rider, this tactic is reasonable. It won’t win you any friends,
but if you can run fast, why would you ride for other people? To me this made
no sense, with each taking their turn we were tearing along and had made up significant
ground on the race leaders. When a number of riders to stop contributing to the
group, it means the speed of the group will slow as those doing the work have
to take longer turns. The aim should be to make it off the bike as far up the
field as possible and then to go into the run well positioned. For some of
those in the group, it seemed they were happy to settle for beating just those
in the group and not bothering to try to catch those ahead on the bike. I
respect those who put in heavy shifts for the group during the bike leg. They
were the lads who knew the score and could understand the need to work as a
group.
I completed the bike leg within a
large group of riders. I didn’t see anyone crash, though I saw near misses. We
went past some riders whose bikes had let them down. Mechanicals ended the race
of a number of riders. This suggests the road bikes used by some for these
events were not maintained in the shape that perhaps their (more raced on) time
trial bikes are. Whatever the reason, I’d recommend all Cat 1’s have their road
bikes serviced before the start of next season. Indeed, I expect some Cat 1s
will soon be upgrading their road bikes given how their time-trial bike will no
longer feature as their main race bike.
The lessons learned on the day were:
1. If your strongest leg of a
non-draft triathlon is the bike leg then you need to re-focus on swimming (to
have any chance of being near the front group(s) coming out of the water. If you
are a slow swimmer the race will already over for you because the earlier
groups will be working together (if they have any sense) on the bike. No matter
how good a runner you are, your bike leg will not eat into the lead achieved by
this group. Only an improved swim leg will get you into the competitive part of
Cat 1 races.
2. If you are moving up to Cat
1 racing, you may need to reconsider what type of bike you're using. You will
need a decent standard road bike. You can use tiny bolt on aero bars if you
want (but they can’t have gear shift levers on them), though these will not
help you to control the bike in a group. The bike set-up will be checked at
every race.
3. Once in the bike leg of the
race, you need to work with other riders and this means starting a simple pace
line. Riding with others will increase your overall speed as each rider takes a
turn on the front during which he/she able to dig deeper and go more anaerobic than
would be achievable on his/her own.
4. Group riding is safe so
long as the group understands riding in a pace line. The front rider at any
given time is the eyes of the group. The other riders rely on the rider in
front’s wheel. If everyone rides for the group and respects the basis rules of
group riding, it will be safe. But if pointless attacks happen constantly then
it can all get messy and dangerous; if the pace line breaks because one rider
cannot keep up, this rider will be dropped and the stronger riders in the group
will press on.
5. Some riders will need to
work on their group riding this winter. Don’t wait until the spring, it will be
too late. Take the aero-bars off your bike and head out on your local cycling
club’s weekend spins. Find the more experienced riders, be honest about
being a triathlete and ask for help learning to ride effectively in a group.
Triathletes can be unpopular on club spins, mostly because riding alone has
not made it necessary to develop the handling skills so vital to close
group riding (though having hairy legs doesn’t help!). A willingness to learn
however will win over almost all hard core cyclists and they’ll be more than
happy to help you.
6. Some riders need to include
some very high intensity intervals in their training to cope with the power
spikes required in variable speed group riding (non-draft bike legs require a
steady, threshold, effort). Don’t believe anyone who tells you group racing is easier
than time-trialling, it is just a different kind of hard. By constantly
changing the pace in group racing, you can cause problems for even very strong
riders.
7. Did I mention swimming ….? Get faster or Cat 1 is not for you.
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