How many times these days have you finished a race and had a fellow competitor complain to you about the illegal drafting of others?

Or you have had a training partner come back from a race and complain about the huge packs at the race they have done?

If I remember correctly drafting in all age group races and in all non-drafting pro races is against the rules - in other words it’s cheating.

Why then do people cheat, sometimes blatantly?

In a way you can almost understand pros trying to justify cheating because they are racing for money. But I would argue that if they are racing for money then it is probably more important that the rules are enforced. We can all talk about drafting until we are blue in the face, but unless we are willing to do something all we will ever hear after races is bitching about other people drafting.

So what can be done about it? What are the possible solutions? I think that three parties hold the answer. They are the race director, Triathlon Australia, and the competitor. In terms of the race director’s contribution there are a number of ways that drafting can at least be minimized. Firstly, we need decent tough courses. If you have flat, straight, wide, smooth courses then there will be a lot of drafting. If on the other hand the course is more technical, with hills, corners, narrow roads, rough surfaces, then it is harder for people to draft.

Another solution is to have wave starts.

Why is it that at the Australian Ironman there are continual complaints about drafting and yet at the half Ironman there were hardly any?

The difference between the two is wave starts. At the Ironman I would have to say that the majority of pros are pretty good at observing the non-drafting rules. From my observations, the contributing factor to the large lead packs at Forster are the age group competitors who swim well, are not going to figure in the overall placings, but want to be seen up the front of the race.

Then there are the male age groupers who have a problem with being passed by a female pro, because heaven forbid a girl could beat them. Having wave starts would eliminate these problems. The competitors would be stretched out right from the start. As for the complaints about wanting to compare times and therefore the need to start together, well lets get real: the undeniable benefits of wave starts far outweigh the poppycock complaints of a select few.

Triathlon Australia needs to take the drafting issue seriously. We need enough properly accredited, properly trained, neutrally affiliated officials who are willing to make the hard calls that may actually affect people’s races. Too many people think that they will not get caught, and the thing is, they have the experiences that support these opinions.

The biggest responsibility for drafting lies with the individual competitor. One of the things that I learnt about in bike racing was that usually the one making the most noise in the pack was the one doing the least amount of work. So it is in triathlons, where quite frequently the individual doing the most complaining about drafting in the race was the one sitting on your wheel all day. Instead of whinging and carrying on, we as competitors need to have a look at our attitudes.

Why are we doing triathlon in the first place?

I have been asked a few times now if the drafting at Forster worried me during the race. The answer to this, quite simply, is no. This is not to say that I think it’s fair, honest or in the true spirit of competition. However the reason it didn’t and doesn’t, is because it comes down to the fact that the only person you have control over is yourself. The only person I can ensure does not draft is myself. So with that attitude in mind, why should I worry about the guys behind me? When they’re sitting on my wheel, they’re racing my race and not their own. I wonder if it has occurred to them that if they actually raced at their own pace, instead of mine, they might actually go better.

Putting the still-important ideas of rules, regulations and fair competition aside, maybe we have to get back to the idea that really one’s biggest competitor is oneself and the way that we can maximize our own performance and personal satisfaction is to race our own race.