Today USAT made history by hosting the first draft-legal collegiate event in conjunction with Collegiate Nationals. This is a HUGE step for triathlon in the U.S., and I give major props to some of the leaders at USAT for their push in making this happen.
Most age-groupers have no interest in draft-legal events, and that's ok. HOWEVER, the U.S. is behind in international competition, and it's all the direct result of our failure to develop young, talented athletes. How do we develop young, talented athletes and prepare them for international competition? We give them opportunities to compete in the same race format that they will be racing in for international events (DUH!). How many events are draft-legal? A VERY small percentage. Basically, unless athletes get into the sport at a young age and compete as a junior, their window of opportunity is extremely small. There are only a handful of races that are actually draft legal.
RESISTANCE TO DRAFT LEGAL:
There is a lot of talk about draft legal tri's, and a lot of it is negative. I was extremely disappointed to read some of the comments posted on USAT's facebook page about the draft legal event. Things like "not a triathlon, more like a helpathon"
"draft legal?? That's not a real triathlon!"
"Drafting takes away from the strong rider. I have seen the Olympic tris and they suck. Tri is a individual effort sport. No one should benefit from someone else's effort. I will never support this format in any sense." ^^ I simply copied and pasted from facebook, so that's THEIR grammatical error, not mine. Shows you what kind of audience we're dealing with...
"Draft legal is for the weak"
And it goes on and on...
Here's is my heartfelt opinion. In 2009 I attended USAT age-group nationals, just after I started doing tri's. I had the opportunity to watch the Pro's race- ITU format. I was amazed at the talent, and I could not deny their abilities. The bike has ALWAYS been my strength, however, this experience was humbling to me, as it made me realize that in order to be truly competitive, you CAN NOT rely on one strength. Rather, you must be well trained in all three disciplines. That means GET TO WORK! On a side note, it seems that a lot of the complainers out there are strong cyclists who feel insecure about their other disciplines, particularly swimming.
So to all the naysayers out there, I have to ask: Have you aver actually watched a draft legal competition? I probably don't even have to ask if you've ever participated in one... If your definition of a 'real tri' is going balls to the walls and hoping your strong discipline will make up for your weaknesses then sure, you can call yourselves athletes. I would argue that draft legal selects for the real athletes who work hard to be well rounded. Drafting is only a fraction of the competition. To stay in the race, you must have a strong swim, be able to hang with the pack (or catch up if you are a weak swimmer), and have a competitive run. Please don't underestimate the quality or strategic discipline of this race format until you have actually experienced it.
COMING SOON!
Fortunately, the ITU format seems to be growing with the growth of triathlon in general. There are a few ITU races that have popped up in the south recently, and I'm super excited to announce that the West Point Lakes Triathlon has opened up a brand new F1 draft legal challenge for juniors and collegiates!
This race is dear to my heart as it was my first Olympic distance tri. When I found this out, I immediately saw this as an opportunity to get another draft legal race under my belt without having to drive FOREVER. I previously had the Liberty Cup in Richmond on my race calendar just for the experience, but with Lagrange being right outside of Auburn, West Point Lakes is definitely more convenient.
I contacted the RD a few weeks ago an pretty much BEGGED him to let me compete with the collegiates. I think he might have been hesitant, and I understand why. I'm no longer a collegiate, and I'm 26. Is it really fair to let someone in my situation race with a bunch of college kids? Am I just trying to clean house? Will I be taking away from their experience if I do well?... To ensure that I'm wanting to do this JUST for the experience, I offered to forfeit my placement in the competition. The bottom line is I NEED this experience. Draft legal racing is a completely different game than time trial racing, and I feel I would be better prepared strategically with one good race under my belt. The race committee agreed to let me in, so THAT'S IT! My next race is the West Point Lakes Collegiate Draft Legal Challenge on APRIL 27th. I'M EXCITED! Oh, and just a heads up, I have every intention of sporting my Auburn kit! WAR EAGLE!
On a side note, although I'm super excited that draft legal is growing, I also LOVE the individual race effort. If this offers any comfort to the folks against draft legal, the time trial format will always be around because it caters to the masses. So you don't have to like it, or even try it, but please, be courteous to the athletes competing and respect it- we are all tri loving geeks!
No comments:
Post a Comment