[Event] Loughrea Sprint

pgibbo

Hi All,
I'm in. Anyone else? I hope weather improves for Sunday afternoon :eek:

P

BTH

I was in, but then I had to pass my entry onto a clubmate. Best of luck.

joey100

I'm in for this. Looking forward to it too, but not the long walk to transition!

pgibbo

joey100 wrote: »

I'm in for this. Looking forward to it too, but not the long walk to transition!

That's what your bike is for

joey100

I don't think herself would appreciate being put on the crossbar of the bike, don't think the TT bike is made to carry me, Tri gear and herself either!

Ceepo

Seems there was quite a few penalties

http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/Loughrea_Sprint2013.pdf

Fazz

Ceepo wrote: »

Seems there was quite a few penalties

http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/Loughrea_Sprint2013.pdf

Indeed and by regular top guys!

I gather there were some flat out denials and appeals before being shown some very revealing video footage and that sorted it for good!
Bad form imo but then if you're that blatant a cheating drafter it's par for the course I imagine..

Fair play to TI for having at least 2 bike marshals with Go Pro's taking full video footage and using it appropriately catching some very blatant drafting I gather as well as other offences.

Great progress being made. More and more please TI well done.

Good to see feedback and athletes being listened to and appropriate actions being taken.

Well done to TI and RD/Marshals on the day it sounds like.

BTH

Great post Fazz, and delighted to see penalties handed out at the pointy end again. Keep it up TI. Eventually athletes will get the message. I also think the time penalty should be increased, but blatantly naming like this will hopefully teach a lesson.

Ceepo

Agree with you 100% Fazz,

When you see them penalty beside the name it makes a statement rather than just adding it on to the time and no one really take's notice.

More of it i say

Good job TI and To's

shotgunmcos

+1, name and increase the penalties

BTH

Just noticed there was a DQ for crossing white lines at the top I the field too. And a penalty for a bare male torso. It was like an Englad World Cup quarter final there was that many penalties

Wackoy2k

I got caught for unclasping my helmet before mounting my bike during T2 on Sunday.

Honestly, I thought I had the bike mounted before I opened the strap on the helmet as I usually run with my bike into T2 with both hands.

Fair play to TI on the day. Pretty new to the world of Triathlons and the yellow card was explained to me on the spotted.

First yellow card I ever got, and I played rugby and hurling all my life :-)

I know what I won't be doing next time before mounting the bike :-)

pgibbo

I'd say half the field could have been DQ'ed for crossing the white line, if there were any on the rural roads. Roads were very narrow with over 400 competitors on them.

A very well organised event as ever. The TI officials even went as far as to show everyone what 10m looked like too at the briefing. I personally didn't see any drafting which was great.

I also noticed that some of the marshalls on the bike course were recording with cameras also.

SucCes09

I received my first ever penalty also yesterday. Can't recall mounting too early, but can't be 100% sure that I didn't! I was off in the 3rd wave, and got caught in a lot of traffice coming through the swim, so when I made it out to the bike mount line, the road was full of people mounting.
I probably tried to get on my bike earlier then the line, but was stopped waiting for a space in the line to open up.
Reminded me of the queue to the "facilities" earlier in the day.

Although it may\must have been a breech of the technical rules, it was probably a little harsh i thought given the circumstances???

On the other side of it, I did get a push off by one of the stewards, who was obviously trying to clear the queue!!! No penalty for that it seems!:D

Great day had otherwise, and delight to see the standard getting set for drafters, especially those on the top end of the board! Very well run event - only feedback is that they should have left a larger gap between the waves to reduce the chaos on the narrow mount point.

NorthernRaider

Sounds like TI is getting the message and taking action. Delighted to hear that - much credit to TI for taking action. Having said that, I only noticed one drafting penalty in top 100??

Anyway, post race chats will be less effusive with those named and shamed as drafters!

Huff n Puff

I went to watch the race on Sunday. There were certainly plenty of packs coming back into t2 at the same time. From talking to others there was definitely a nice bit of drafting going on - again its hard to avoid at a sprint distance races with so many people on the course. There should probably have been more drafting penalties given out, but it's nice to see the use of cameras by the officials.

TI focused a lot on the easy penalties which do not give a time advantage. I am not saying they shouldn't penalise for these other things but in terms of importance, drafting is the big problem here - not showing a bare torso or bags in transition. In saying that, I don't have any major gripes with the officiating though - we all know the rules and they were clearly stated in the race briefing.

The race itself seemed very well organised and Loughrea should be congratulated for this. I heard plenty of good reports about the race from competitors afterwards. However, in my opinion they let themselves down slightly at the prize giving afterwards. People already know that I have strong opinions when it comes to giving out prizes so I won't harp on about that reasoning here.

Let the rant begin.......(issue solved so rant removed) Excellent race it is!

couerdelion

A lot of good points Huff n Puff.

On the penalties I think you are right. It looks they've targeted the easy stuff. I've previously seen people stopped if they haven't clipped their helmets and then made to fasten them and then continued on with no penalty. That's a sensible approach for most and it's not really comparable to drafting which got the same time penalty.

Made up age groups is a farce. If you are doing a national series event it should be the same categories as the national series. If you don't want to do that then that is fine too - but don't ask to be national series.

ShineyShiney

I was on the bike course spectating, I had a good view up a long straight stretch,i saw no drafting. There were some bunches but these were formed by the course for what I could see, narrow roads with sharp bends that cause rapid speed reduction will always cause some bunching.

The one I don't get is the crossing the white line!!! Nearly everyone had to cross the white line to corner one of the bends I was near, if they didn't on the approach they would have shot over it coming out of the corner.

I would be interested to hear how that decision was taken. Anyway, I don't know the details of that dq so nothing to add there.

Seemed really well organized to me.

trihead

I raced in loughrea also

First off congrats to the organisers on a really great race - i think its one of the best triathlons swims in Ireland - the lake was so clean and clear. The after food and towel in goodie bag were also the business. Very accessible from the east of the country now with the motorways.

Drafting was an again an issue yesterday for some of the competitors - there was a number who got done but a number who didn't particularly in the top 20/30 with some probably getting ag placing and points. I saw this with my own eyes - 2 -3 packs working together or appearing to be and not backing down when overtaken. This is an issue in all races not just loughrea especially this year I feel.

The naming on the results is good move along with the video evidence but clubs also need to spread the word themselves internally that drafting it not acceptable while wearing club colours and in some case take action. There are some who make the mistake of drafting first time / don't understand the rules fully and then they are some who are fully aware that they are drafting and do it several times. I know one club member who was blatantly drafting ( not for the first time) will I probably will get the club to discuss the issue in some form at the end of year review/ Agm before it becomes a bigger issue.

trihead

Bugsy2000

Huff n Puff wrote: »

I went to watch the race on Sunday. There were certainly plenty of packs coming back into t2 at the same time. From talking to others there was definitely a nice bit of drafting going on - again its hard to avoid at a sprint distance races with so many people on the course. There should probably have been more drafting penalties given out, but it's nice to see the use of cameras by the officials.

TI focused a lot on the easy penalties which do not give a time advantage. I am not saying they shouldn't penalise for these other things but in terms of importance, drafting is the big problem here - not showing a bare torso or bags in transition. In saying that, I don't have any major gripes with the officiating though - we all know the rules and they were clearly stated in the race briefing.

The race itself seemed very well organised and Loughrea should be congratulated for this. I heard plenty of good reports about the race from competitors afterwards. However, in my opinion they let themselves down slightly at the prize giving afterwards. People already know that I have strong opinions when it comes to giving out prizes so I won't harp on about that reasoning here.

Let the rant begin.......Loughrea advertised on their website and their Facebook page that there were cash prizes for the top 3 (€100, €75, €50). On the day nothing other than a trophy was given out (there was no indication that the cash prizes might be posted out). Cash prizes should be standard especially for National Series races. Cash prizes should definitely be given out when advertised at the point of entry. Hopefully they just overlooked this on the day and it will be rectified soon.

If the plan is not to give out the money then.......how can a sprint distance race that charges €52.50 to enter have no cash prizes? Take the entry fee and multiply it by the race entries (probably somewhere between 400 and 480) = somewhere between €20,000 and €25,000 + other sponsorship deals. How much profit does a club race need to make? Would giving out €450 in advertised prizes have been so hard?

It wasn't just the overall prizes that there was a problem with. For some reason this NS race decided to introduce a new age group system - I have never heard of the u/20, u/30, u/40 categories in a National Series event. To be a National Series race you are required to give out prizes to each of the proper categories (increments of 5 years). TI race manual quote "In National Series events, if prizes are awarded, they will be awarded in every adult age group category. e.g. 20-24, 25-29". It is also advised to give out more than one prize if there are more than a certain amount entered in each category.

"Any deviation from these age groupings must be clearly stated at the point of race entry". They do mention the new age group categories on the website - however that isn't allowed as I have already shown that it is a requirement of NS races to give out prizes in all proper age group categories.

These little things are what I remember from a race. It takes away from a well organised day and leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth (and I wasn't even racing!!). Whenever a race seems like they care more about making a profit than putting on a great race (a great race ticks all the boxes), I am immediately put off by it and would find it harder to support in the future.

I was chatting to some of the organisers of this last night & they were mortified about the prizes. The Treasurer was out on course marshalling & when he got back into the finish line area he just got stuck into organising the clear up etc. He had the cheques in his pocket all the time & with everything going on they just got overlooked during the prize giving. As far as I know they are already gone in the post.

Huff n Puff

Bugsy2000 wrote: »

I was chatting to some of the organisers of this last night & they were mortified about the prizes. The Treasurer was out on course marshalling & when he got back into the finish line area he just got stuck into organising the clear up etc. He had the cheques in his pocket all the time & with everything going on they just got overlooked during the prize giving. As far as I know they are already gone in the post.

Excellent stuff. Fair play to them so.

peter kern

fair points made by huff and puff.
Looking at it from the other side they had a fantastic dinner after the race in the hotel (a lot om my people told me so )
Besides they organiced a junior race which costs a lot of time.

ps I like the way they arranged the age groups. I would go even further and extend 20 to 40. Both Rory Sexton and Trevor Woods have won nat series races in this age bracket.

pgibbo

That's a very good point Peter. The junior races started at 9am and ran right up to 1pm or maybe even later. The club hosted a very successful weekend and put in a huge effort. The marshalls were all very helpful and had lots of encouragement for everyone out on the course.

There was a strong Garda presence also, especially at the key junctions on the bike.

pgibbo

@Huff n Puff - it's a mazing the amount of spectators that commented on the running ability of your young clubmate at the weekend. Not that many athletes saw him but those that did were impressed also! One for the future it looks like :cool:

Huff n Puff

peter kern wrote: »

fair points made by huff and puff.
Looking at it from the other side they had a fantastic dinner after the race in the hotel (a lot om my people told me so )
Besides they organiced a junior race which costs a lot of time.

ps I like the way they arranged the age groups. I would go even further and extend 20 to 40. Both Rory Sexton and Trevor Woods have won nat series races in this age bracket.

As I am not a fan of age group racing - that would be my personal opinion too Peter, but it obviously isn't TIs opinion and they make the rules! So races that want to be NS races need to stick to the rules.

I perhaps have a different view point to you with regards to racing. Personally I couldn't care less about a goodie bag or post race meal. I think this is more for leisure triathletes looking for a great triathlon 'experience'. A €52.50 entry fee for a sprint triathlon seems like madness to me and would definitely put me off - this sort of thing is the reason we organise our own club triathlon series with free entry - for many people it is too expensive to race multiple triathlons each year.

Take for example cycling. The racing side of it involves very cheap entry + plenty of prize money. There is usually no profit for the organising club (most clubs actually lose money on these races). They put on races for the love of the sport and give back most of the money earned in prize money. Races cost €10 - €15 to enter so they are much more affordable than our sport. Contrast this with the leisure/sportive side of cycling (entry fees similar to triathlons) where it is more about the experience = goodie bags, plenty of food at multiple stops.

Triathlon seems to want to combine both aspects - experience and racing into one. For most people they are happy with this. I think there is a lack of variety.

In my opinion, there is too much of the 'experience' side in triathlon. I (and many people I know) couldn't care less about this. Give us the racing side anyday. A strong field, cheap entry and plenty of prize money is more of a temptation for me.

Huff n Puff

pgibbo wrote: »

@Huff n Puff - it's amazing the amount of spectators that commented on the running ability of your young clubmate at the weekend. Not that many athletes saw him but those that did were impressed also! One for the future it looks like :cool:

Ah don't be saying that on here! The lad reads this forum and his head is big enough as it is.

He is a talent alright but he has plenty of work still to do. First I have to try and convince him that triathlon is the sport for him and not running!