What is Drafting? And how is it Policed Currently?

As a cyclist rides along a road, pedalling themselves forward, air resistance is pushing against them to slow them down. As they plough through the air they leave a ‘wake’ of disturbed air behind them, much like a boat does on water. Generally, the disturbance is at it’s largest, directly behind the rider, and the further down the wake, the less disturbed it becomes.

This disturbed trailing section of air offers less air resistance than still air to riders that enter it from behind, meaning that the following rider needs less power to move through it at a set speed. This is the concept of drafting or slipstreaming. Procycling bunches (Peloton) ride as a group and share the workload of being ‘on the front’ and as a whole are then able to ride at much faster average speeds than a lone cyclist as a result.

While there are some branches of the sport of triathlon where drafting is allowed, such as the elite level World Triathlon Series events and Olympic Games, most triathlons, drafting is not allowed. The sport is meant to be a solo effort, with no working together to gain an unfair advantage over others. 

Athletes must maintain a minimum following distance; which is commonly set at 12m under World Triathlon’s competition rules. This is the ‘draft zone’. If they catch up to the rider in front, and would like to make a pass, they may pass through the draft zone within 25 seconds.

If they ride within the zone for too long, or do not show continuous forward movement through the zone, they may be given a time penalty by the on-course referees. 

Once overtaken by another rider, it becomes the responsibility of the overtaken rider to now drop back out of the zone within the 25 seconds.

If they enter the zone, but then drop back out again without completing a pass within the same allowed 25 seconds, that’s also a penalty offence. 

Penalties are served at 1 or 2 penalty tents on the roadside along the course, or in transition area. Some events do not require penalties to be served on course but simply add the time penalty to the athlete’s finishers time.

Professional athletes have slightly different rules to amateurs, and often have larger draft zones to avoid. 

The referees are making naked eye guesses of the drafting distances, and so are the athletes. Because the drafting assessments are highly subjective, there is no possibility to challenge or protest against a drafting penalty once given.

There are a number of Issues with the drafting rules in triathlon currently, which the RaceRanger system will alleviate.