Who's at fault? (Page 2)

Well..... F%^k those people!

Some of them could be that way, but know that a number just sound harsher than they may otherwise intend because they're going hard in a race and that's how it comes out. It's not necessarily personal. Just the situation. My voice goes nowhere unless I can pull out a commanding tone, in which case it's going to sound just like you described to the other person (never profane though). Startles the bejeezus out of some people, but it's nothing personal. Sometimes I can smile or something when I actually make the pass, but others have to keep the focus up the road.

Unfortunately it doesn't always make sense, as in a two loop course they likely swam faster and ride a lot faster. 

But I am one of those slow swimmers who loves to bike. I passed over 500 people on the bike in my IM. I don't get crazy on the people in front of me that are actively passing, I give them a brake and tell myself to swim faster next time. 

It is all relative though. I was cruising along at 23mph or so making a pass when a pro blew by me on his second lap like I was standing still. Good reminder that no matter how fast you think you are there may be someone behind you trying to pass. Good idea to stay as far right as possible even when passing. 

The comment also doesn't always make sense as in a number of races the earlier waves can be out of the water before the later ones even start. Would love to know how to pull that off!

Haha I have heard others in my position say that but I just smile and keep riding. I can't justify being a jerk to a jerk for some reason.

I love it. And don't get me started on the people who must want to be passed by a girl. Admittedly I'm talking more about a public road than a triathlon though.

This reminds me of the mountain bike races I have entered. I am not a great climber, but I have some endurance from road riding, so I usually am near the front on the uphills. Then when it comes to technical descents I am so terrible and a queue of people are stacked up behind me. At the last race, I stopped to let people pass and it took me 5 minutes to get back in the line again. My friends tell me that I should just yell "LEARN TO CLIMB!!!"

There are some races that I refuse to sign up for because of how the race is run, the course, and what type of difficulties I would anticipate while racing.  Would it be cool if race directors had my best interests first and foremost when putting on their event...sure.  That would be awesome.  But that's not reality. 

Therefore I boycott triathlons that insist on having a swim and run. 

Yep, I've crossed the center yellow more than once. If a passing ref DQ'd me, I'd take it. 

In every case, it was due to significantly slower riders ahead that were riding too many abreast leaving zero room to cross, many many times, and/or riders not responding to the 'on your left!' or responding very poorly to it (I've had quite a few of them not realizing you're coming up so fast, and actually swerve INTO you on the left.)

It was my judgment in all cases that it was safer for everyone involved for me to cross the yellow line than to either slow so dramatically that the riders behind me would be in jeopardy, or try and swerve my way through the slower riders. It's not as simple as 'just slow down' - when you're going at 23-25mph and the line of slower riders from earlier waves are literally going 12mph, it's still dangerous to abruptly cut your speed so quickly even if the guy behind you is the 3-4 bike lengths back. 

But again, if a ref DQ'd me for it, I'd take it. Ultimately, it's just for fun and accomplishment for us AGers; if it's safer for me (and others) for me to cross the yellow in the few instances that occur, I'll take the DQ risk. 

I just remembered that my last race, which was a 112 mile cycling road race...the guy that crossed the finish first was DQ'd for crossing the center line and cones leading into the finish line.  However, it was INCREDIBLY STUPID and everyone felt the DQ was deserved.  

The finishing area was pretty tight, but enough to go 3 wide.  They had split the road into three sections...the far right was coned off for the finish line...the middle area was coned for vehicle traffic heading the same direction as the bikers, and the far left was oncoming traffic.  As the final group approached the finish (7 of them), the lead truck pulled slightly left into coned middle lane and slowed down just as he should have allowing the sprint to go to the right of them.  The guy who was DQ'd wanted to make his sprint just as the truck pulled off but had nowhere to go...so he went completely around the truck on the left, into the coned section of oncoming traffic (which he couldn't see as the truck was blocking his view, then cut all the way back across two sets of cones to the left to the finish line.  There was actually a car coming the other way, but luckily due to all the cones and cops, they were only going around 10 mph and had time to stop.  

Sucks to race 100+ miles and be boxed out like that, but under no circumstances should you risk your life to win a race.  The cop that was at the intersection made a comment to the race director expressing his displeasure, and even though he was DQ'd, he kind of gave the impression like "is this what you bike racers do?"  All it takes is the cop to report the incident to his superiors and maybe we don't get permits to race anymore.  

edited because my post was full of dyslexia.

How about sun angle.....does that make a difference.  /sarc

Same thoughts.

I'll use the 2011 Austin 70.3 as an example.  The roads for most of the bike course are in bad condition.  In 2011 the roads were in the very worst condition imaginable as the brutal drought and heat of that year really took a toll on the roads.  There were very long stretches of some roads in which the shoulder and right side of the lane were unrideable with terrible vertical cracks and horrible chipseal.  That meant that most everyone was riding in the middle of the lane so a lot of passing was done near or cross the center yellow line.  It was unavoidable for faster riders.  I was in one of the very last waves and had a 2:30 bike split and probably passed 1500 people on the bike.  I crossed the yellow line numerous times during that race.

In agreement here.  The first video  the riders were technically in the wrong but I understand them just wanting to get around with all the congestion.  I would have been very tempted to do the same.  In the 2nd video, crossing the center line seems completely unnecessary and with another rider coming head on no less. Stupid.