[Event] Hook or By Crook 2015

Chartsengrafs

With Athy done and dusted, I believe a good few Boardsies have this lined up as their next outing. I'm looking forward to getting out of the rivers for a while, and I like the sound of the longer than usual 7km run.

Anyone care to provide some course details? IIRC, there might be an uphill start to the run, or is that the cycle? Interested to hear of any little course nuances to keep an eye out for. Looking forward to it, even if my legs aren't just yet!

Kurt_Godel

Good sea swim, sheltered enough cove so shouldn't be too affected by overcaution. The run up from the beach to T1 is a climb!

Usual Irish-backroads bike with undulations and mixed surface. Not closed roads so you get irate motorists along with congestion if you're in a later wave.

The run has a long climb for the first couple of km, before gradually giving back. It's long as you note, 7km, and there weren't any km markers last year so unless you knew the route beforehand, the finish can come as a surprise.

Well-organised and a great place for a race.

novarapid

As far as I know, they have changed the run route, made it 5k, up the hill and back down.

Hani Kosti

Run this year 5km!

noc231073

Yes the run had changed to a 5km up the hill and back down the same hill , out and back

boodiebhoy

Great race today well done WTC.

hamstervision

Great race, really enjoyable! A very competitive field out there too.

I assume the Cat-1 guys' results are discounted when National Series points are calculated? I know there were a few out there today (like Trevor Woods who finished second).

Kurt_Godel

Great conditions for racing. That's my third time doing this, each time I'm impressed with just how well its organised, well done Waterford TC.

Podge83

hamstervision wrote: »

Great race, really enjoyable! A very competitive field out there too.

I assume the Cat-1 guys' results are discounted when National Series points are calculated? I know there were a few out there today (like Trevor Woods who finished second).

Great race - pity they can't get a road closure for the cycle though - I'd say it would be a tough one to get on that road.

Good question about the points. - Quick look at TI website - if you look at Valentia results and points awarded here

http://www.triathlonireland.com/index.php?id=107&nid=2309

And results here

https://www.triathlonireland-newserver.com/view-race-results.html?race=1526

it looks like super series'ers don't get normal NS points.

noc231073

Great race well done WTC....
Just hate that hill on the run ..! !!

niallo32

Loved that today, really well organised.

Killer of a hill on the run!

hamstervision

Podge83 wrote: »

it looks like super series'ers don't get normal NS points.

Cool, that was my understanding of how it worked too.

Only downside today was some serious drafting going on today. At one point I was overtaken by a guy who then slowed down and barely made it past me. Once he was past me I was in his draft zone so needed to back off, and he wasn't progressing. Then 1 other guy went past and, again, slowed right down and sat in behind the first guy. I eased off and sat up off the tri bars, counted in my head and when they didn't speed up overtook the both of them. Within a minute they overtook me together and proceeded to exchange positions up the road without any consideration of the drafting rules. I could also see a bunch grouped up ahead. Then I see a draft marshal on the bike coming past - excellent, I think, he'll sort these guys out. He pulls up behind the 2 guys in question, at this point they're side-by-side. I count and its about a minute that they're like this. Then he overtakes and starts to signal to them - Showtime, I think to myself. But no, he signals at one of them to put his race number to the back, which he duly does, gives them a thumbs up and drives on. W. T. F. :mad:

To top it off as I was coming back into Dunmore East a taxi overtook, then saw the traffic restrictions and hit the brakes. I nearly went into the back of him while Marsha are scrambling to try to direct him off the route.

Overall through I really enjoyed the race. This year's run route was far less cruel than the old one!

Podge83

Drafting... Yeah there was some going on and spending your time avoiding it loses you a lot of time. It certainly lost me time today. its really difficult to avoid when the road is so packed. If you have a look at the photos of today's race there probably is only a few where there isn't a question of drafting.

So, what do you do?? purposely avoid it and lose time or plough on and compete with everyone. Following the Blocking rules you must drop back to 10 (or is it 12) metres. When you drop back what do you do next - proceed. probably the only way is to attack again and the whole process starts again.

There was 500 approx. in todays race. Take out the first few and the last few - that leaves say 400 hitting the road in the space of about 25 minutes. That's one every 4 seconds or so on average. Its going to happen in a sprint distance triathlon especially!.

So what do the marshals do - penalise everyone?? Maybe they should, but they would be very busy. The marshals are now nearly just a deterrent in a sprint distance.

Yeah I saw plenty of blatant cheating today but it doesn't really bother me anymore. For sprint distances the only way is to limit swim waves to a much smaller number - say 50 with the waves made up of mixed abilities.

Kurt_Godel

What do you do? You let your fellow competitors know they are cheating. Anyone drafting knows what they are doing, its a matter of risk/benefit analysis. On a congested sprint like todays course there are going to be multiple times you will be overtaken and could just "decide" to get a pull along for 10,20,30...50...1000m as happened loads of times. Or you could decide to move outside of the draft zone from the person who has overtaken (and attack again if you like).

I got passed by lots of trains, one small group of three particullarly annoyed me as I had just dropped back after being passed. Rode up beside them and asked the last guy if he knew the drafting rules? He said he did, so I called him a cheating bast*ard. He wasn't too happy with this, got very annoyed at me, but did stop wheel-sucking. I saw him at the finish and gave him my number if he wanted to make a complaint that I'd abused him. Later back at trans he came up and said he took exception to what I had called him (he's been in Tri a long time) but recognised and accepted what he had been doing.

Its not a nice thing to do, but I did the same at Athy and the guy also stopped drafting. Whatever about pulling the wool over the marshalls' eye's, I don't think too many are willing to continue with a cheat tag when called out by fellow competitors. There's not an awful lot more Waterford TC can do to alleviate drafting on that sort of course, and its a shame that their well-organised race gets tagged with a drafting label. But the real shame is on those that do it because they can get away with it. Everyone knows the rules.

Podge83

Deffo not Waterford TC's fault. To spread things out TI should lead on this to all organisers.

Jaysus, if we all started shouting at everyone it'd be a loud and strange race with a few digs maybe flying around too!, although I do see your point. It just wouldn't be my way to shout sh1t at others (other than incidents where I'm drawn into something - I'll shout sh1t if I have to!!). The officials do that job (but as I pointed out above - that's not always all that easy). Everyone does know the rules and some flout them, but avoiding looking like you are drafting is tough at times!! It'd be great to have true time trialling but the shorter the race the less this will be the case if things aren't spread out a bit!

Kurt_Godel

Ah you're right Podge life's too short for everyone to be complaining during the race. By and large I've accepted this as part and parcel of Tri races and mostly keep my mouth shut and am just glad there are decent fun races on. Of which todays was immensely fun.

Although its worth noting, I saw you pass me around km16 on the bike during a bit of congestion, and you went wider than anyone else, didn't even give a hint of drafting, stayed back while others passed (rather than break the while line), and only then passed them! You're the anti-drafter

Podge83

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

Ah you're right Podge life's too short for everyone to be complaining during the race. By and large I've accepted this as part and parcel of Tri races and mostly keep my mouth shut and am just glad there are decent fun races on. Of which todays was immensely fun.

Although its worth noting, I saw you pass me around km16 on the bike during a bit of congestion, and you went wider than anyone else, didn't even give a hint of drafting, stayed back while others passed (rather than break the while line), and only then passed them! You're the anti-drafter

Gee Thanks Kurt - I'm gone all red!!

Seriously though, the race was great today (pi55ed off with my sh1te transitions again though).

One thing actually did happen me today - and topical on another thread - at about the 3/4 stage of the swim I had a quick sight and about 10 yards in front of me I saw a fella in a blue cap stationary, looking back towards oncoming swimmers. A swift adjustment was made to avoid a head on.

PWEI

Sorry for bumping up last years thread.
Just wondering could anybody tell me what time this years Hook or By Crook races starts at? Can't find any information on their website.
Thanks.

vegas elvis

PWEI wrote: »

Sorry for bumping up last years thread.
Just wondering could anybody tell me what time this years Hook or By Crook races starts at? Can't find any information on their website.
Thanks.

11:30 - race briefing being emailed out this evening i believe

PWEI

vegas elvis wrote: »

11:30 - race briefing being emailed out this evening i believe

Thanks.

boodiebhoy

Great event again as usual from WTC. Numbers seemed to be down? That hill on the run doesn't get any easier!

banner_tri

Thanks boodiebhoy, glad you enjoyed it. Losing the NS this year is the main cause of numbers being down.