New anti-drafting technology

They need to take the approach of the exploding collars in Running Man; only one person has to get their head blown off for everyone else wearing a collar to comply, whether they actually contain explosives or not :joy:

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It seems to suggest the device shines a light on the road at the edge of the draft box, so the following athlete has a mark to follow.

The one output i’d be more concerned about is how long it takes event organisers to realise how much it impacts the number of entrants they can have…. I’m think IM in particular, once/if they adopt it!

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Looking at the pictures I don’t think that would fit on my bike. I don’t have much seatpost showing and with BTS bottles/spares kit etc. to take into account, space is limited.
I wonder how they would deal with that, is it an instant DQ if you can’t accommodate the technology?

from the RR website Faqs

"Athletes will be supplied their pre-programmed RaceRanger units in their race packs in the days leading into an event. The devices attach to bikes easily with recyclable cable zip ties, and a double-sided 3M type sticker patch (also provided in race-packs).

The front device attaches to the side of the left fork about half-way up it’s height. The rear device attaches behind the rear seatpost or seat tube at the back of the bike. The rear device requires approximately 7cm (2.75 inches) of available real estate to attach to, and the lights must be clearly visible to a following rider. So at lowest, the lights opening should be positioned just above the horizontal line from the top point of the rear tire.

Athletes often store drink bottles, spare tubes and equipment in this area. We have walked transition areas and assessed entire long-distance fields of up to 1500 bikes to get the best understanding of the requirements in this area. Smaller athletes with very little seat post exposed from the frame (seat very very low), who also store a lot of gear behind the saddle will likely need to rearrange some items to allow the RaceRanger system to function.

The RaceRanger delivery team will be on hand each day during event week with an expo booth to assist athletes with understanding how the RaceRanger system works, as well as troubleshooting the fitting of the devices to their bikes as required.

All devices will be scanned and physically checked at entry to transition, as well as randomly once bikes are racked and the transition area is closed."

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Thanks FB, it doesn’t explicitly say but I would read into that, no exceptions, it’s up to you to make it fit by hook or by crook, or you don’t race.

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So “lights” so visual, so you brush some mud on the front one before you leave T1, rather than a bit of foil to attenuate a radio signal…

I’d think so. I remember one early race required a seat stem number I couldn’t fit on with all the other crap I had there. The official just stared at my puppy look face until I ditched enough to get it on. :sweat_smile:

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Even if the whole system doesn’t work at all across the whole field, there will still be less cheating.

Malicious attempts to subvert any system will still occur, but they will be less frequent and more easily spotted.

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I disagree with this, implementing an expensive system that is easily defeated rewards the cheats disproportionately more, so even if there’s less overall cheating, those that do cheat get larger benefits. Which will also of course encourage more cheating to level up the field.

If you’re going to build a system, build one that is not easily defeated, which I think realistically means not on the bike, but not sure what, going to need to be drones and visual tracking I guess, no side snapshot photos would work I imagine - too many side cameras required.

two things here

price is unknown so how can you say it’s expensive?
easily defeated? again unknown

why not just give them the benefit of the doubt and see what comes back from the trials in NZ when there will be more info available on performance.

I’m surprised that given all the comments that triathletes make about cheating drafters, not enough done to clamp down on it, not enough motos to manage drafting etc etc that as soon as a potential ant-draft technology comes along these people start slamming it as no good with no data to back comments up.

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I’m pessimistic but want it to succeed - it’s pretty much exactly what I’ve (we’ve?) proposed in other threads :+1:

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It’s is still only a “potential” and there’s nothing wrong with poking holes. You don’t need reams of data to look at something with experience and knowledge and say I’m not convinced that’s going to work. Doesn’t mean we don’t want it to work.

I hope it does and I hope they are able to scale it well and get the buy in from the big names.

But I’m always going to be a cynic and until I see data that proves it works well, I’m going to assume it doesn’t.

I’m reminded of a conversation I had with an ex international race walker after someone developed some shoes that could detect if you were lifting.

It will be the death of race walking he said, everybody lifts! He even justified it by saying the rules stated lifting had to be visible to the human eye, which to his mind meant lifting was allowed so long as no-one could prove it.

I sometimes think people have the same attitude to drafting. It’s fair game if the ref doesn’t catch you.

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I would absolutely love it if they did implement it and the race times on Coachcox went up significantly at those races.

hopefully this RR tech will allow us officials to catch you and penalise if needed

What I do know, from sociological studies and a career in implementing controls is that even a weak control can have a measurable effect.

If the subject population believe there is an increased chance in being caught/punished then the incidence of bad behaviours reduces. Whether the control is functioning or not.

If you implement the least effective access management system you still see a reduction in security incidents.

Conversely, if you implement the best control to the highest maturity possible, you will still see some incidents - just far, far less.

One challenge they have here (from a does-it-work point of view) is that they don’t have a baseline. They’ll only get the baseline by implementing the tool, which will effect the behaviour of the target population.

I’d love to be in the planning room for this. It’s right up my street, even though it’s physical controls which aren’t my speciality. I’ve done plenty of activity monitoring systems though. And I’m not working so I could consult for beer…

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forget the consult, just give me the beer

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I remember watching some race walking on TV (don’t know why🤔) and the commentators said the same thing. They’re constantly messaged by people who have freeze framed their TV and demand X competitor be disqualified so explained it had to be visible to the human eye in normal time.

well, at long last, the RaceRanger is going into the real world in competition.

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