Now, down to business. We want to be a strong team and we want everyone to complete the course down in Busso, and we want you to all do that "fair and square". This morning (and every other Wednesday for that matter) will be an ideal opportunity to practice not only pace awareness for the 90km cycle leg, but also the rules of the road. I know I was a little harsh and adopted the "Bad Cop" role this morning when expressing my disappointment with the amount of drafting I saw out there today, but its important we get this right. Starting now. Below is a link to the Drafting Policy which I want you all to make sure you have read:
http://www.triwa.org.au/policy/drafting_policy.pdf
It is your priority to know these rules. If you are going to do the Half Ironman, there is no excuse such as "sorry didn't have time to read that 5 page article"...if you've got time to train for 16 weeks and commit yourself as well as you are doing at the moment, you've got time to know these rules inside-out. Many of you are new to the sport and will not be familiar with these regulations and thats fine...this morning was actually a great session as it highlighted the necessity for me to bring this up with you all.
I hate being the "baddie" but hopefully you can all see why I had to say what I said. Let's lead by example...we want to gain the reputation of being "holier than thou"
I have been in this sport 14 years and have never personally been "done" for drafting, and I want you to all adopt that approach too. Sure you will see MANY people out there "bending these rules" and whilst they may be shooting past you at the time, its all about control. We learn that control and put it to the test every Wednesday and Saturday morning - so let's get good at this and help support the officials in this quest!
Those who cheat (whether they get caught or not), have that fact to live with. When you cross the line in Busselton on the 3rd May (and you will) you will have done so with no-one's help other than your own. That feeling and knowledge is worth any gold medal, trust me.
Good work team,
Paul
