Pro athletes describe “idiot age group men” at Ironman North American Championship in Texas
One athlete crashes after being "clipped" by age grouper during bike at Ironman Texas
Photo by:
Kyle Rivas/ Getty Images for Ironman
After a horrible crash at Ironman Texas in 2018, the last thing Caitlin Alexander wanted to do was head back to the Woodlands to compete in the race again. As a relatively new pro looking for some valuable points in the new Ironman Pro Series, though, Alexander found herself back on the start line in Texas this year, hoping that things would be better this time around.
“It wasn’t,” she said in an interview after Saturday’s race.
As you can read in her Instagram post after her race at Ironman Texas in 2018 (below), Alexander was engulfed by a pack of riders at that race and crashed, sustaining a concussion.
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Alexander, who finished the swim in 1:06:45 at this year’s race, had already been caught by a number of age group competitors before she got to the first transition. (The Executive Challenge (XC) athletes left four minutes after the pro women, while the rolling start for the age group competitors began eight minutes after the pro women’s start.) Adding to the challenge for the pros was the water temperature – pros weren’t allowed to wear wetsuits, but age group athletes were.
Once out on the bike, things became even more difficult as Alexander and a number of other pro women found themselves being passed by groups of age groupers.
“They talk about it being the ‘party on the Hardy,'” said another pro, Clarice Chastang, referring to the Hardy Toll Road that the bike course follows for two loops. “To say that it was a wild ride would be accurate.”
Chastang describes groups of 20 to 40 people riding together along the course, something she’s never seen in her dozen Ironman races so far.
Another professional, Katie Treston-Torney, crashed after being hit by one of the riders as the pack he was riding in went by.
“I was overtaken by a draft pack of … about 40 AG men,” she wrote on Instagram. “One of the men clipped my back wheel, causing me to go down pretty hard. I think I broke/contused a rib, broke the Boa on my cycling shoe, and lost the ability to drop into my small gears. I sat on the side for a bit and decided to give the rest of the race a go. I couldn’t go into aero for the rest of the race d/t chest wall spasms, so I just sat up and ate and drank as much as I could.”
Chastang didn’t crash, but was actually pushed by one of the age group men.
“What floored me was that there was a group where the people were riding on their horns so they could hit the brakes,” Chastang said. “At the turnaround one male actually pushed me. He reached out and touched my upper left shoulder.”
Alexander was also able to stay upright through the race, but found the ride to be a harrowing experience.
“I had no power on the bike and almost crashed a few times with the wind gusts and idiot age group men drafting packs who would come up behind me on either side and literally cut me off, almost hitting my front wheel,” Alexander posted on Instagram after the race. “The SAME thing that happened in 2018. I was so on edge the entire bike and just wanted it to be over.”
It wasn’t only the pro women who were affected by the large packs of riders on the course. Other age group athletes reported large groups of athletes passing on either side, boxing them in.
We’ve reached out to Ironman and officials are looking into the issues the athletes faced at the race. We’ll update this story with any information they are able to provide.
Karma on the run
Both Alexander and Chastang were happy to get through the bike course in one piece, and found that they quickly passed many of the age group men who had affected their race on the run course.
“It provides some ‘karmic relief’ at the end of the day when you pass them on the run,” Chastang said. She also noted that a number of the men in one pack she saw were pulled over by a draft official.
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Crowded course, windy conditions
The Ironman Texas event, which serves as the Ironman North American Championship, is a popular race for age group athletes because of the welcoming community, fast course and also because it offers more qualifying slots for the world championship races in Nice and Kona. The race saw over 2,700 finishers, making it one of the largest Ironman race fields we’ll see in 2024. Putting that many athletes on a two-loop course is likely one of the issues organizers face when it comes to drafting and congestion out on the course.
The proximity of the starts is certainly another factor. An eight-minute gap between the pro women and the age group men is sure to see the fastest age groupers catching and passing the tail end of the pro race either before the end of the swim, or relatively early in the bike.
Add to that some stiff headwinds and you have a challenging day for athletes, organizers and emergency personnel.
“I’ve done many (Ironman races) and I’d say this was the most dangerous bike course of those I’ve ridden,” Alex M. posted on the Slowtwitch forum. “The wind made it especially ugly. Riders were silly tired and riding all over the road battling the wind. I think riders were less observant and more carefuless at aid stations because of this. Bike bottles were strewn all over like land mines. I’ve never seen so many crashes, but I’ve never ridden a course that allowed me to see that amount of action.”
Race Ranger for the pros
The professional’s bikes were all fitted with the new Race Ranger anti-drafting technology, which allowed them to ensure they were staying a legal distance behind the other pros ahead of them, but that technology isn’t in use for the age group competitors. Both Alexander and Chastang felt that the Race Ranger units allowed them to race against their fellow professionals in a fair manner, but there were many times that “we would be a legal distance apart and they (the age group athletes) would come up on either side and then cut over right in front of me,” Alexander said.
Ironman Pro Series to use RaceRanger electronic drafting detection system
Party on the Hardy
Many athletes and triathlon observers have attributed the problems with large packs on the bike at Ironman Texas to the stretch along the Hardy Toll Road. The athletes ride along the flat stretch of highway for two loops. The high winds on race day also complicated the situation.
Both Alexander and Chastang are planning to compete at Ironman Lake Placid, looking forward to the challenging bike course with numerous climbs that should provide a different experience for the bike leg of the race.
