Alessandro Degasperi denounces Drafting among professionals at IRONMAN Switzerland

The Italian triathlete Alexander Degasperi has published a post on Instagram explaining why he withdrew from the test.

With a photo where you can see a "Platoon" of triathletes in the lead along with several motorcycles, where no one was sanctioned and the group did not disband.

Degasperi who lagged behind the head of the race and was crossing the head on several occasions finally retired when he saw that nothing was done

This is what he has published in networks:

"This is the reason why I decided to leave the race on Sunday @ironmanswitzerland.

When, in the last part of the first lap, I saw this group in the opposite direction, I lost all my energy in a moment.

A group of 10 people with 8/10 motorcycles all together in a mixture of drafting and motor rhythm… 😳😳

Why so many bikes when only one with a Marshall would have been enough to check the distances between athletes?

In the other photos everyone can see the result of this situation. We are lucky that @strava shows us some data: in the same section the difference in terms of Watts and speed is incredible.

In the second photo are the data of 3 guys at the head, with an average power of 260 / 270w (some differences depending on the position, the weight and perhaps the position in the group). In the second my data: 275 watts, completely alone, but with 6 more minutes 🤔. In the 3rd the data of @matteofontana: 340w 😱😱😱 with 1 minute more than the front group… 😳

I think if I pay the professional membership fee, I can enforce certain rules, because careers are my job. Otherwise the organization should pay me to participate in a game like this, just for the show!

The latest: @ironmantri @challengefamily, please don't just think about breaking records, with shorter courses (3000m of swimming in Thun or 166km of cycling in Roth in the same weekend 😳🤔), or motor pace , but organize FAIR races for all athletes (professionals and age groups), finding solutions instead of creating anomalies during the races.

I hope other athletes, or @professionaltriathletesorg, can take a position on this issue, which is always more apparent race after race.

This may have been one of my last IM careers, but what are we teaching new generations?

Thanks for your understanding (hopefully). 😔"

 

See this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Alessandro Degasperi (@aledegasperi)