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Everyone racing Ironman wants to qualify for Hawaii.  This is an incredibly difficult thing to accomplish because you are competing against the best-of-the-best at every race to get the coveted 1 or 2 spots in each age group.  People pay a lot of money to race and train for years to get in top physical shape to not only complete an Ironman but to also compete for the few IM World Championship spots available at any given race.  Unfortunately, the sport and the ability to qualify are being compromised by the amount of cheating going on at races via illegal drafting on the bike leg of the 112 mile journey.  People are forced to either join the cheaters and draft to give themselves the opportunity to be at the top of their age group, or 'go it alone' and suffer a huge disadvantage.  Drafting provides an advantage akin to taking performance enhancing drugs. 

I have now witnessed the prevalence of illegal drafting as a participant in IM Canada, and as a spectator at IM Florida.  Both experiences were incredibly frustrating because the race referees either didn't care to give out yellow or red cards to stop it, or didn't have the personnel available to do so. The drafting at IM Florida on November 2nd was so blatantly obvious that I felt compelled to try and do something about it. 

WTC, I implore you to triple the number of referees on course to make the race fair for everyone and to hold those people accountable who violate the rules we all have agreed to.  This will level the playing field, and allow those of us who want to race clean a fair shot at the coveted Kona prize. Without making this change, you are turning a blind eye to the cheating which is ruining the sport we all love.

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