Final 12 months, I used to be a part of a bunch of elite girls who had a collection of video convention calls with the Life Time Grand Prix organizers to focus on enhancing equity for the elite girls throughout competitions. We kicked round concepts like elevated staggered begin instances and, sure, anti-drafting guidelines. The thought was to scale back the interference from the boys’s fields (each elite and novice) and create one thing nearer to an precise girls’s race.
Life Time held off implementing anti-drafting guidelines final 12 months so as to higher outline laws and tackle implementation, as it might be an enormous elevate throughout a number of occasions, programs, and rider classes. However they did enhance the beginning time gaps: ultimately 12 months’s Unbound Gravel 200, the elite girls began quarter-hour after the elite males, and 20 minutes earlier than the amateurs. That will not sound like a lot, nevertheless it was a stable tweak, which delivered the first-ever girls’s dash end at Unbound 200 amongst 9 elite riders on the race.
Quick-forward to the week earlier than the 2025 Sea Otter Basic Gravel, and Life Time casually dropped an electronic mail into the inboxes of the Grand Prix riders within the subject asserting that anti-drafting guidelines had been formally taking place. No warning. No follow-up convention name. No vibe examine. Simply… increase. Inbox shock.
That is huge. It’s the primary time a high-profile gravel collection is formally regulating drafting. Whether or not you find it irresistible or hate it, we’re watching the game evolve in actual time — and that’s fairly thrilling.
The rule and enforcement
The brand new guidelines state that elite girls can’t draft off elite males or any novice riders, and elite males can’t draft off elite girls or any novice riders. It additionally identifies novice riders, stating they “could draft off another Newbie Rider, no matter that Newbie Rider’s class (Age Group, Single Pace, Male, Feminine, and many others.)”.
So what’s the definition of “drafting”? For Life Tiime, it’s being “inside 15 ft (or two bike lengths), and three ft to both facet, for longer than 15 seconds”.
What in case you break the rule? “You’re relegated to final place within the elite outcomes and the LTGP standings for that occasion”.
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How riders be monitored throughout a race was the largest query. Here’s what Life Time spelled out:
Enforcement will come from impartial moto race marshals, course marshals, and Life Time workers who will present moto, drone, dwell digicam feed, helicopter, and another verifiable modes of statement proof, in addition to rider suggestions, on the discretion of a race jury.
*Nevertheless, Life Time says, “Rider enter as verifiable proof to find out the validity of a violation will NOT be accepted.”
*So principally, in case you see somebody dishonest and inform the officers, your phrase alone isn’t sufficient. They’ll solely depend on goal sources like footage and never he-said-she-said stuff from different rivals.
In course sections the place passing is inconceivable, logical concessions shall be made. For instance, single-track sections, climbs, and areas of congestion.
Athletes could have half-hour from the declaration of a violation to submit an official enchantment.
Once we mentioned the rule in 2024, we debated concepts like escalating time penalties for first, second, and even third infractions (which could nonetheless be too lenient — I imply, is 5 minutes sufficient in case you acquire 20 minutes from sitting on a robust wheel for hours?).
So now the penalty is so extreme that it removes any incentive to take the chance, which is the purpose. No warnings. No “hey, don’t try this once more.” No slap on the wrist. Only one-and-done relegation. Straight to the underside of the outcomes sheet.
The concern of relegation is actual. And possibly that’s sufficient to shift the tradition.
Delicate launch
It was a dusty day for Sea Otter Basic Gravel in Monterey, so not condusive to drafting of any kind (Picture credit score: Life Time / Dan Hughes)
The brand new anti-drafting coverage shall be enforced in any respect six Grand Prix occasions, and started on April 10 on the Sea Otter Basic Gravel. Did it matter in Monterey? Truthfully, not likely.
The elite fields raced on Thursday and the novice subject on Friday, in order that was no situation. Plus, the elite girls began 20 minutes behind the elite males on a circuit that didn’t lend itself to drafting. It was punchy, technical, and largely singletrack — not precisely a spot you’re going to tuck in and cruise on some random man’s wheel.
There wasn’t a single occasion the place I noticed somebody breaking the rule. Which may not at all times be the case, however at Sea Otter it labored superb.
Sea Otter was a comfortable launch, however Unbound Gravel would be the actual check. The elite males will start the 200-mile course at 5:50 a.m. (CST) from Business Road in downtown Emporia, Kansas, on Might 31. The elite girls will comply with quarter-hour later, like final 12 months, after which the mass begin for amateurs shall be launched on the identical course 25 minutes after the elite girls.
Fifteen minutes could really feel like a giant hole on paper, nevertheless it’s a protracted race. Folks have flats, mechanical points, and full-on meltdowns. It’s not laborious to think about an elite man dropping again and ‘interfering’ with the ladies’s race. Or a couple of amateurs with mega-watts can catch dropped riders from the ladies’s elite subject and pull them again to the lead group.
Whereas I’m glad they bumped the novice subject again 25 minutes — a great transfer — I nonetheless suppose that timing shall be tight. However I get it. Folks need to end earlier than the solar units in Kansas.
How enforceable is that this?
Lauren De Crescenzo rides to ninth general, eighth amongst LTGP girls, at 2025 Sea Otter Basic Gravel (Picture credit score: Life Time / Dan Hughes)
There are such a lot of nuances, so many what-ifs. And as of now, we’re trusting race juries to make sense of them. There’s going to be trial and error. And possibly a couple of sacrificial lambs alongside the best way.
However I give Life Time credit score for being prepared to attempt. It’s not simple being the primary to place construction right into a sport that prided itself on being unfastened, grassroots, and gloriously chaotic. Life Time is sending a message: they’re critical about equity, they usually’re prepared to evolve. That’s value one thing.
This isn’t nearly drafting. It’s about rising pains. Gravel racing is maturing. With prize cash, contracts, and sponsorship {dollars} on the road, construction is inevitable. And generally, construction creates friction.
All of us need a honest race. We would like outcomes to return right down to health, ability, and technique, not who discovered the strongest random dude, good friend or important different to take a seat behind for 80 miles. However gravel is messy. It’s a part of why we find it irresistible.
We’re nonetheless defining what gravel is, what we worth, and defend these values whereas making room for evolution. This rule is one step in that course of. Not the ultimate reply, however possibly a primary draft.
Is the rule good? No. Is it enforceable? TBD. Is it a step in the proper path? Positively.
And identical to Lifetime ends their Elite Tech Information with “Lifetime reserves the proper to amend this coverage at any time,” I’d like to order the proper to alter my opinion at any time, relying on how all this performs out. As a result of that is gravel, we’re figuring it out collectively. One rule change at a time.
