What are the drafting rules?

Under the World Triathlon Competition Rules (section 5.5), whether an age-group event is draft-legal depends on its distance:

• Mixed relay: draft-legal.
• Super sprint: draft-illegal.
• Sprint: both options (the event is declared either draft-legal or draft-illegal).
• Standard, middle and long distance: draft-illegal.
• Aquabike: draft-illegal.

In a draft-illegal event you may not draft off another athlete or a motor vehicle, and you must reject attempts by others to draft.

• The bicycle draft zone is 12 metres long, measured from the leading edge of the front wheel.
• The vehicle draft zone behind any vehicle on the bike course is 35 metres.
• You may enter another athlete's draft zone but must be seen to be progressing through it, with a maximum of 25 seconds allowed to pass. Several consecutive unsuccessful attempts to overtake may be a drafting infringement.
• You may also enter a draft zone for safety reasons, within 100 metres before and after an aid station or transition area, at an acute turn, or where the technical delegate excludes a section of course (for example narrow lanes or detours).
• You are passed when the other athlete's front wheel is ahead of yours. An overtaken athlete must keep making rearward progress out of the passing athlete's draft zone, and re-passing before dropping out of it is a drafting violation.
• Keep to the side of the course. Blocking (being poorly placed so that an athlete behind cannot pass) earns a yellow card, served at the next bike penalty box.

In a draft-legal event you may not draft off an athlete of a different gender, off an athlete on a different lap, or off a motorbike or vehicle.