KEY POINTS:
New Zealand may need to apply team tactics to retain the triathlon gold medal at next year's Beijing Olympics.
With drafting allowed in cycle legs, top New Zealand triathlete Bevan Docherty says adopting tactics used by cycling teams to win road races might become the modus operandi for competing teams in the Olympics.
Docherty, who finished second to teammate Hamish Carter at the 2004 Athens Olympics, said the French had used team tactics on the cycle leg to put Frederic Belaubre on top of the podium at last year's trial run of the Olympics triathlon course in Beijing.
Drafting, a cycling tactic in which several riders cluster closely to reduce the air resistance of the group and take turns at the front to share the workload, is not allowed in amateur triathlon.
But with the introduction of triathlon into the Olympic Games, many Olympic-distance races, including the Olympics and ITU World Cup events, now allow drafting during the cycling stage.
"The course in Beijing, we could quite possibly require a domestique (cycling term for a workhorse)," Docherty told NZPA in Wellington where he will try and retain his national title in tomorrow's New Zealand triathlon championships.
"Depending on who qualifies (for New Zealand), we have to explore that option.
"The French team last year used team tactics and their main man, Freddie Belaubre, ended up winning the test event in Beijing so we know they have proven it does work."
But Docherty said such a policy would have its drawbacks.
"We don't really want to deny someone (in our team) who has a chance of doing well at the Olympics.
"We just have to sort of weigh up that if someone is worthy of taking up that spot then they deserve it.
"But if there is no one in line, then maybe we should look at having someone to be the workhorse for us."
The other New Zealand triathlete in Athens was Nathan Richmond who finished 33rd.
- NZPA
