Penalty for drafting in Time Trial.

supergrill said:

Watching Klöden when he caught Evans in Friday's ITT:
I was wondering how much of a time penalty would he have received, if they had ruled that he was drafting behind Evans. Would it just be in line with trying to negate the estimated advantage or would they have a punitive aspect to it?
I am just curious about how big a chance a rider would be taking as it did look a little questionable from the front camera angle; though it may not have been that close from an overhead view. Great ride, nonetheless.

I thought the same thing, I muttered "You idiot, stop drafting! You got your podium spot, knock it off"

But maybe he wasn't and it really did just looked that way, because that's an awfully big risk to take, he had to know by than he managed to get 3 spot.

It was before a turn and he couldn`t pass him. Only possibility would be to brake and wait few meters behind him.

Kloden could have moved a bit to the side, and not stayed behind Cadel for a while. Phil L mentioned Klodie's drafting and suggested he should move over right away.

How stupid can TM be? They knew that TV coverage would include Klodie catching Cadel, and to do something like draft "in plain view" is misguided.

Our local commentator said that drafting is allowed when you catch the rider inside the final kilometer, although I havent seen that confirmed anywhere else.

musette said:

Kloden could have moved a bit to the side, and not stayed behind Cadel for a while. Phil L mentioned Klodie's drafting and suggested he should move over right away.

How stupid can TM be? They knew that TV coverage would include Klodie catching Cadel, and to do something like draft "in plain view" is misguided.

Well Kloden was standing there on the podium in third place, and then along with his T-Mobile teammates as best team, so I'm thinking it worked out ok for them.

JensCph said:

Our local commentator said that drafting is allowed when you catch the rider inside the final kilometer, although I havent seen that confirmed anywhere else.

From the UCI regs.

Racing Procedure
2.4.017 - If one rider is caught up by another,he may neither lead nor follow in the slipstream of the rider who caught up.

2.4.018 - A rider, upon catching up with another rider shall leave a lateral gap of at least 2 metres between himself and the other rider.
After 1km, the rider caught up shall ride at least 25m away from the other.

The view we had of the TT was from head on which is always deceiving, so it's a bit hard to say how close Kloden was to Evans.
Also you'll notice that after Kloden went past Evans went straight in behind, looks like he was taking advantage of rule 2.4.018 (After 1km, the rider caught up shall ride at least 25m away from the other) I take that as meaning he has up to 1km to drop back to the required distance of 25m.

Those rules don't state how long an overtaking rider has to get by.

I found this elsewhere though (but not at the UCI) so it may ony be a local TT rule for a particular event.
17.5.5 No rider may ride closer than 25 meters behind and 2 meters to the side of another rider. A rider attempting to pass another rider must complete the pass within 500 meters, otherwise he must drop back at least 25 meters behind the other rider.