Originally Posted by
wphamilton
I've been wondering, if it's cheating to e-bike in that event (and I can see his point), would it also be cheating to draft an e-bike? From your perspective as the one drafting, there would be little or no difference between drafting a road bike and an e-bike. So it wouldn't be cheating, since it's the same action and effect as something legitimate. Yet taking advantage of a "cheat" to reduce your effort would have to be a cheat. It's an enigma.
What if your buddy escorted you on his Harley, and you drafted him the whole way? Would that be cheating? Serious question.
Ragbrai discourages drafting of any kind but specifically mentions drafting from a motor vehicle, - which leads me to believe people have done it.
And yes it's cheating !
I will go back to sailing since I think there are some analogous situations. Sailboats get their power from sails (duh), but lots of them also have motors. If you paid attention at all to the most recent America's Cup you'd realize that all kinds of technology get applied to sailboats to make them faster: multiple hulls, foils, rigid sails that resemble giant wings, etc. I'm all for that (some people aren't). But they are still getting their power from the wind.
As soon as you turn that motor on though you aren't really sailing anymore, you're "motorsailing". Now, there are lots of situations where boats will run their engines while the sails are still up and use both for propulsion. Whether or not that's "cheating" depends on what it is you're trying to accomplish, and people will not always agree what is cheating and what isn't (surprise).