The rowing scene

Did it annoy anyone else that he was the hero of the race, when clearly the 3 rowers on bow side had to work much harder?

OK, he was still the stroke which is important, but if he was doing all the work they would have been all over the place since there was an extra rower on his side! Extra power on stroke side would have meant the cox had to have the rudder on all the time - and they would have lost lots of power.