RACING » CALIFORNIA
“IT’S ONE OF THE
MOST CHALLENGING
BIKE COURSES ON THE
70.3 RACING CALENDAR”
Ben Kanute, Rodolophe Von
Berg and Adam Bowden were
first across the line in the
men’s race (below left).
bar that kicks up a back set of waves and,
if you’re not sighting frequently, can roll
you back towards the beach in a hurry.
However, race day on 6 April delivered
one of my favourite swims. Period. A
rolling beach start, good wave sets to
duck dive, cold water and a fun course
to navigate. The swim takes you out into
the ocean, then runs you parallel to the
beach, and has you re-enter the harbour
(with a positive current) and swim back to
transition where you exit up the harbour
boat ramp. It was so much fun.
The bike course is tough. It’s roughly
854m of climbing and serves up some
decent head winds. It’s spectacular –
cycling along the Pacific coastline, up
into the local hills with the seasonal
wildflowers blooming, and through
Camp Pendleton (US Marines), all make
for a memorable ride. The only blemish
was that I received a drafting penalty that
I had to serve in the penalty tent in T2.
Then came the run. At this point, I was
feeling fantastic because I had hit all
my numbers leading up to T2. The run
is beautiful. It’s mostly flat, with a few
ramps up and down between beach level
and street level, and a few false flats out
and back along the marina road to the
beach path and into the local beachside
130
residential streets. Two laps and you’re
done. Spectators line the run course
generously for almost the entire 21km.
The weather held up perfectly, topping
out in the low 20°Cs.
All in all, I finished running strong. I felt
amazing. I went deep into the hurt locker,
and emerged victorious. The results had
me at 7th in my AG, roughly 3-4 minutes
off 1st place. It was a tight group of fast
lads. I was elated. But then I went online
to peruse my results and discovered that
I had been disqualified!
I’d had an incorrect penalty served.
As I mentioned earlier, I was penalised
for drafting on the bike. But I was
uncertain of the type of penalty (blue or
yellow) – I’d never been carded before
and could not hear the race referee on
the motorbike clearly. I told the volunteer
in the penalty tent I was unsure, and
she gave me the lesser penalty – 30
seconds as opposed to five minutes.
Turns out, she was incorrect. If an
athlete is uncertain of the penalty, they
must serve the greater of the two. (After
making enquiries about the DQ decision,
I believe that the two penalty cards will
now be shown to athletes in the pre-race
meetings, so that the first time an athlete
sees them is not when they’re under
duress on the bike course.)
I was bummed with the DQ decision,
but at the end of the day, I had a
breakthrough performance on a
beautiful and scenic race course that
I will absolutely race on again.