I don't really have much to say about this race after the bitter disappointment of the result due to events outside of my control.
This race was a crack at qualifying fro 70.3 Worlds on the Sunshine Coast, and my fitness and preparation for this race had be great and un-interupted until 40km into the bike leg.
I received a drafting penalty about 40km into the race on a climb as I was dropping back past another athlete, now friend David. Who's race report can be found here: https://wildtriathlete.com/2016/06/21/always-on-the-road-to-honu/
I have no issue with serving a penalty if I was drafting, which wasn't the case. David and I were riding comfy and were maintain a more then reasonable gap. For someone to show up out of no where and give a penalty without witnessing or examining the situation is not only stupid but unprofessional. And I will happily blast ironman and its staff over the way they handled this matter.
When asked about the other athletes being penalised for drafting, the draft official said that I was the only one all day to receive a penalty all day. This was after I had watched the continuous line of athletes riding wheel to wheel on my return back to T2.
In the end the race was a disaster and a waste of time and money to race fairly and within the rules and to still get a penalty is a load of shit. If Ironman are going to enforce these rules that cost people race results and a lot of money there needs to be video evidence of the incident(drafting) recored then showed after the race to back up their calls. Everyone owns some form of recording device these days and I would expect a 30sec video of the incident to prove that someone is drafting. Same as in any other sport.
Peace.
