I will withhold judgement from the RD, the race, and the race management company and just say what I know.

1) I met the RD recently at one of his other races, he is very talented and a great guy. He puts on superb events.

2) The RD for this race is contracted out by the race management company.

3) The race management company has a reputation.

4) The RD does not like the race management company that was paying him.

I'll leave it at that.

What I wonder about is why the officials don't seem to have a voice in this. To me this is such a clear example of where an official needs to say the race won't start until you reroute or put a hard barrier in the road. It makes me crazy when a promoter does dangerous shit and the officials are either sitting around or prosecuting two-bit chinstrap violations in the parking lot

I was part of the crew that worked tirelessly yesterday to make the event happen (try 14 hours) and to read the nonsense you wrote just grinds my gears!
You had problems with the race organization? So did we! It was tough, it was hot and it was a location/course WE HAVEN'T USED BEFORE!

So while we have much work to do to make the race better for next year, I HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE LIKES OF YOU

- who don't understand that you can't apply logistics from past years races to a totally new course/new location (maybe you should come work some events and see how tough it is)

- who clearly have very little bike handling skills therefore should really ask themselves if it's prudent to ride amongst 1500 other riders.

- who complain about the race being poorly organized but think it's appropriate to send the RD a very crude, poorly written, misspelled, longwinded, repetitive letter

Yeah, do us all a favor and next year, go race in Malibu and bitch to their RD about all they did wrong so we can focus on constructive criticism and improve the race.

I think it's safe to say that you don't work in PR or customer service for the LA Tri (or possibly anywhere else).

I was part of the crew that worked tirelessly yesterday to make the event happen (try 14 hours) and to read the nonsense you wrote just grinds my gears!
You had problems with the race organization? So did we! It was tough, it was hot and it was a location/course WE HAVEN'T USED BEFORE!
So while we have much work to do to make the race better for next year, I HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE LIKES OF YOU (some of this may not apply to you but since you felt the need to unload on the organization, now it's my turn):
- who complain about the bike course not being "40k" when it is clearly advertised on the website as being 22.5mi (which is not 40k!)
- who don't understand that you can't apply logistics from past years races to a totally new course/new location (maybe you should come work some events and see how tough it is)
- who feel they have to include how they are "front of the pack", why would the RD or anyone else for this matter care!
- who clearly don't read the course info, USAT rules and other instructions: how many times do you think I was asked how many loops the Sprint course was or the Olympic course? Or better asked by athletes what loop they were on (really?). This BS takes my attention away from my job which is to focus on the course and anticipate problems.
- who don't attend MANDATORY course talk at packet pick up and therefore are ill prepared for the race.
- who don't listen to crew/volunteers instructions on the course or in transition because they think it does not apply to them or are wearing earbuds (refer to my earlier comment about USAT rules).
- who clearly have very little bike handling skills therefore should really ask themselves if it's prudent to ride amongst 1500 other riders.
- who say they leave near the location but complain they couldn't prepare properly in race conditions so clearly did not look at the course maps posted for weeks on the website (and probably emailed too!)
- who obviously don't understand that a race won't start until Law Enforcement and Life Guards give us the green light, which sometimes causes delay
- who think that because they paid an entry fee it's ok to litter everywhere and let volunteers and crew clean up after themselves
- who complain about the race being poorly organized but think it's appropriate to send the RD a very crude, poorly written, misspelled, longwinded, repetitive letter

Yeah, do us all a favor and next year, go race in Malibu and bitch to their RD about all they did wrong so we can focus on constructive criticism and improve the race.

Looking at the results, 25 minutes would have been a fast time for this course - top 15 to 20 overall. I wasn't there, but it would surprise me if the swim also included a significant run in sand after exiting the water and before entering T1.

But if this is truly trucker hat, then there's a big BS to call on that 25 minute time, as his swim was 37.08.

I've got a friend who is an official. Their job is to enforce the competitive rules. When it comes to safety issues, their job is to observe and report to USAT after the race about any safety concerns seen, so they do have a voice. It is the race director's responsibility to plan for (pre-race) and manage (during race) all of the safety and layout issues, since they are the ones taking on the liability when they sanction. USAT takes feedback from officials that are there, along with anything sent in by us the athletes, as part of their review for future sanction requests.

I may have misspoken about the RD. My comment was about Jack Carress who has a history of setting up races with dangerous multi-loop bike courses to save money. He might be the organizer and not the RD.