I heard they were hurting on the run and instead of gutting it out and risking permanent injury they decide to DNF so Dan threw them out of the bike count.
“From the main page article, there was no mention of Principia at all”
you’re so right. thanks for pointing that out. my mistake. i just fixed it. lotsa principias. 43 i believe. in fact, the more thorough count i did, just being tabulated, shows 44 in the race.