Ask any European AGer who has raced in Germany and they all have stories of a similar nature.
My wife received a drafting penalty when there was no one within 300m of her, backed up by video from a spectator. My friend got a DQ for going too fast through a reduced speed limit part of the course despite him not reaching that part of the course for another 90 mins after the alleged infraction.
I suggested many years ago that IM removed the flag of nationality on the numbers to eliminate any bias and got laughed at.
Correct, maybe a minute is too much, but nobody will get a benefit because another person is running at your goal pace on your side for 5-10". Having a camera man next or in front is way more pacing but it’s fine. As long as the spectators are out of the course and not interfering with any other athlete I don’t see why the athlete should take the blame (there are always exceptions).
As for Ditlev’s incident, I think he is being shown the red card so quickly because he says he’s not stopping, “No, I’m sorry”.
I would put more focus on those custom made aerobars that pose a risk to the athletes themselves and those riding along. Hauser in Geelong, Løvseth in Hamburg, Schomburg in Frankfurt to name a few. Plus having bottles touching the chest is aero but wait until you hit a bump
I don’t think that’s true at all. Magnus dropped a cup in the shaded area under the bridge. To his credit, the end of drop zone sign is not too large and the view may have been obstructed by the technical official cycling on the left of Magnus.
This is what the end of drop zone sign looks like:
Rest - agree, but observe Loevseth bar fail was not a ‘fairing’ issue, it was a fastening (bolt tightness) fail.
Wrt Ditlev, here’s his take:
“What an eventful day yesterday… During the run segment I was given an immediate red card (disqualification) for disposing of an ice cup too late through an aid station. I was told I could still continue to run and that they would discuss the DQ.
“At the time I was running well, in 2nd position, and feeling very strong.
“As people that watched the broadcast could see I was quite taken aback by the whole situation and didn’t really know what to do."
As you imply, the TO failed to be clear that it was a time (stop) penalty. And clearly Ditlev ‘saw’ red, literally and metaphorically.
Technical officials are there to enforce the rules. They need to know them; to observe with care; to decide whether behaviour is an infraction; to get the athlete’s attention; to communicate clearly, explaining the reason (ideally in an understood language) and deliberate use of a card to make their decision explicit. Unclear what you seek to imply by your question. “Difference here is you can’t see what they have been calling.”
“You” that is “we spectators” CAN see this in real time. And if broadcast medium allows, swiftly review (which is what I did, immediately).
It is unusual that these incidents actually get live coverage. But I guess Schomburg was leading, so had a camera alongside, Hoegenhaug (in the lead) had the moto camera (which captured the e-unicycle camera man motioning Hh’s coach away) and Ditlev was in second, chasing well and had a camera filming from in front of him.
So we can enjoy endless chat - with observable facts - and IG ‘activity’. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLi8AirMRbk/
Remember when Rebecca Keat tossed a CO2 cannister to Chrissie Wellington during the bike of Kona 2008? That caused some rule polemics back then, but it was such an act of gentlewomanship from Keat, that nobody cared about it.
Yes Richard Murray, the somewhat loud “bad boy” of ITU for a decade plus (sorta the opposite of the seemingly reserved Ditlev personality), never afraid to speak his mind. In an ITU race in GER of all places (Hamburg), he was in 2nd place, w/ a penalty, stopped in penalty tent to serve his penalty, no one told him what it was for (only 10s penalty), and then when he left the PT to finish basically gave explicit charged double bird salute to the officials.
He was then DQ’d from the event for “unsportsmanlike” behavior ~20ish mins or so after the event, while he was finishing he tried to slam/pull down a sponsored ad as well.
His penalty occurred clearly during the race, it was either littering of all rules or misplaced iten outside box in T area (was legit penalty). But as I joke, ask the athlete, and they never do wrong.
Not sure if it’s the same shaded area, on your first image it’s a flat line perpendicular to the road, and in the image with Magnus it’s diagonal, plus it has some kind of railing.
It’s either not the same area, or the shadow moved significantly because it’s at a different time of the day.
Either way, I don’t think that Magnus was as far from the sign as you are suggesting.
Not the same area, but you can see how the end of drop zone signs are positioned and what they look like. The photo with Blummenfelt informs the interpretation of the photo with Magnus (where you see a piece of the sign on the right side of the photo). And did I suggest he was far from the sign? You may have missed the last bit: Should the official have exercised discretion and ignored the act committed so close to a poorly marked drop zone? Hell yes.
