Going to participate in two weeks. Pleace help with some tips for FOP athlete 
By the way, I heard that rear disc can be banned due to the strong winds. Is it true? Organisers ignore my questions about it
Port Elizabeth is also known as the Windy city, it can surely howl down there. If that means rear discs will be banned I don’t know. Do consider that a large part of the bike course is along the coast without much cover. The wind is also know to pick up during the day. Last time I raced there my second lap was about 15 minutes slower than my first lap due to the wind picking up significantly on the way back into town (Easterly wind). If it’s an eastern wind on race day make sure you have some energy left in the tank to open it up on the way back, you can do a lot of damage those last 40 km if you can put the hammer down. Having said that, the last big climb going back into town is not that steep but can also be used to spread out the field. The last 25ish km are relatively easy, again, depending on the direction of the wind.
Coming down from Seaview road to Sardinia bay road there are some corners that can catch you off guard, be careful of that. Also the road surface just before the turnaround isn’t the best.
The run is quite straight forward and mostly flat, altough the wind can again be quite a pain. If it’s blowing, you’ll learn that draftpacks are a thing on the run ;). The same holds for the swim, depending on the wind it can be quite choppy, or completely flat. Make sure to practice sighting the swim beforehand as you’ll mostly be swimming parallel to the shore.
Thank you. Great info!
It used to be that there were areas where you could legally pick-up nutrition from a supporter (either on the bike or run). Worth preparing for if you want to take advantage of. I always liked the idea of being handed a slushy if it was hot. I do suggest practicing how it will work on the bike though, when I watched there were a few potential divorces on the cards based on the reactions after hand-offs didn’t go quite as planned.
Oh, and water on the run, possibly still in plastic bags rather than cups? I never particuarly got on with this, as my front teeth are a little blunt, so they just seemed to explode in my face.
It used to be that there were areas where you could legally pick-up nutrition from a supporter (either on the bike or run). Worth preparing for if you want to take advantage of. I always liked the idea of being handed a slushy if it was hot. I do suggest practicing how it will work on the bike though, when I watched there were a few potential divorces on the cards based on the reactions after hand-offs didn’t go quite as planned.
Oh, and water on the run, possibly still in plastic bags rather than cups? I never particuarly got on with this, as my front teeth are a little blunt, so they just seemed to explode in my face.
I’ve done a half-dozen IMs under the IM Europe umbrella including IM South Africa (2017). IM Europe rules allowed for a specified “coaching zone” on each lap (both bike and run) where you could legally take nutrition from your coach or sherpa (or take/shed clothing). I took advantage of that rule on a hot day in IM Switzerland when my wife brought me a large cup of ice and cold Sierra Mist on the run. Best to check the rules carefully and see if that is still allowed in 2022 since IM/ITU have been working to standardize rules the past several years. My primary memory of IM South Africa was how hot it was. Every day in the lead up to the race the temperature was strictly a function of cloud cover … it was scorching without it.
I took pictures of transition the day before the race and the majority of pro bikes had disc wheels, but there were none on the age group bikes in my photos. Either they had separate rules for age groupers or us commoners chose to go without them. I also raced the IM70.3 WC in South Africa in 2018. In neither race week did I think winds were such that discs would be a problem. I recommend searching for a copy of the last published race guide and seeing if there is any prohibition against age groupers using them.