Mallorca 70.3 Cheat?

Triathlon Forum
1

I have been holding fire on this whilst evidence gathering, but think I have unearthed a cheat from the recent 70.3 Mallorca.

Whilst on the first lap of my run, I came across someone who just didn’t fit in. I don’t want this to come off as condescending (there is perhaps no other way), but number 548 (Philippa Davis) was half power walking, half jogging and just didn’t look like she should be there at that point in the race. I ran past and got doing the maths, mainly to take my mind off the pain. I had started 25 mins behind the ladies in my 35 - 39 age group. I had done a 27 min swim and a 2:37 bike, and then 4km of the run at about 4:45 - 5 min/km pace. Add say 7 mins for transitions I thought, giving me a race time of about 3h30 mins. So, in order to be at that point when I passed her, she would be on a race time of about 3h55 mins. Given that I ran past her like she was stood still, and I wasn’t exactly flying, something just didn’t sit right.

My memory is a little hazy from the heat, but I also think that I saw her again later on in the run at a real shuffle pace.

Whilst checking my bike out of transition, she was stood next to me and I made a note of her number. I thought, well hey, maybe she is an incredible athlete and just happens to be of larger build - it happens hey? I also thought, well maybe she had trouble with the swim and dropped out, told the organisers, and then just did the run and stopped before the finish line, as I might be tempted to do as I had travelled all that way. I figured no point in having a chat then as to be honest all I wanted was a beer, and I didn’t want to ruin what might have been someone’s legitimate happy time with unfounded accusations.

Her stats are here from the results page, and guess what, no bike split.

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman-70.3/mallorca/results.aspx?rd=20140510&race=mallorca70.3&bidid=548&detail=1#axzz31RNSTT63

What we do know is she did a 41 mins swim, and a 2:11 half marathon, along with 4 mins bike to run transition. So, to finish in 5h35 to claim 12th place she must have biked 2h35 mins if we allow the same 4 mins transition from swim to bike (generous as this is the one that takes the time stripping a wetsuit etc).

Now, how many ladies are capable of a 2h35 bike split on that course? There were 4 female elites who went better than that on the day, and only 1 by more than a few minutes. Furthermore, how many 45 - 49 year old ladies could do that time? The answer is none - 2h48 was the quickest, pedestrian in comparison.

I figured I would wait until the finisher pix came up, but there she is proudly running across the finish line arms aloft.

https://www.finisherpix.com/photos/my-photos/currency/EUR/pctrl/Photos/paction/search/pevent/thomas-cook-ironman-703-mallorca-2014/pbib/548.html

I am at a bit of a loss in one regard. How did she do the swim, not start the bike, and then manage to get back into transition to head out on the run? She has a bike to run (T2) time, but it would have been quite hard to have snuck into T2 with no bike? She was taking a rented one out of transition when I was there post race, so maybe a bike switch somewhere? Would she not then have registered a T1 time too?

So, it would appear that there is some explaining to do somewhere? I guess you will make up your own mind if you care or not. She is only cheating herself etc etc, but as with the idiots cheating in the VLM each year, it just detracts from the sport, and people shouldn’t be finishing these events when they haven’t earned the right to run down that finish line.

I don’t know what the race will do in terms of scanning the results for anomalies and taking action, but is it worth an e-mail?

2

First!!

3

What the heck…send them an email. But they probably know anyway.

4

I’d say it’s probably worth an email before an online name-and-shame.

It’s typically only appropriate to escalate things to this point if you were A) Personally sleighted by the wrongdoing, and B) Completely blown off by the RD

5

Excellent detective work on this. Would love to know how she did it.

6

She has a three-hour and twenty-four minute T2, and the results show her total race time as 6:17:28. Her time in the results is 5:35:48, which is exactly 6:17:28 minus her swim time. So, this seems more like some kind of timing error than cheating. 6:17 seems perfectly plausible given her other splits. Her finish time should be corrected, but it seems unlikely that she cheated or skipped the bike.

7

That makes more sense. How could some not actually do the bike?

8

She has a three-hour and twenty-four minute T2, and the results show her total race time as 6:17:28. Her time in the results is 5:35:48, which is exactly 6:17:28 minus her swim time. So, this seems more like some kind of timing error than cheating. 6:17 seems perfectly plausible given her other splits. Her finish time should be corrected, but it seems unlikely that she cheated or skipped the bike.

That would make sense if the photo did not show her finishing (with her name) at 5:35.

9

Don’t they adjust the finishing time on the picture to match the finishing time WTC gives them? Isn’t that the case with wave starts?

10

Don’t they adjust the finishing time on the picture to match the finishing time WTC gives them? Isn’t that the case with wave starts?
To my knowledge - NO.

11

She has a three-hour and twenty-four minute T2, and the results show her total race time as 6:17:28. Her time in the results is 5:35:48, which is exactly 6:17:28 minus her swim time. So, this seems more like some kind of timing error than cheating. 6:17 seems perfectly plausible given her other splits. Her finish time should be corrected, but it seems unlikely that she cheated or skipped the bike.

That would make sense if the photo did not show her finishing (with her name) at 5:35.

Is it me or do none of the swimmers in the pics look like the person who is running?

12

The thing is that I saw her out on the run ahead of me. For her to have been 4km or so into the first lap of the run by the time I got to her, like I said in my post, she would have needed to have got there in 3h55 or so (the female wave had a 25 mins jump on mine and my race time was 3h30 ish). With her 41 mins swim, 4 mins or so transition, then to be running at, lets be generous, 5:30km pace, (22 mins) she would need to have done the bike in 3h55 - 45 - 22, so around 2h48. It’s not that I am going off purely timing mat data, it was having seen her at that point in the race in the first place that got my suspicions up. She just didn’t fit in with the few other super quick 4:30 mins/km women on the course at the time who were overtaking me.

She has no timing data on the bike, but if you look on the Ironman live site, she has also got two timing mats on the run where she has no chip time. These two happen to both be at 10.6km and 17.3 km at the bottom part of the course where you turn around:

http://tracking.ironmanlive.com/...orca70.3&bib=548

As I am reasonably sure I saw her again on the run, the pace I was running at would not have allowed me to lap her in just 14km, given that she was supposedly only running 1 min per km slower than I was.

Go figure.

13

Also the fact that for the bits she was running, she was doing about 7:30 - 7:45 min km’s, this means that her bike split must have been even quicker than I posted because I was generous and had her running at 5:30 pace. In essence, for those who don’t know the course, it is three laps of a bit through town and then a 5km out and back down a dual carriageway. There is nothing separating the two sides of the run course other than a central reservation.

It would appear that she has run the first lap, registering at all the timing mats, then worked out the bit she wanted to cut off, and just faked a cramp or something and hopped over the central reservation. This would explain why she has missed the two furthest timing mats on both laps 2 and 3.

14

Who cares! Does this directly impact your finish?

Some people need to get out more.

15

Don’t they adjust the finishing time on the picture to match the finishing time WTC gives them? Isn’t that the case with wave starts?
To my knowledge - NO.

To my knowledge - Perhaps. Don’t know about FinisherPix which has the contract now, but in the past when you ordered a print, not a digital download, then YES, you could send them your time and they would make the photo edit.

16

Ok, thanks. When I ordered a print a few years ago they added the chip time at the bottom of the pic but the finishing time was unchanged so it showed the gun time.

17

…but she’s cheating her way into next year’s Boulder AWA wave!

18

For reals, this type of shaming is reserved for people stealing KQ spots and money if it’s not solely due to some personal vendetta. Who cares. The Boston Bib fiasco was about my limit of caring and that was less for the banditing and more for the blatant copying of someone’s bib and subsequent excuse making

19

Everyone will make their own mind up as to whether they care or not. I do, some don’t. There is no place for it in our sport in my view. No it didn’t affect my race, but by the same token maybe somehow it affected someone else’s. Either way, I’d rather not share a course with people who ‘allegedly’ cheat.

20

I agree 100% with everything you have said. For those who don’t care, well…it just cheapens the sport and devalues that hard earned medal. Everyone should report cheating and pursue it with the race director. You may not care, but I and I’m sure Ironmike78 would agree, we have invested too much time and money in this sport. That’s why we care. Good luck on taking it to the RD