I raced 70.3 Rappeswil yesterday. On the last 10km of the bike, which is a flat/rolling section, I was overtaking a lot of others racers. A Marshall on a motorbike overtook me and pulled up alongside a competitor. The Marshall started talking to the athlete, which effectively blocked the road. As I waited for the Marshall to finish and move on, two athletes crossed the white line and overtook the Marshall. Guess what, they got a penalty. A nice easy way to add 4min to your race time. Considering how empty the on course penalty tents appeared to be, the marshals were not overbearing at this race, so you really had to go some to get a penalty. I can see what the guys were thinking “the bloody motorbike is blocking the road”, but sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be impatient.
At least it wasn’t you. 
Not silly. All about safety. Should never ever cross centerline in a race. And passing a motorbike doesn’t sound like a good idea, either. Surprised it was a penalty and not a DQ.
Sorry, I didn’t mean it was a silly penalty to give out, I meant it was a silly thing to do on the part of the athlete. And I was being polite using the word ‘silly’. My thought at the time was “dumb fu*kers”. Kind of like overtaking a police car while breaking the speed limit.