After a couple of kms I was amazed to be passed by Cougie who I had expected to be miles ahead but his swim went even worse than mine. Then his day went from bad to worse - I passed him again later on the course, fixing a puncture. He had another one later too.
I was quite enjoying the ride, until I got close to Heartbreak Hill - a police motorbike rider started to pace me which made me a bit nervous, and then when he asked if I was on the first lap I thought he was planning to pull me off. Sure enough he rode a little ahead or behind me all the way back to the Finish area and when I tried to go left onto the 2nd lap he stopped me and called over to the marshals that I was DQ'd.
Climbing off my bike and almost in tears I was ushered into the marshals' tent to surrender my time chip and be officially listed as DNF - and was amazed to see Bendy Jan, KK, Meldy, Plum and Donald there too. Later we found that Cougie and Barlist had also been pulled off.
So we went to the athletes garden, got showered, and then tucked into the goodies. well, we'd paid our entries, so why not?
