It's quite puzzling, as I did not actually get 3rd place. I was a solid 4th, almost a minute behind 3rd. I know, I checked very carefully. And yet, now I have a trophy. I went back and rechecked the results and from what I can gather, about 18 girls were disqualified, including the 1st place winner of my age group, who beat me by 6 minutes. In reviewing the rules, the only grounds for DQ that I could find (beyond some blatant cheating) is that USAT mandates that only only must you wear a helmet during the race, but that if you are seen riding your bike BEFORE or AFTER the race without a helmet - DQ. Now, the race parking was way out in BFE, probably 1/2 - 1 miles from the transition area. A lot of people rode their bikes from to and from their cars (I sure did) and I did see quite a few girs doing it without their helmets. So there you go, 3 rules to remember:
1. ALWAYS wear a helmet
2. ALWAYS play by the rules
3. ALWAYS wear pink when racing
PS - I have been very humble about this race (especially after getting my ass kicked in the Peak) but for the record, there were 142 girls in my age group.
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