Tough day for Daniela Ryf made worse with a DQ for speeding
Tough day for nine-time world champ made worse thanks to a DQ for riding too fast on a controlled downhill
Photo by:
Jordan Bryden
Showing her class and a bit of a sense of humour, Switzerland’s nine-time Ironman and Ironman 70.3 world champion Daniela Ryf reported on her “tough day in the office” in Oceanside via her Instagram account, letting her fans know that while she had finished 10th at the race, she “ended up being disqualified because of speeding in the downhill.”
“Most likely the only segment of the course I was the fastest today,” she joked.
The “speed limit” section of the course comes on a fast downhill where athletes are timed between two timing mats. They must average less than 40 kph through that section. Â (In 2001 Perry Rendina lost his life on the descent that is known as “Dead Man’s Curve” in Camp Pendleton, according to report in the San Diego Union-Tribune.)
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After a solid runner-up finish at Ironman 70.3 Dubai a few weeks ago, it would appear that Ryf has been working hard to get ready for the upcoming Ironman World Championship in St. George, Utah in May. She told Kelly O’Mara from Triathlete Magazine that the race was to be a “warm-up for the Ironman World Championship” but that she was “hoping for a bit of a faster warm-up than today.”
While Ryf was obviously not pleased with the result, she’s looking “onwards and upwards” towards St. George, and was also quick to congratulate the women’s podium finishers – Taylor Knibb, Luisa Baptista and Holly Lawrence.
