It was another big weekend of racing that included Ironman Maryland, offering two coveted Kona slots per gender alongside a $100,000 prize purse. But the headlines from this race have centred on a collision on the bike course and the resulting “chaos,” as some athletes put it, in the men’s pro race.

First, our condolences to the victim of the accident. A serious collision involving a motor vehicle and a bicycle reportedly occurred near Smithville Road and Hoopers Island Road on the race course. Local emergency services and the Taylors Island Volunteer Fire Company set up a landing zone, forcing a temporary shutdown of the bike segment.

We do not have further details on the accident or the victim’s condition at this time, but our thoughts are with them and we hope for a full recovery.

Impact on the Men’s Pro Race

The incident occurred at kilometre 132.8 of the bike course, just before the 133km timing mat. Athletes were asked to pull over and stop while the incident was being managed, with the duration of the stop reportedly reaching up to about nine minutes.

Federico Scarabino resumed riding much earlier than the other athletes, who were told he was going to be disqualified. In Scarabino’s defence, however, he later posted on Instagram: “I did not receive any instructions or orders from a police officer. I did not speak with a police officer at any time in that situation. The person who stopped me was a volunteer. At the time, I thought he was a spectator helping out, as he was not wearing anything that identified him as part of the Ironman organization. My understanding from my conversation with the volunteer was that I needed to wait for the helicopter to leave before I could continue. After approximately one minute, the helicopter left, and that is when I continued.”

As a result, while athletes thought Scarabino was out of the race, he ultimately was not disqualified. Taylors Island Maryland also reported that “one racer disregarded the road closure and proceeded into the landing area, which required Trooper 6 (the assigned State Police Helicopter) to abort it’s initial landing attempt” – meaning the helicopter appears to have left, prompting Scarabino to continue, and then returned to land while the other athletes waited.

Post-race, Ironman sought what it considered the fairest solution by removing the 109-133km bike segment from athletes’ total times. As noted above, the site of the incident was at the very end of that segment, at kilometre 132.8.

As athletes have since pointed out, however, the adjustment meant those who rode aggressively over those 24km and made moves on the field lost the benefit of that effort, while those who rode the segment more slowly gave up less time through the adjustment. So, while removing the segment attempted to account for the varying lengths of time athletes were stopped, it also altered the race dynamics that had unfolded before the incident. Those dynamics are particularly important in professional racing, including the relative effort of the contenders over that segment, their positions entering the stoppage, and the race dynamics afterward, when there was presumably a larger group riding together.

Social Media Commentary and Results

On Instagram, Luke Tasker responded to Sam Long’s question: “It was absolute chaos. 3 hours of waiting around post race. About 5 iterations of the ‘final results’. Then yes, they decided to cut a huge 24km segment out of the race. I ran 10 miles with #2 place bike being told I’m in a Kona slot to then end up 4th.”

As Tasker also said on social media, “What gets tricky is that the timing mat was 200m after the crash. So the time from 109 – 132.8km was regular racing, and I was making significant time on the guys that had dropped off the front of the group. But then that just becomes a penalty for riding fast. The slower you rode the better off you were.”

As for the final results, Cameron Wurf took first place with an adjusted time of 7:13:52 (39:33 removed), Scarabino was second in 7:14:18 (34:14 removed), Ognjen Stojanovic third in 7:22:28 (41:29 removed), and Tasker fourth in 7:25:51 (36:38 removed).

Ironman’s Statement

Dear IRONMAN Maryland Athletes,

During the bike portion of Saturday’s IRONMAN Maryland triathlon, an athlete was transported from the course for medical care. As a result, a portion of the bike course was temporarily closed and athletes were rerouted.

Following a review of the impact this had on the competition, race officials determined that removing the affected timing segment from the bike split calculations was the fairest and most equitable solution. Importantly, this does not mean that athletes did not complete the bike course, only that this section will not be included in the official timing results and overall finish times will be adjusted accordingly.

We recognize that this may result in changes to standings throughout the field. However, applying the same adjustment ensures competitors are evaluated using a consistent standard and best preserves the integrity of the competition under the circumstances…

We appreciate your patience, understanding, and sportsmanship as race officials worked through this challenging situation.