It has not been a good month for Sebastian Kienle and his ‘Discontinued’ tour after ANOTHER penalty saw the German great DNF at Challenge St Polten on Sunday.
The much-loved 38-year-old is part way through his final year in the sport, taking in a calendar of bucket list races as he says farewell to competitive swim, bike and run.
Kienle penalty curse strikes again
Last weekend in France though things turned sour as Kienle was denied a chance of victory at Challenge Frejus by a controversial drafting penalty during the bike leg. He would eventually finish fourth.
Afterwards Sebi, who vehemently denied the penalty was merited, described the event as “a beautiful race with an ugly outcome”, but looked forward to a swift chance to “right a wrong” at St Polten just a week later. And then, on Sunday in Austria, it happened again.
Once again the former IRONMAN World Champion would pick up a time penalty during the bike leg, and this time it was just too much for him to take.
‘I absolutely lost it’
Providing a typically raw reaction on Instagram later in the day, Sebi explained: “After last week, I got another penalty, and yeah, I want to be 100 percent honest with you, I don’t wanna bulls**t you, I absolutely lost it after this.
“I threw my bike away and just laid on the asphalt for a couple of minutes because I was so upset with myself and just everything. Of course, not how I imagined my ‘Discontinued’ tour.”
Kienle was clearly upset by the whole incident, and apologised in particular to event organisers.
“I’m really sorry for the organisation, they did an amazing job here. It was, it is an absolutely beautiful day,” he said.
With Sebi out of the running, it was young German Tom Hug who would claim a breakthrough victory in Sunday’s race.
Are we in a triathlon boom, or hurtling towards burnout? Laura Siddall on the growth of the sport
