“essentially a technical violation”

WTF does that mean? One of the whole points of this kind of race is that you can’t have outside help wherever/whenever you want. He clearly and deliberately violated those rules.

It’s about as clear an example of cheating as you can imagine in this kind of event.

Yes, exactly this! Xavier mentions “a sip of water and a handful of ice” in Facebook statement, but there’s no compelling reason to take him at his word when he broke an obvious rule and is trying to minimize the perceived impact. Maybe he really did only take a little water and ice here as he said...or maybe he…

Ding ding ding — in any trail race I’ve run anywhere in the U.S., the Race Director (RD) provides unequivocal information beforehand regarding the locations where crews/pacers are allowed and where they’re prohibited. If you break those rules, the standard-ish punishment is disqualification from the race, and you could…

It sounds to me like they’re being awfully light on him. “No malicious intent” is a ridiculous statement when he obviously very intentionally arranged for a personal aid station in the wrong place to save himself some time. The remarks about how big his lead was are a bit of a red herring since he has stated he was…

Exactly this... and given the circumstances I’m not sure why anyone should even believe that he *only* got a few sips of water and some ice. Such a flagrant violation of the rules makes the water only claim pretty suspect.

A lady at Grandmas Marathon hands out Dixie cups half full of Cold Cheap Beer out of a Keg at mile 21. I stopped for one.

Those crying about the DQ focus on the claims of “sips of water” and “a few ice cubes” rather than the fact he had access to aid when no other racers did, and that his crew wasn’t where they were supposed to be. Xavier’s post race statement attempted to paint the picture of a guy playfully grabbing a swig from his girl…

While that’s a violation of the rules, Thevenard still expressed bafflement at the scale of his punishment, which really does seem overly harsh for what is essentially a technical violation.

People cheat at far lamer things with far less glory or reward. Like guitar hero. 

The only thing more tired than people at he end of an ultramarathon race is this joke showing up in every running article on Deadspin. 

This. While there’s no direct prize money (or modest money) from many races, you can earn sponsorships or also use it to market yourself for coaching opportunities, such as Kelly Agnew did before the Porta Potty DQ.

While he may have simply drank water (we’ll never know) his support was in a location where they were prohibited to aid runners,and the open crew vehicle is a REALLY bad look. I don’t think he was disqualified for the concept of some water, rather that it was verified he had access to aid where nobody else did, and…

Thank you. I could not figure out how “drinking water a few miles after a place he could have also drank water” was such an advantage that it had to be cheating. 

There’s huge outrage among European runners and a belief that this was done to ensure an American won.

He received the aid in question between Ouray and Engineer Pass, so right in the middle of, or at the end of a huge climb, the longest vert stretch of the course.

I assume this time was simply to conduct an investigation. Had they pulled him off the course early and been wrong...

My understanding of these sorts of events is that mental toughness is incredibly important. I have to imagine that any sort of interim aid like that is very impactful, psychologically.

Thevenard reportedly left the Ouray aid station, which is 44 miles into the race, after mere minutes. A few miles outside of town, a photographer witnessed the Frenchman stopping at a crew car and taking on some water and ice.

Not sure if there is prize money for the Hardrock, but its a prestigious race among the trail running/ultra community and a win would probably lead to some sponsors or some nice bonuses from the sponsors they already have.

join the lottery for future Hardrocks.