The Eves Surfbreaker triathlon ended in controversy this morning with the first three runners home all disqualified.
First past-the-post Sam Osbourne (Rotorua), second placed Todd Cameron (Taupo) and Kyle Smith (Taupo) had led the field all the way from the tricky opening swim leg in a boiling early morning surf off Mount Main Beach.
But when a clearly agitated Cameron Brown made a beeline straight to race organiser Sheryl McLay after he finished in fifth place it was obvious something was up.
What happened was the three leaders sat in behind a van that pulled out in front of them on the bike leg for an illegal advantage.
Osborne quickly owned up to the error and admitted they made a mistake.
"It was a pretty unprofessional thing to do. One of the guys was calling it to go faster. It is not the right thing to do in a race. It is cheating absolutely," he said.