Ken Finch
First off I'll admit right off I was one of the guilty
riders who bridged to the break in the 4/5 race on the
afore mentioned part of the course. However, let me
explain.
First of all, I missed the explanation at start of the
race due to having to pee. So during the race I went
merrily off down the road, blissfully unaware of these
special circumstances that existed on the stretch of
road without a centerline. It seemed prudent to me to
stay generally right anyway and did for the most part.
However I didn't pay strict attention to this as there
was no centerline anyway. How do you enforce a
centerline rule with no centerline? Even if I had been
aware of this rule, if there's no painted line it's
always going to be subjective. You just can't enforce
a rule like that. Again, I had no idea about the
agreement to stay right anyway.
Second, I was close to the front when I started to
bridge and never had to swing that far left to pass
people. I may not have crossed the imaginary
centerline at all then. But frankly I just wasn't
paying that much attention to it because I didn't
realize I was supposed to. I don't know about others.
In retrospect situations like this are always going to
create some problems. Not everyone is always going to
hear special circumstance instructions at the
beginning of a race. There will always be people
standing in line at the honey buckets, getting that
last water bottle from the car or whatever. If someone
had been kind enough to clue me in that would have
been great. But I'm most likely not going to respond
to yelling and screaming. At least not without an
explanation.
And at no time did I ever ride in an unsafe manner.
I'm just not that type. The last thing I want to do is
hurt myself or others. Rules exist to make this sport
fair and safe for all of us and that's as it should
be. We should self police these things and expect
people to adhere to the rules. But there are few cases
where right and wrong is a completely black and white
issue. There may be a narrow shade of gray in there. I
think this was certainly one of them.
And if it makes everyone feel better I got DQ'd at the
end of the 5th lap for inadvertently violating the
centerline rule (where there was actually a
centerline)in the most minor way. Maybe that was
justice?
Who knows? Who cares?
Ride your bike, ride it safe, help others do the same,
don't blow a gasket.
Ken Finch
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"But where was the centerline on a narrow one-lane
road with no line. What specific reference prevents
a rider from riding up next to you in the middle. I
believe that this road was a special case that we
see infrequently."
First, to repeat:
"+ All of the riders were explained the rules at the
start of the race. Everyone was told that the road
didn?t have a yellow line and that they were still
expected stay off the left lane or they were
breaking the rules."
There was certainly a consensus on the location of
the centerline, as evidenced by the majority of the
peloton's lack of difficulty complying with the
centerline rule even on the section with out a
painted line. Approximately one dozen riders chose
the "see no evil, hear no evil" approach and
advanced past the rest of us that were respecting
the "invisible" line.
If any of those riders who advanced past twenty or
so other riders in the course of twenty seconds are
on this list: you risked people's lives in order to
advance in an amateur bike race, hello?
We all know that it is quite difficult to advance
that number of spaces in a short period of time when
the peoloton is bunched up and not drafting in a
single or double line.
Second,
I am disappointed that I was the only member of the
peoloton willing to look like a complete idiot
screaming bloody murder at the aforementioned
cheaters. It was my understanding that obra-land
had agreed that we would not tolerate this sort of
behavior.
Was I wrong, because it sure felt like that's what
you were saying by remaining silent?
"Schreck, George" <george.-@pacificorp.com>
wrote:
But where was the centerline on a narrow one-lane
road with no line. What specific reference prevents
a rider from riding up next to you in the middle. I
believe that this road was a special case that we
see infrequently.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Whitlinger
[mailto:david.l.w-@intel.com]
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 1:48 PM
To: ob-@topica.com
Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] more centerline discussion
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Here is one perspective and some details for those
that weren?t in the race:
+ All of the riders were explained the rules at the
start of the race. Everyone was told that the road
didn?t have a yellow line and that they were still
expected stay off the left lane or they were
breaking the rules.
+ In the CAT 4/5 race, on the lap in question, a
break occurred before the turn onto the narrow road
without a centerline. It was a small break with 2-3
riders and as it happened, the team mates of one of
the riders in the break were at the front of the
main peleton going into the turn. As is expected,
the team mates on the front of the peleton did not
try to catch up to the break. They eased off and
let the break go. That?s called bike racing.
+ Around 10-15 riders didn?t like this tactic and
decided to ride over the centerline, pass the
peleton and catch up with the break. There was no
question that riders were making a conscious
decision to cheat. Several riders got bunched up in
the left lane and ended up taking over the whole
road at one point. Other riders in the peleton were
calling out numbers of the offending riders and I?m
sure some riders decided that if the rules weren?t
going to be enforced, they were going to take
advantage of the situation as well.
+ In the end, after about 15 riders broke the rules
and caught up with the break. The rest of the
peleton decided catch up rather than let the
offending riders profit from the situation. In
subsequent laps, the peleton was mostly strung out
on that stretch of road so there weren?t more
issues.
What occurred was dangerous and very unsporting. I
don?t think the race promoters can be held
responsible ? they do everything they can to put the
event on. The least the riders can do is play by
the rules and ride a fair and safe race. Follow the
rules or don?t race?go for a ride with your friends
and let the rest of us have a fair, safe contest.
Dave
---------------------------------
From: Jerald Powell [mailto:jpow-@spiritone.com]
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 12:22 PM
To: mad-@huttig.com
Cc: dirty-@attbi.com; ob-@topica.com
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] more centerline discussion
Come on folks... ride the bike. The piece of road in
question has been a part of many, if not most piece
of cake races since the first one I rode... I think
in 1980 or '81, can't be sure. Having not been there
this weekend, I don't know what y'all were doing out
there, but in the past, the lead car usually went
far enough ahead to shut down on-coming traffic. By
the way, it's the same thing on a forest service
road, or any other non-center line road for that
matter. So do you go neutral in that kind of
situation? I guess you could, but the reasonable
(and tactically correct) way to ride that kind of
racing situation is to make sure you're at or off
the front when you enter that road. If you were
caught back in the pack when you left the good road
, you're going to have a long day, 'cause the
leaders can and should be putting some distance on
you.
As they say. That's road racing.
Jerry
On Mar 29, 2004, at 9:44 AM, Adams, Mike wrote:
I know I am just one, but unless this situation gets
some serious attention then that is the last time I
will do piece of cake. The way to handle no center
line is to go neutral and everyone holds his\her
position. This would be the fair thing to do. The
first and second corner on that stretch of rode are
blind and all it would take is for a disgruntled
driver, who can drive on that side of the rode at
the speed posted or there about, to cut the corner
and many riders are injured seriously or fatally. I
do not think we need this type of incident for OBRA.
Just my opinion.
Mike Adams
=== message truncated ===
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