Mike Murray

While I was running the finish line camera last night at Tabor I noted that
there are a ton of people who do things that should not be done if there is
a camera on the finish line. Since there is a camera on virtually all road
finish lines at OBRA races these things should always apply:

NEVER CROSS THE FINISH LINE UNLESS YOU ARE FINISHING - The camera records
everything that crosses the finish line. If it is set to automatically
record it will record you even if there is no race finishing. Although it
is generally easy to figure out whether the person is racing or not when you
are looking at them, when reviewing the static picture for results it is
difficult to tell.

NEVER RIDE BACKWARDS ACROSS THE FINISH LINE - A photo finish camera will
record the rider either way they go across. If the rider is going the wrong
way they will still look like they are going the right way but their image
will be reversed. Since most of you are pretty symmetric this is also pretty
difficult to figure out. Only ride forwards and don't cross the line unless
it counts.

DO NOT STAND OR WALK IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA - Last night the finish of the
Cat 1/2 field was partially obscured by a large, blurred image as someone
walked their bike between the camera and the finish line during the finish.

If you have never seen how the cameras work or how the results are figured
out I urge you to stop by and have a look. Picking people out of a large
group sprinting by at high speed is even more difficult than it seems. We
have a fair amount of technology applied to this problem and we generally
like to show it off.

Mike Murray