Joseph A. Field

Mike's proposal makes lots of sense to me. My first bike race victory
was a clean one rider break 20 yards ahead of my field at PIR, where I
was DNF'ed for having my number on the wrong side. I would have liked
the option of volunteering to officiate (a thankless job) for
reinstatement of my result.

Rules are important, but disqualification can be disheartening. Where
logical, opportunities for restitution are a good idea. -Joe
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Joseph A. Field
Field Jerger LLP
Oregon National Building
610 SW Alder Street, Ste. 910
Portland, OR 97205
Tel. (503) 228 - 9115
Fax (503) 225- 0276
E mail: joe@fieldjerger.com
Visit us on the web at: www.fieldjerger.com

The information contained in this message may be privileged and
confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this
message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent
responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you
are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of
this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the
message and deleting it from your computer.
Any U.S. tax advice contained in the body of this e-mail was not
intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by the recipient for
the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the Internal
Revenue Code or applicable state or local tax law provisions.
________________________________

From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of Mike Murray
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 9:19 AM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] TTT - Clothing request for teams
withmultipleentries

The TTT is a particular challenge form an officiating point of view.
First, teams do multiple laps. Riders cross the finish multiple times.
In the middle of the race you have riders that are on their first lap
riding at the same time as riders who are laps into the event. The
official at the finish line needs to be able to identify the riders
coming towards them and show them the appropriate lap card as well as
record their time under the appropriate team identification and lap.
This all needs to be done quickly as there may be another team just in
front or just behind who may be on the same lap or may be on another lap
and who will need the same thing. In most individual time trials the
rider goes out and comes back only crossing the finish a single time.
In addition, for the TTT the time needs to be done an the third rider in
the team. This is easy if the team stays together, but gets more
difficult in the common situation where they do not. Add to this the
usual difficulties of poorly placed numbers that are difficult to
impossible to read from the side of the road as the rider goes by at
speed.

Before I ever was involved in officiating a race I always, as a racer,
wondered why it took so long for the officials to come up with results.
Now I recognize that it is far more difficult to produce results than I
would have ever imagined. I urge everyone to, at least once, help with
officiating and in particular judging a race. It is an eye opening
experience and makes you much more appreciative of the background work
that has to be done so you can have a fun racing experience.

On a separate note; it has been the standard that riders with
un-readable or missing numbers are not placed in the race. All the
riders behind them are moved up a place. This happens VERY frequently.
Evan Elken did not get his 4th place this Tuesday because his number was
on the wrong side. Actually on Tuesday there were 6 riders that were
not placed because of number issues. Same thing happened to me a couple
of years ago when I put my number on the wrong side. Most of the time
this is done because the officials genuinely can't identify the rider,
although Evan was pretty easy to identify and when it happened to me my
wife was judging. Ironically the more the rider complains about this
the more difficult he was to identify in the first place. We get long
and vitriolic messages from riders and rider representatives when they
are denied a place because they forgot to put a number on or had it in a
position where it could only be seen from a helicopter.

I have made a suggestion that we change this practice. First, rather
than not place the rider we should just not award that place. In other
words, instead of moving all the riders behind up a place we leave a
place holder in the position of the rider with the bad number. Second,
we award the place to the rider if he works as a judge at another event
within a short period of time. I think this practice might give an out
for the rider upset over the loss of a place that they won, increase the
number of people that are able to officiate races as well as educate
people about the difficulties involved.

What do you all think of this plan?

Mike Murray
-----Original Message-----
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org
[mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On Behalf Of
gschreckchat@comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 16:30 PM
To: Fischer, Jim E (Corvallis); obra@list.obra.org
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] TTT - Clothing request for teams with
multipleentries
Each team wears a different number. How is that any different in
races or individual TT's with people form the same team competing?

--

George Schreck
gschreckchat@comcast.net
(503) 502-0425

-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Fischer, Jim E (Corvallis)"

> If you are on a team fielding multiple entries into
one category, please try to
> wear something distinctive so we can identify you from
the other groups from
> your team.
>
> Example: Team Rose City has three teams entered in the
Master Men 200-239.
>
> Maybe fishnet stockings, bright tassles (on the bars)
or beer hats could be used
> to distinguish the various teams.
>
> Capes would work, too, as long as they weren't too
long.
>
> Anything you can do to make yourselves different from
team mates in other groups
> in your field would be helpful and will reduce
confusion.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fish
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA mailing list
> obra@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
> Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org