Scott Jones
Ivan,
This picture was from the morning session and is also one of the more
experienced groups on the road (1/2 Men), hence the good placement of the
number on the body. having good # placement can help more than anything,
even when its hard to read the whole #. I would say that the senior women
had the best # placement on the day Sunday.
Everyone should look how the riders place the number on their body (riders
in order 146, 126, 2522, 820, 114, 986, 176, 812, 558, 112), see how they
are not on your side, but start at your side and wrap onto your back. If you
are unsure of # placement and want/can plan ahead, try pinning your number
before you get to the race, put it on, and look in the mirror bent over like
riding position and ask "Could I see this in a finish line picture?" Also,
using more than 4 pins is a good idea, that way the chances of a flapping #
decrease. I know how everyone loves to know how they did as soon as possible
and good # placement gets results out sooner. It makes my life easier at a
race and whoever the results person is, life easier after leaving the race
venue.
The BB1 afternoon session is much better in terms of lighting and other
adjustments I made to focus and camera angle, but worse when it came to
seeing #'s due to the constant rain showers and numerous rain jackets. There
are lots of things I can do to determine what #'s are or who a rider is. I
can zoom, enhance the clarity, look at team kit and possible # combo, etc.
Also, NOT sitting up (keeping hands on bars) at the finish helps us see your
number.
The basis of my email was to ask people to remember that having a visible #
means getting placed and results being tabulated sooner. We try very hard to
place every rider, something that OBRA take pride in, and our job gets
harder when # placement is this big of an issue.
Scott
On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 3:24 PM, Meadors, Ivan C wrote:
> I saw this sequence from Candi: the only number I can read with any
> confidence is 558 (I think that is Wes Stephens from Pauls Way Of Life
> team).
>
> Identifying riders looks like an impossible task!!!!
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Scott Jones
> *Sent:* Monday, March 02, 2009 2:03 PM
> *To:* OBRA List
> *Subject:* [OBRA Chat] BB1 Number placement
>
>
>
> I worked the finish camera at BB1 and will be there again at BB2, along
> with many other races this year. I would like to thank all of you who pinned
> numbers correctly this week. It makes my job easier to place you and in turn
> Candi's job easier to post results and get more sleep at night. She spends
> many hours after the race finding and placing missed riders, riders without
> numbers, riders with unreadable numbers, etc.
>
> For BB2 please try and work on your number placement. I know that BB1 was
> wet and so many of you wore rain jackets (both solid color and clear) and
> they ended up covering your # at the finish. There are several ways to
> prevent us from having to search for you after the race to place you.
>
> 1 - Wear your number on your rain jacket. (I understand this might not be
> the best option, but we and the official on the road, need to be able to
> identify you)
> 2 - Remove your rain jacket a few miles before the finish so we can see
> your number at the finish. (probably the best idea)
> 3 - Pull up your jacket at the finish to show your #. (is not the best
> idea, because we most often only get a partial #)
> 4 - Do not wear a hand written number unless it is written in black and is
> big. (a ball point pen or thin sharpie won't do it)
> 5 - Buy a second set of #'s that are personalized through Kenji and pin
> both your Jersey and rain jacket! (it never hurts to be prepared)
>
> I know that this is not a perfect world, I will still miss some riders #'s
> with overlapping at the finish and other things, but the biggest problems I
> had with seeing #'s for BB1 fell in the category of where you actually
> pinned your #. When at a race, the officials try and look at the riders
> before the start to make sure that I will be able to read your #, but the
> easiest thing to do when standing at the start line or riding around at a
> venue is looking at the rider next to you and helping your fellow rider pin
> their number correctly.
>
> Thanks for your help and see you on Sunday,
> Scott Jones
>