Brad Cockman, DC
I'm still counting my blessings that I decided on the 3's race versus
the Master's, now for more than a couple of reasons.
I was at the finish line ringing the bell helping out poor Nancy a
little, all alone in the OBRA truck trying to do 12 jobs at once. As
she's looking at video trying to pick placings from the various races
that were finishing she was under an Iraqui bombardment from racers
bitching to her for one reason or another or trying to find out where
they had finished RIGHT after they had crossed the finish line. Nancy
somehow maintained her composure when she had every right to tell these
people to go straight to hell. The BBQ potato chips must have had some
kind of sedative added to them.
Damn people, leave the poor OBRA volunteers alone. If you have a
legitimate complaint find the chief referee. Flying off the handle like
a couple of the Master's did after the crash is pretty embarassing and
just plain old not nice when you're talking to the wrong person to begin
with. If sh*t like this keeps up we'll soon be showing up at races and
wondering where all the yellow shirts went.
On another note, the layout of POC doesn't really lend itself to safe
riding conditions. Flat course which keeps packs together, super narrow
roads with little or no shoulder (and dead vermin) and big fields is a
prescription for disaster in my book. Any better roads in that neck of
the woods?
Ron Magnus wrote:
Hello all,
How ironic; for the past two weeks there has been such a plethora of
noise about centerline violations and the reasons one way or the other
they occurred. For the record, I was made aware of the original cause
of this thread back on the morning of March 17. I was conducting a
class in the Los Angeles area. One of the students was a Pro racer who
had been at the race in Arizona and gave me some of the details such as
they were first hand. The following day and onwards OBRA chat erupted
with so many comments mostly constructive that I felt pretty good about
the way people viewed this important matter especially since some of the
long time racers/riders could recall a similar situation with the same
results that occurred in Washington County a good number of years ago.
Fast forward to last weekend's Piece of Cake Masters event. Two age
graded categories in one field consisting of 54 riders take to the road.
Not unusual compared to some of the other larger fields of the day on
the same venue. Since this event went the way of many Masters events
where there is little "real racing" the field size stayed pretty much
the same until the start of the final lap. Now some individuals are
getting anxious, about 4k from the finish line two individuals cross the
centerline in a left turn on one of the narrow streets (makes no
difference if it's a significant crossing or not), there is a lot of
loud comments from the field, the two riders move quickly back into the
pack, so quickly that it causes a rider to loose control right away and
then send another rider to the pavement incurring head, shoulder and
chest injuries. Let's now move forward to the 400 meter region from the
finish. Our pack of Masters has pretty much regrouped and is chomping
at the bit for the final sprint, once again some riders are observed
moving left across the centerline incurring the attention of the pack.
Almost at the same time two riders on the right side of the pack start
to sprint and knock into each other, they go down, one rider suffers a
significant facial injury cutting an artery.
Today we see on OBRA CHAT that the Masters field has further
"distinguished" themselves with obscene language that can easily be
heard by corner marshals and bystanders young and old.........ARE YOU
HAVING FUN?????
Folks this is supposed to be a fun hobby.....it sure doesn't appear that
way these days, such a not so nice example to be presenting to others.
I suppose you can chastise me as much as you want for making these
comments as I normally sit back and just read. Keep in mind that the
comments noted above are observations noted by many, so be careful on
your responses lest you put your foot farther in your mouth.
Ron Magnus; Portland, OR
503-244-4866