ExMachina

Rode in my first road race last weekend and finished in the top 10 of a 35+ man field. Not great, but a strong showing considering the nature of the race (lots of climbing and a withering headwind)

Sadly, the race results got posted today and I wasn't in them.

That was a bummer.

Additionally, I know of at least three other guys that aren't listed in the Cat 5 rankings, either.

Questions are:

1) How often does this happen? I realize that race officials are human and make mistakes, but a greater than 10% error rate seems awfully high. It would be encouraging to hear from you all that this was merely a poor example of race officiating.

2) What recourse do I have to appeal this? I've already written to the race organizer. Anyone else?

I know I'm not the first one to have this happen to him, but I have to say that to have what you think of as being your first road race turned into nothing more than a $25 group ride kind of sucks.

sprintf

Check the results immediately after your race. You have 15 minutes to contest. If you didn't do it then, you have no recourse unless it was some sort of typo/clerical error.

ExMachina

So I'm SOL, huh?

Good to know for next time...

jkizzle

couldnt hurt to contact the promoter and see what happened?

kudude

yes, but that $25 group ride gets you 10% closer to your 4s upgrade.

sprintf

Out of 50+ mass starts I've only had maybe 1 or 2 minor mistakes in placing. Immediately after a top 10 placing I head over and find out where the official results will be posted and I hang around until I verify my place. It's hard to tell how long it will take for results to be posted (it could be 5 minutes or an hour) so you have to be careful not to miss the 15 minute protest period.

ExMachina

yup. you're right and it's good to keep it all in perspective. thanks.

still bummed though. i was looking forward to printing out the full results and putting them with my race number--you know, one of those little things in life that nobody cares about but you...

ExMachina

that's encouraging.

the finishing straight of this particular race was a giant cluster f*ck when our group came in. there was stopped traffic all over the road and the finishing line itself was really hard to see for all the cars.

so, i guess it's perhaps not so surprising that the officials missed three out of our four team members as they crossed the line...

jkizzle

if thats the case, it sounds poorly ran, the finish should be clear and easily seen.