Road Bike Racing - First Road Race but "Official" results say I didn't finish

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ExMachina
05-14-08, 09:11 PM
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
05-14-08, 09:23 PM
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
05-14-08, 09:38 PM
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.

So I'm SOL, huh?

Good to know for next time...


jkizzle
05-14-08, 10:05 PM
couldnt hurt to contact the promoter and see what happened?

kudude
05-14-08, 10:31 PM
yes, but that $25 group ride gets you 10% closer to your 4s upgrade.

sprintf
05-14-08, 10:37 PM
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
05-14-08, 10:37 PM
yes, but that $25 group ride gets you 10% closer to your 4s upgrade.

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
05-14-08, 10:41 PM
Out of 50+ mass starts I've only had maybe 1 or 2 minor mistakes in placing.

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
05-14-08, 11:03 PM
if thats the case, it sounds poorly ran, the finish should be clear and easily seen.