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Old 08-03-14, 06:53 AM
  #2611  
globecanvas
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Just off the top of my head, and this is only from the past 12 months. These are all USAC officials. I'm sure everybody has tons of stories like this. I think I was only the protester in one of these situations, but they all affected me.


- Completely random out of order lap cards shown (I think the cards had 2 sides and the scorer was looking at the back), bell rung with the card showing 5 to go. Resolution: the bell lap was the bell lap.

- Random incorrect results were posted, everybody protested, officials reviewed the finish line camera and upheld the results to general uproar. Somebody noticed that the bib numbers were right but the names were all wrong, but the scorers said that had nothing to do with them and were overwhelmed with other fields anyway. Registration had somehow got all the bib numbers off by one when mapping to racers. Resolution: results were corrected two months later.

- Another case of random incorrect results posted, everybody protested, scorers upheld the results and were very pissy about it, finally somebody noticed the runner from the scorers' table to the result board (who was an official, but not a scorer) had accidentally posted the start list, so the scorers and the racers were not looking at the same thing. Resolution: somebody posted the correct list, though the scorers never actually got the information that the wrong list was posted so they just thought all the racers were idiots.

- Lead vehicle missed the turn to the finish straight, some guys followed the car and some guys made the correct turn. Resolution: too bad if you followed the car.

- Total scorer fail, they were napping or something at the finish, did not write down numbers, finish line camera not running. Resolution: after an hour or so of debate, they scored the top 6 correctly by just going with what the racers said happened, then scored everybody else 7th place.



That's not even counting all the run-of-the-mill protests (deviating from line in last 200m, that wasn't me who crossed the yellow line, etc).

As I said above, IMO all of these situations were eventually resolved in the correct way. Even the everybody-gets-7th-place one didn't really matter because the race was only worth points down to 6th.

https://www.usacycling.org/results/?...&info_id=69331


... as long as I'm going on and on here, I have noticed that protest resolution is much faster and more pleasant if the racer makes a real effort to be patient and respectful. I'm sure I'm not telling anyone something they don't already know, but hey, I've got nothing better to write about while I'm sitting here trying to get my broken kid to fall back asleep.

Last edited by globecanvas; 08-03-14 at 07:15 AM.
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