Originally Posted by
TrackMonkey7
While I won't dispute that the third rider has every right to move out of the lane like that to get some points, I'm fairly certain that he was just doing it simply to block me from attacking, getting points or just to simply scare me away.
Oh, that rider was certainly doing that to block you. That's allowed too.
An official may warn or relegate a rider for unsafe riding in a sprint, particularly for sudden lateral moves. However, putting your body where it's inconvenient to another rider is an accepted tactic (In sprinting, feinting uptrack to force your opponent to go even wider around you is called a flick or a hook), and the rider's move wasn't without purpose - that rider has reason and right to move laterally, if he wants to sprint for points.
Another way that physical positioning can come into play, from where you were riding in that race is, if you had moved forward in that line and gotten your bars in front of the 3rd rider, he would be boxed in, unable to sprint, nowhere to go. This is a good move in a tempo or an elimination.