Going into the crit of a stage race, I was in 10th place on GC; however, i crashed in the penultimate lap, with less than 1k left in the race. I stopped, unclipped, and checked my bike to see if there was any damage. After getting back on the bike, the trailing moto-ref told me to go on with the race (as opposed to reporting to the pit or to speak to a referee at the start/finish). In the last lap, there were more riders who crashed (at the same corner where I crashed).

After the race, I was told that ALL riders who crashed in the last 3k of the criterium would receive "same time" as the last rider in the field; yet this apparently wasn't the case as i received my actual time (59 sec behind the leader and 46 sec behind what was eventually determined to be end of the field). It was also apparent that riders who did crash in the last lap did not move down the GC.

Perplexed, I initially asked a first official (Official A) re: the disparity of riders who benefited from the "3K rule" and whom he considered to be the last rider in the field. He stated that as the "field" was considered to be too spread out, the last rider in the field is considered to have finished well over a minute down (in other words, after my actual finishing time). As the answer did not make sense (because if all riders who crashed were accredited a time more than a minute down, some would actually move down on the GC, which wasn't the case) Perplexed at this explanation, I asked Official A why this 3K rule was not uniformly applied. He told me to come back in about 10 minutes after he has had time to review the situation. Though his explanation during this initial period failed to make sense, Official A was courteous the whole time during the initial and subsequent conversations.

When I came back after ten minutes had passed, Official A stated that the ruling stood without providing any explanation in the original discrepancy and referred me to the chief referee. The chief referee, whose name i didn't catch, was rude, brusque, and imperious. He did not discuss how he determined which rider was considered to be the end of the pack (essentially avoiding the crux of my question) and instead insisted that I was lucky that I finished the race. When I insisted on him explaining just how the end of the field was determined, he raised his voice (so that people within 10 feet turned their head) and stated that the conversation is over and kept on stating that the discussion is over.

In a final ditch attempt, I grabbed the stage results (which have since been taken off of the results wall) and proceeded to ask any of the referees why I received my actual time instead of the pack's time, for my own edification should similar occasions arise in the future. One gentleman (Official C), whose name I did not catch but who had a distinct mustache, was kind enough to look into the matter. After a few minutes, he explained that there is indeed a 3K rule (viz. 3H5C), but that because I continued onwards without reporting to the pit, I essentially waived the benefit of the 3K rule. I explained to him that the reason I continued on was in a previous crit of a stage race (Millersburg), i was caught behind a rider who crashed in the last 1.5K of the crit; despite having reported to the pit, the officials placed me behind riders who caught up to my group, which was stopped due to the crash. The referee at that race stated that I was out of luck and should have been back on my bike ASAP. Thus, it didn't even occur to me that I should report to the pit after my crash. As they had al