Technical Director Update December 2008

Technical Director Update

December 5th, 2008

Wow, what happened? The season is almost over and we are madly working on the calendar and assignments for next year. This will be a short one with just a few assorted items in it.

Officials Assignments

The Technical Commission has met to discuss the national-level assignments for road, track, and BMX for 2009. Once the final decisions are made and the organizers are informed, officials should start seeing emails with their appointment letters in the 4^th week of December. We will be adding MTB assignments as soon as possible, but the calendar is still in flux a little bit.

Do the Paperwork (does this look familiar? It should…again and again)

In the last update I reiterated the importance of doing the follow up paperwork. Many officials are much better at doing the work beforehand and during the event than they are afterwards, but it is critical that you stay on task until the paperwork is submitted. This is fresh in our minds around here because we just lost a significant initial judgment stemming from a race in 2003. This judgment against us started because the Chief Referee of the event did not submit the results. The lack of these results had big consequences for a rider who was not credited with points from that event. So, five years, beaucoup dollars, and hundreds of hours in staff time were lost all because of an official not following through when the race was over. That is just another reason we take the paper trail so seriously.

Beginning this year, we will be much less forgiving with officials who do not turn in their post-event reports in a timely fashion. In fact, we currently have one official under suspension for failure to turn in reports. It certainly is not fair for an organizer to find that his reputation and that of the sponsoring club is tarnished by the official who walks off with all the paperwork and then does not turn it in. Hopefully enough said.

When to give a free lap

There was a story being passed around from a criterium that had many of the pro teams. They related a story about how a rider went into the pit and had a garbage bag wrapped around his cluster and through the derailleur. The official denied the free lap. Here are the rules:

1A20.  A mishap is a crash or a mechanical accident (tire puncture or other failure of an essential component). However, a puncture caused by the tire coming off due to inadequate gluing is not a mechanical accident, nor is a malfunction due to mis-assembly or insufficient tightening of any component. 

3D5. Free Lap Rule. Riders shall normally cover the distance of the race regardless of mishaps and must make up any distance lost on their own ability unless a free lap is granted for mishaps. A free lap may be granted for each mishap subject to the following rules unless the official race announcement states that no free laps will be allowed.  On courses shorter than 1 km (.6 mile), two free laps shall be allowed for a given mishap.

3D5 basically says that you may get a free lap for mishaps. If we assume the free lap rule was in effect for the race in question, then the relevant issue is the definition of a mishap in 1A20. The rider with the garbage bag did not crash, so that is out. Is this a mechanical accident? The official apparently ruled that it was not. A mechanical accident is a puncture or a failure of an essential component. We are left considering the nature of what a failure of an essential component is. I think a derailleur with a garbage bag in it has certainly failed. The real question asked by the free lap rule has more to do with culpability. The part of the rule that is critical to interpretation is the following:

However, a puncture caused by the tire coming off due to inadequate gluing is not a mechanical accident, nor is a malfunction due to mis-assembly or insufficient tightening of any component. 

A puncture does not count if the rider caused it himself by letting his tire roll off due to inadequate gluing. Any malfunction caused by poor assembly or poor tightening does not count. If you are racing and a garbage bag blows across the street and lodges itself in your derailleur, I think we can conclude that you had zero culpability in the situation, and now have a failed derailleur, which is an essential component.

In summary, a free lap should have been granted in this scenario. The fact that we give free laps at all will be discussed and debated as long as there are criteriums and officials, but as long as we do, then we must stay true to the spirit of the rule. We don’t want people to lose criteriums because of bad luck when the bad luck involves punctures, crashes, and mechanical accidents, as long as the rider was not, himself, responsible for that problem.

Ski Weekend 2009

Last year some officials decided to get together on a specific weekend in Breckenridge, CO for a very unofficial official’s ski weekend. This is something we are looking at doing again. The weekend will start Saturday, January 10^th, and the option will be there to stay through the 13^th. This will give a couple of weekdays for prime skiing with small lift lines. Airline prices are looking very good right now for that time frame as well. Please note the following:

This is not an official USA Cycling function, and USA Cycling assumes no liability for anything that happens on the trip.

We are working on a great housing deal with a resort in Breckenridge and it should be a great time for all. If you would like to be included on an email distribution list and the plans for the weekend, please email me back and I will keep you up to date.

That is all for now. I hope everyone has a great holiday season and is looking forward to the next season. Licenses for 2009 went on sale 5 days ago. Okay, special prize for the 5^th correct caller – what is the license color for 2009? J

Shawn Farrell

Technical Director