Tuesday, August 07, 2007

On Adventure Racing, Pentalties and Why I Race...

There's been a lot of chatter over at the Folks From Lincoln site about the Maskenthine Lake Sprint adventure race, and the fact that a questionable 15-minute time penalty completely changed the official race results, and kept Darin Schlake, Kevin Burke and Mark Brackenberry from being recognized for what they were -- the winners of the race.

I believe Darin, Kevin and Mark have every right to feel wronged by the promoter and NSC Racing. Even if they were more than 50-yards apart for a few moments, how does that warrant a 15-minute penalty? Someone please explain that to me.

Further, I do not aspire to compete in a sport where time penalties are handed out so frequently that the competitors must wait on pins and needles until the awards ceremony to see if they were lucky enough to escape the wrath of the promoters. And to have their protest be dismissed by the promoter (Laurel) without any consideration is an insult.

Those guys paid $45 dollars for their entry fee, only to have the $500 winner's purse snatched out of their hands due to a judgement call by a volunteer. I don't know about you, but I have to pay for my own entry fees, and $45 is a lot of money! To get hosed after paying that much money would really bum me out... and I fully believe they got hosed.

I guess that's why I love mountain bike racing. It's fun, and the winner isn't ever determined by penalties.

2 comments:

cvo said...

I chatted with a buddy, who had a buddy at the race.

he said every team there should have been given that penalty, cuz everyone was at one point in time that far away from each other, and it was obviouse...

I'm with you buddy, I'll stick to just riding my bike.

MG said...

i've had similar conversations, perhaps with some of the same people.

i also heard from a participant in one of the NSC races earlier this season. he mentioned an instance during that race where his teammates were more like 500 yards away from him at one point. nobody said a thing...

... and they finished the race in second place -- no penalties.

selective enforcement seems to be the only rule that's consistently enforced...