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2010 Chico Stage Race Results
Sun, 07/11/2010 - 11:16pm
(Hi, first time poster and not a happy camper, please be easy on me.)
Is anyone else disappointed with the inaccurate results posted for the 2010 Chico Stage Race? I assume so as the Chicocosa.com official page has been buzzing with postings from many frustrated racers. I have more than my share of complaints ranging from incorrect placings posted, un-honored time bonuses that were promised in the race bible for 1st-2nd-3rd place finishes, disqualified riders still showing up in stage and GC rankings, no stage or GC times posted, etc.
I was reading the USAC site and they mention that once the results are officially posted there is no way to dispute them... which is pretty harsh as the official Chico results were not made available until nearly 2 weeks after the race had ended and even then, varied significantly from the preliminary results that were printed immediately after the races. I attempted to contact the race director Geno the week after the race with my concerns about time bonuses (only to have my official results get worse instead of better despite DQs) and have yet to receive a reply.
Is there somebody that addresses these issues or am I S.O.L. ? As a newcomer to the sport, I was really impressed by the professionalism and accuracy of race operations in my first 5 races. And don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed competing in the Chico Stage Race. It's just that the inaccurate posted placings and inadherence to stated policies in the race bible makes it hard for me to take the governing body seriously... especially with the "take it or leave it" policy of accepting poorly/inaccurate results.
My apologies for sounding whiney, but I spent a good chunk of money and effort racing only to see a less than satisfactory performance in reporting accurate race data.
DanV
Thank you for your attention.
I have sent an email with my information.
I would like to point out that the race itself was a blast and the volunteers and officials were great. Trust me, I thanked everyone I saw. I just have some concerns about variances between the USAC results and the posted results that were available after the race.
Oh, I should have pointed out that Shawn Farrell is Technical Director for USA Cycling, in other words, the chief of all USA Cycling race officials.
There are a number of things here deserving responses, I will try to cover the basics and maybe DanV can provide more information (like his race number) and I can post sometime more.
First, I would like to complement the race organizers and their volunteers, they did an excellent job in spite of the chaos of a stage race and the heat!
Normally, for a race, once results are posted there is a fifteen minute protest period. If there are no protests after that, the results are final. There has to be a cutoff at some point, and USA Cycling has chosen fifteen minutes.
As Shawn Farrell has pointed out in a recent message to all race officials, there are rare exceptions. Note the word "rare."
At a stage race, thing are a bit different for all but the last stage. There can be protests until shortly before the next stage. After the last stage, though, the same fifteen minute rule applies.
At Chico, since I was the race official who had to deal with protests, I made myself as available as I thought reasonable. After the road race, I was the last to leave the finish area. Before the criterium, I was one of the first race officials to arrive, about an hour before the first race. After the criterium, I did not leave until some time after the last protests were received and resolved, If there were any problems, they needed to be brought up and resolved at the race, simply because that is where we had the resources to take care of protests. As noted, I did not leave the criterium until well after the last protests were resolved. If somebody had a protest, that is where and when we were able to deal with it, and had to deal with it.
There were some special circumstances at Chico Stage Race. One was the temperature, during the Pro-1-2 race at the criterium it was 107 degrees! For the road race, those who did not complete two laps were given one hour more than the last rider who did finish two laps, there were no disqualifications. This was done for several reasons, one was to not make riders feel that they had to challenge their health to ride the next day, another was to increase the field sizes for the Sunday races. If we had been rigid on requiring the riders in the two-lap road races to complete both laps, we would have had both medical issues as well as very small fields on Sunday. Adding an hour to the last time made it impossible for a rider who did not complete the road race to place in the stage race, unlss something really strange happened such as a massive drop-out on Sunday (which was possible).
Having said all of that, I still have all my records from the stage race, and if a rider can provide his/her race number I can send that information to that rider. I'm not going to do it on the forum. My e-mail is eric939@redshift.com.
Once again, I would like to complement the race organizers, they did a good job, and the volunteers, especially the EXCELLENT results people!
== Eric Petersen, Chief Judge
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Hi Dan,
I understand your frustration but ask that you give us a little understanding and patience. We experienced a unique situation in our RR when, because of the heat, the officials decided to allow racers who DNF to participate in the Sunday crit and TT. This decision was made for the racers' safety and out of respect for their time and money. Stage placings are kept by the USAC officials and given to the promoter for publication. Because of the unique situation of GC and non-GC racers competing in the same events many mistakes were made. We have, and still are, working on making results as accurate as possible. The rest of this post is just an FYI as it sounds like you are new to our cycling "family". Race promotion is almost always a labor of love and not a for profit endeavor. Races are put on by your fellow cycling fans and racers who do it outside their full time job. Every person from Chico Corsa at the race volunteered there time and money to put on this event. We put have put on a successful criterium for the last three years but decided to step it up and put on a stage race this year. There are few stage races for a reason. They are a LOT more work than a single event. I don't say this as an excuse but just to let you know who we are and that we care. We have this year's event (mostly) under our belt and it will serve as a template for improvement next year. We are already excited about next years event and hope that you'll be back to race.
Jeffrey Galland
Chico Stage Race
Race Director
Jeffrey Galland
Dan,
I will contact the promoter and get back with you.
Bill Nicely
President, NCNCA