ridecamp@endurance.net: 25 Mile Rides

25 Mile Rides

Niccolai Murphy (niccolai.murphy@e-mall.org)
Mon, 10 Jul 1995 16:43:09 -0800

This used to be a problem running night rallies (motorsport) in the UK on
streets. Cars got too fast and the push to drive at illegal speeds in order to
win was too great. Many ideas were thought up to reduce the effect. Mostly the
races were turned into treasure hunts, but one solution that might trnasfer
over into the 25 miler was applied by a club threatened by the local police
with a ban....

You stagger the start (one rider off per minute or two say) then you have
stage checks at unannounced points along the course. Points are given to the
rider who manages to hit each point closest to a reasonable average speed. This
is done by placing the rider's time card in a time punch machine at each check
point. At the end of the event all the times are calulated and rider with the
minimum number of seconds in error wins. (This is also done in aviation -
called precision flying races except they use ground judges not time punches).

In this case you can even have several classes slow, medium and fast say which
aim for different times but only the minimum error of all the classes wins the
"1st" place for the whole event. That way speed counts for nothing, skill
is everthing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mall BBS Poway California 619 679 1158 & 619 679 9327
Internet: niccolai.murphy@e-mall.org (Niccolai Murphy)