[GW] On notice after Durand

Bruce Brasaemle velobruce at usjet.net
Tue Apr 24 20:59:42 EDT 2007


Even more fun at Durand... (results processing version)

Waited as long as possible before we set up the cameras because of the 
wind. At first, there were no problems. The wind wasn't threatening to 
blow the cameras and tripods over. We were able to score the race and 
run the lap cards, while just keeping an eye on the cameras. Then the 
Cit/5 and Women's races finished. Pretty much cranked out those results 
immediately. But then the wind picked up. One of us (me) had to 
literally hold the tripods to keep them from blowing over for the rest 
of the afternoon until everyone finished (or at least all of the fields 
finished). That made getting any other results analyzed nearly 
impossible and did make running lap cards impossible (the wind did blow 
those over and I ran out of hands). As a result, we couldn't print out 
results for the 4/5/Citizen, Masters 45+, Masters 35+ or Cat 3/4 races 
until after everyone finished and we could analyze stuff. Got the Cat 
1/2/3 results done before those middle fields because they were easiest 
to sort. Spent a lot of time trying to sort out who finished in the top 
3 of the remaining 4 fields without much success. We finally put out 
partial results for all fields except the 4/5/Citizen race. By then, 
everyone had gone home.

It turns out that the biggest reason we had trouble with the middle 
fields, particularly the Cit/4/5, the Masters 45+ and the Masters 35+ 
was the number of riders from different fields finishing mixed together 
(as is usually the case at Durand). For example: the Masters 45+ riders, 
when finishing, were mixed in with riders from the following fields: the 
last of the finishing Women, the last of the finishing Citizen/5, 
Masters 35+ riders with 1 to go, finishing 4/5/Citizen, Cat 1/2/3 with 2 
laps to go, finishing Cat 3/4, and finishing Masters 35+ riders.

Went home to finish analyzing the results which then took only about a 
half an hour and I had the complete results sent off to Bob and Bob by a 
little after 8 pm Saturday evening. Amazing how much easier it is to 
work without wind blowing everything around.

Oh yeah, when we were done recording, I took the cameras down and put 
them away, but left the tripods up. Both of the tripods blew over, one 
of them tumbling out of the back of the pickup, denting one leg and 
breaking the locking joint on another leg.... The moral of the story? 
It's not just racers who hate wind....

Thankfully, the replacement part for the tripod only costs about $10.

It was a great day and I was pleased to see so many Gophers do well. 
Congrats to all who participated, even if you don't think you did so well.

Cheers,
Bruce






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