double century half hour stop

[fandacious]

2.32 In Ashton, when teams meet their support vehicle, they will be given the opportunity to “clock out” for a maximum period of 30 (thirty) minutes which will NOT count towards their teams’ riding time. ALL teams will be directed through this area and therefore all teams will be “clocked in” and “clocked out”. Teams will be required to cross a timing mat when “clocking in” and a second mat when ”clocking out”. Should teams fail to clock out, their 30 minutes will be counted towards their overall riding time. The team’s time will stop once the 6th rider of that team crosses the check mat, and will start again when the first rider of the team crosses the second mat.

 

why not just make it a 2day stage race?

[nuge]

how about a beer forfeit?

[andydude]

Sheesh I only see this as a point where a lot of things can go wrong, either with teams scrambling around or the time mats/chips not working, etc. Can't really understand the point of this enforced stop.

[Red Zone]

Doesn't sound like a forced stop, you can roll through if you want. I think its a good idea for the social teams. It will be interesting to see if the racing teams will stop.

[Shebeen]

2.32 In Ashton, when teams meet their support vehicle, they will be given the opportunity to “clock out” for a maximum period of 30 (thirty) minutes which will NOT count towards their teams’ riding time. ALL teams will be directed through this area and therefore all teams will be “clocked in” and “clocked out”. Teams will be required to cross a timing mat when “clocking in” and a second mat when ”clocking out”. Should teams fail to clock out, their 30 minutes will be counted towards their overall riding time. The team’s time will stop once the 6th rider of that team crosses the check mat, and will start again when the first rider of the team crosses the second mat.

 

why not just make it a 2day stage race?

 

 

sounds like a new record will be set.

 

a bit unnecessary, what is the motivation behind it. team captains being too snoep with breaks and killing their members?

[Let's Ride]

What? So effectively your time could decrease by 30 minutes compared to last year...

 

Is this possibly the area where the road has been damaged? If so it then makes sense.

 

 

 

 

........................So basically everybody will be taking a 30 min break.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Let's Ride

[Lucky Luke.]

Is it just me or is this the end of racing the DC? A time trial with a free half hour tea-break is no longer a time trial.

[jiggs]

Next year its the DC picnic

['Dale]

Sheesh I only see this as a point where a lot of things can go wrong, either with teams scrambling around or the time mats/chips not working, etc. Can't really understand the point of this enforced stop.

 

Yeah, was there reasoning provided for this new rule?

[AuctionLamb]

Not a forced stop....you have a 30min buffer

 

if u wanna stop grab something quickly then it is cool...if u want to stop for 30min and chat to the wife...also cool

[fandacious]

Is it just me or is this the end of racing the DC? A time trial with a free half hour tea-break is no longer a time trial.

 

exactly.. the whole point of the dc is a 6hr sufferfest. If theres a 30min rest, I'm pretty sure we're going to start seeing 5h05 finishing times

[Meezo]

exactly.. the whole point of the dc is a 6hr sufferfest. If theres a 30min rest, I'm pretty sure we're going to start seeing 5h05 finishing times

 

this is perfect for a social team, racing team move on and race up! i don't know how its gonna work tho if one racing stops and another doesn't! hmmmm

[Tubehunter]

How much can you recover in 30 mins?? Surely the racing snakes would prefer to keep rolling and keep their rhythm, rather than take a half hour break and start all over again.

 

I'm guessing it's the logistics of no seconding til Ashton that's brought this on. This will give the social crew the chance to resolve anything that comes up in the race without feeling the pressure to hurry it along from a tming perspective.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Tubehunter

[Wannabe]

The way I understand it is like this.:

There is a "entry" Timing Mat which the cyclists / teams must go when you enter the "Rest Zone". It only activates the rest period as soon as the last team member goes over the mat (problem when one or more of the team abandoned / got dropped before the rest stop, how are they gonna know!?) If team takes the Rest period (their own decision as to how long, they have up to half an hour) the clock is "paused". As soon as the Team leave the Rest Area, the clock start ticking again as soon as the last Team member goes over the "exit" Timing Mat. If the Team does not make use of the rest period, they just continue straight over the "exit" mat. To aleviate the problem with Team members dropped, they must not go over the timing mats as they enter / exit the Rest Zone. Sounds like a problem to enforce / Police.

It might skew the excitement at the finish, as the real finishing time of the teams might not reflect in the order they arrive at the finish. Sounds like a bit of a logistical nightmare.

 

Maybe someone can mail the Orgs to find out how exactly they envisage this thing work, and the post their response here.

Edited November 7, 2012 by Wannabe

[Tubehunter]

Not last rider but 6th rider in at the rest area Wannabe. First rider out restarts the clock. I last did the DC in 2006. Do they not stagger the race teams through the field still? It was never really a situation where the first team home was the actual leader on the clock and on the road.

[nuge]

opens up the following scenario: send 6 guys up the road from the start to stop the clock at ashton. Other 6 ride easy/easier (but have to get to ashton within the 30mins, of course) and then ride full gas from ashton to the finish.