queerpunk

i mean, it really sucks to have a win taken away from you for a sprint lane violation (i'm guessing - i've never had it happen to me). recently, i was helping a young rider trackside, and i watched this rider lose a national championship (and a guaranteed trip to Worlds) for a very small sprint lane violation when this rider had the win in the bag - a very tough way to have one very small error cost an entire omnium. unless you can be 100% certain what the comm will call, i'd stay paranoid.

the current wording of the rule is (per USAC):
2F8 (c)
If the leader is below the sprinters line, he or she must stay below the sprinters line until the finish and all following riders must pass on the right and outside the sprinters lane. However, the leader may come out of the sprinters lane if he or she is so far ahead that there is no hindrance to opponents;

So it's not so much about intent as it is the effect. One can unintentionally come out of the lane and hinder an opponent coming around - relegation; or, one can intentionally come out of the lane, not hinder an opponent who's still behind you, and get no relegation.

A reminder, too, that this is "Once the sprint has begun." Former wording, I think, was "once the sprint is engaged." A lot of places use the 200m line as the place where this rule starts, but that's erroneous. How do you know if a sprint has begun? Well. That's a good question, and one of those situations where writing any kind of specificity into the rule is going to lead to a worse rule than a vague one.