Originally Posted by
zizou
What are the rules involving lapped riders? Was in a 50 lap scratch and im leading in the sprinters lane on the back straight - sense someone trying to come round but i felt confident that i could hold it off round the bend and then the race to the line. However when i come out the final bend there are 3 lapped riders ahead and i need to either ease off or cut across the others sprinting and cause a crash so obviously i ease up and ended up outside the top 3 which was rather frustrating!
Is this just considered racing and my own fault for not seeing them far enough in advance to do something about it or should i have appealed to the commissaire afterwards? I know that lapped riders are not meant to contest the sprint but they werent doing this they were just getting in the way going slower.
Originally Posted by
Hida Yanra
You should have appealed...
Actually, Zizou shouldn't have caught the slow riders if he wanted to keep his position at the front of the race.
As soon as the lead rider of the pack catches a trailing rider (effectively lapping the trailing rider), that trailing rider is -20pts BUT he is now back in the pack AND can fight for the sprint points.
So, let's say I was the slow guy and I get caught on a sprint lap to go down -20pts, but then I get on the gas and if I win that sprint lap I get +5pts for a net of -15pts.
In my first season racing I did this and I got chewed out buy the guy who's points I stole, but not by the race director who said that it was legal.
To make a long story short, it happens. This is also why you see a group (of say 3 riders) trying to lap the field and are doing so during a sprint lap. Those 3 riders will intentionally linger several meters back of the pack in order to get their 5, 3, & 2 sprint points before catching the pack and getting the +20 bonus, effectively getting a double bonus of 25, 23, and 22 points respectively. If they catch the pack, the leaders of the pack get the 5, 3, 2, 1 points and the 3 that lapped the field only get +20 each.