Originally Posted by
tetonrider
every event i've been to where there has been testing (admittedly few), there was a sign at the finish as you crossed indicating whether or not you had to piss in a cup (in addition to the winner). so, minimal chance of someone just going home without knowing what was up. sure, someone could have missed it, but it's not like it was revealed 45' after everyone crossed the line, in a dark tent, and people had already left the race.
DNFs would have been recorded by officials--if that rider crashed out or had some other issue that caused them not to cross the line, there might be a legit issue, but i imagine there is protocol for that.
bottom line: if you miss a test, it's not good -- but it isn't as easy to miss one as you might think. let's hope it never comes to that for you.
I've done plenty of MTB races where **** goes wrong. Break a spoke, blow a fork up, eat **** down a ravine. DNF without crossing the finish line. When I broke my hand in October, I had to drive myself to the hospital. The only reason the officials knew I was a DNF was because the Start/Finish area was en route back to my car. I've also done plenty of races where parking wasn't any where near the S/F, and if you had a mishap, it would be ridiculous for you to try to get to both the S/F en route to the parking lot.