Originally Posted by
EventServices
What I'm asking is "WHY are riders so attached to the results well beyond the prize list?"
My point is not the safety of the finishes. That's a true concern, but it's not where I was going with this. Nor am I judging people trying to do their best, but I felt I should point out that they're sprinting against non-contenders as often as not.
I'm just trying to gather information on how strongly people feel about it. So far, it appears that it's heavily weighted in the Cat 4 and 5 fields.
I'm trying to develop a new feature for cycling, and I'm running into problems because of this single issue. I'll explain after I've gathered more info.
This wasn't up when I started my response (nor anything below it).
People get involved with results because it's a metric measuring their performance. If a rider gets, say, 120th one year and 60th another then it shows some improvement in placing. It doesn't take into account much of anything else (120 out of 150 versus 60 out of 61 for example) but they're numbers and they work.
Personally I would put a "DNP" (Did Not Place) for my "non-contested finishes", meaning the finishes where I just roll across the line. 67th, 78th, it doesn't matter. In 2011, when I did the Cat 2 Somerville, I got caught behind a crash with a half lap to go. I rolled in sort of hard because I didn't want the Missus to worry about me being hurt but I was pretty slow, doing maybe 22-24 mph instead of the 28-30 mph the field was doing. A friend of mine, ahead of me in the field but slowed by the crash, took it easy as he had no one spectating. I was placed dead last I think and he was a DNF even though he was close behind me at the finish. He joked about being ripped off in terms of his finish.
For me DNP works as well as whatever I got that year. I looked. 67th out of 68 official finishers.