by Andrew G » Mon May 18, 2009 7:41 pm
[quote="-Adam-"]One would have thought judging that finish would have been fairly straight forward given the fact it was so strung out, obviously not.
Having done number spotting on a few occasions it isn't always that easy even if people are spread out. A lot depends on how people have pinned their numbers on. Your jersey often rucks a bit during a race and depending where the number is then you can end up with a "was that a 6,8,0 or a 1,7" and various other possibilities. Also you often find numbers are pinned in different places on the jersey so you have to keep flicking your eyes up and down and twisting at an angle to spot the number, that's without the up and down scanning needed for different sizes of rider.
When people finish together you've then got the problem of the above combined with partial obscuring from bodies, arms, heads, bikes.
I wasn't at this race so don't know what it was like or how the numbers were attached etc, but it ain't always as easy as it seems. Really you want dictaphones to just call out in to that, otherwise I think you need one caller and one writer as each judge or it becomes a nightmare to try and write legible numbers in order whilst watching the riders and picking the numbers out. I go on numbers too even when I know the riders as I can't write the names quick enough and I find it more tricky for my mind to keep switching between numbers and names as people come streaming past.
