RuK - Organisers respond to timing issues

The organisers of the FOCUS Challenge race (Rund um Köln) have kindly issued a response to the many complaints on the timing of each rider's race and the corresponding result lists.

The timings have largely been confirmed by the provider MIKA timing and the result lists are entirely correct according to the new T-Mobile Cycling Tour rules, which say that the first 250 across the finish line are also the first 250 in the result list, independent of each rider's netto time. Beyond 250, the riders are ranked according to their netto time.

This of course to prevent riders starting in blocks C or D to race to the front of the peloton in the early stages of a race - when the pace is still moderate - and thus gain a significant time advantage over those in earlier start blocks. As such, it happened frequently in the past that such a rider only had to sit in wheels and follow the first group to "win" the race.

At last

It is a rule I personally welcome a lot!!! These are indeed races and not time trials. Should the Köln result be based on netto time as in the past, the top 100 would have been completely different. Read this: race winner Wernicke, who did an outstanding sprint, would have been relegated to 46th place (!!!). Second-placed Tobias Bosch would have sunk to rank 70, and Jörg Arenz (now third) to as low as rank 80!

Winner would have been Torsten Lorenzen. He was 7th in the sprint to the line. His team-mate(!) Marcus Fischer would have been second (in reality 18th in the sprint). Now, one could argue these two guys were right up there anyway and they came from the back. Riders three and four in the netto-time list, though, were only 97th and 92nd across the line and effectively dropped off the group in the final kilometre(s)!

Finally, in the top 10 of the netto-list, there are four guys from Team Düren-Merken (one, two, five and six) and three guys from Team Agapedia Münsterland (seven, eight, nine). Coincidence? There's a nice cluster of Blue Essentials guys and Team Focus guys between rank 80 and 100, though. Indeed, those teams were standing entirely up front at the start.

Still there are people who feel the results should be based on netto time. I cannot understand them. Of course it is impossible for everyone to start at exactly the same time. Unless you do time trials. But the T-Mobile races are labelled as they are: 'races'. They say you have no chance if you start in blocks C, D or later. I'm not disputing these riders' chances can be a lot smaller, though not always impossible, to reach the front of the peloton, but the riders starting in block A are also in block A for a reason: merit. The new T-Mobile Cycling Tour rulebook says that the first 250 riders in the current ranking are entitled to a block A starting position if they register for the next race on the tour. That's only fair: these people show commitment to their sport and produce good results over an extended period of time, instead of perhaps just 1 race a season. Block A is furthermore filled with riders who did well in the same event the year before and then with those who registered first. In my view, that's quite transparent and logic.

If you want to do the Nove Colli, Oetztaler, Maratona, Marmotte or any other major international event you also don't demand nor get a first block starting position. Do a good enough job this year, and in so doing secure a better starting position for the next edition.

With mass events, that's just the way it is. No system is perfect, but the 2007 T-Mobile rulebook is a significant step forward compared to last year.

Background:
Rund um Köln statement