Good stuff. Honestly we were crinkling numbers when I raced collegiate back in the early 90s. now you can't. Maybe next time i see JD i'll see if we can get the truth. Or maybe even convince him to generate a few examples from finish line shots showing why it is bad. Or why it is a bad rule.
I like crinkled numbers honestly. But i've gotten used to pinning them w/o crinkling/crumpling them.
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Here is how to properly pin a race number
I admit there are creases in the paper. I neatly fold them at registration and put them in my pocket. I've never crumpled my number. Maybe because I have a place at home where I usually save them.. not all, mainly the ones tht indicate the race name on them, or the ones where I had a memorable race- they're cool to have.. one day my son might take them all out and use them for something with his friends- it's all good.. Long story short.. who wants to save a number that looks like a piece of shit? I have NBX numbers from last December hanging in my office right now.. other than some mud splattering, they're in good shape.
Folding, crumpling, trimming, or any modification of the number 'plate' has been against uscf rules since well before I started in racing in 1986. It's nothing new. I don't have any of my old USCF rulebooks from back then, but surely one of the readers of your blog does.
Officials generally don't say anything about it, and I have been doing it off and on for years as well. I tend to fold the edges more than crumple. Certain officials will balk more than others, and if there is some sort of advertising on the number there is a high likelihood you'll get called on it, especially by kinnen. I'm really surprised tilford is just finding out about it now. Where the fuck has he been?
Maybe when you are Tilford and winning every fucking race you enter, people don't hassle you about what you do with your number. He's Steve Fucking Tilford, the original JONNY BOLD.
Doesn't solobreak have an archive of ever piece of paper? maybe he can dig out the rule book from 1986 or '89 or something and check.
I pretty much stuff the number in a pocket after registration. Usually the pocket on the side they are supposed to go on.
Also if you pin them properly they aren't going to catch wind or make noise or be any more of an issue to deal with than a crumpled number.
Also Murat, that is NOT how to pin it properly. The number is too high. The number should be pinned at the arm pit of the jersey, mid-way down the side panel. Start there and the camera AND the officials won't miss you.
Meh.. The pinning's done right, even if the positioning doesn't please you.. How many times have you pinned three numbers on top of each other at a crit and finished all three events? I've probably spent more time pinning on numbers in 2009 than you spent racing in any criteriums.
Doh!
:P
Be nice to me it's my birthday tomorrow.
you can do something a million times and still do it wrong every time.
repetition does not equal perfection
Only you could compare me to Tilly. Thanks for that, but I'm afraid I can't hold a candle to that guy.
He's right though. When isn't he? The officials have become a big FAT joke. Yes thats emphasis on fat! Not only do they not ride, but it often seems like they hate us for doing it. I think they all have 2 other jobs.....1st grade teachers and mall cops. They're out on the war path for petty little crimes like riding from your car over to your friend's car to talk to him without your helmet on, or crumpled numbers. My favorite is the tounge lashing we get at the starting lines though.
It's also against the rules to put your arms up at the finish line, when celebrating a win. That'll be the next one they start enforcing.
To be fair....it's not all of them, but lots of them.....
Jonny, I think they actually changed the arms up rule back. It is OK now, so long as you don't do it in a close sprint, which is dumb to do anyway. Not that I ever won a close sprint.
I thought Tilford did come off like a prima donna. The officials work all day, 7 am til 5 sometimes, on the weekend, and I think the top rate is around $200. I wouldn't do it for that, would you? We get what we pay for, sometimes much more, and yes, sometimes less.
My very first USCF race, Myles Standish, 1987, Cat 4, I got 3rd. The camera missed me. I protested and got my placing, but the cameraman from Northeast Sports timing also gave me a lesson in number pinning. Don't crumple. It's shitty crumple jobs that lead to "facets" which refract light. What you want to do is work the number like you would a rolling paper. If you don't know what that means, well... It's more like rolling a crease down the paper from one end to the other to "break it in" and make it more pliable. Beware though, some of the cheap ass soy-ink on Tyvek doesn't adhere so well.
Once your paper, errr, number (almost a double entendre) is ready, pin it so the first digit lines up with your last rib. For normal size people there will be room for 3 digits and still not have to fold in your armpit. It can go up fairly high and still be read from a typical camera setup.
Since the first race, I have never had an official take issue with my number pinning, and I've never been missed by a camera.
My first USCF race was also in 1987. Thatcher's Park Road Race near Albany New York. The juniors raced early so we missed the blizzard, though it was flurrying the whole time. They cancelled the 2/3 race due to white out conditions. This was a road race with what I remember to be a moderate hill in it. Being my first race ever, I lead out the sprint and thought I had it until a more experienced junior swung out from behind me and took the win, relegating me to 2nd. Afterwards we (Derek Larson and I) drove to Brooklyn to race Prospect Park the following freezing cold morning. I was not as successful in Brooklyn- I was dropped on the first lap. A young George Hincapie won that one. Derek was a natural who racked up dozens of junior wins all over New England in the mid-late eighties , terrorizing junior fields of that time. He's serving a 3rd tour of duty for us, now stationed in Afghanistan- running marathons in the mountains.
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