Colin ReuterGood lord, how has it been 10 years and #cyclocross race commentators still can't succinctly explain the 80% rule??
#Zilvermeercross #Mol
#Zilvermeercross #Mol
"It's a rule that says any rider more than a 80% of a lap behind the leader gets take out of the race at the finish line, but of course there are a variety of scenarios where a rider who made this cutoff at the finish line can still get lapped on course -- and on top of that, the rule itself is not always consistently applied by the officials"
Sorry to put you on blast, @jens_dekker
Jens Dekker@resultsboy yeah I hadn't prepared my 'explain the 80% rule' bit. Didn't think it would happen here.
The rule's wording is confusing and I spent like 8 years thinking it worked differently from that explanation. It has been explained to me but I still get confused. Difficult to change my understanding completely.
Furthermore it's a stupid rule that often doesn't work
The rule's wording is confusing and I spent like 8 years thinking it worked differently from that explanation. It has been explained to me but I still get confused. Difficult to change my understanding completely.
Furthermore it's a stupid rule that often doesn't work
@jens_dekker as a frequent victim of the 80% rule in my career I have probably thought about it a lot more fast riders like you ever did :) I think it actually works quite well most of the time, but we only notice it when it's not working...
I think the wording of the rule is that it's up to the officials' discretion if it should be applied, which is why sometimes you have races like today with lapped traffic everywhere
@jens_dekker the other thing to note is that riders who get lapped in 4 laps or less can still get in the way despite the rule. consider a rider going 26% slower than the race leader --
Lap 1, 26% back
Lap 2, 52% back
Lap 3, 78% back (not pulled yet!)
Lap 4, 104% back, so physically passed on the course
Lap 1, 26% back
Lap 2, 52% back
Lap 3, 78% back (not pulled yet!)
Lap 4, 104% back, so physically passed on the course
@resultsboy
Here's the actual uci rule. Explain to me how this means what you say it does 😂
It's hard enough to read through that grammar, but I always thought it said 'if you're 80% slower than the race leader's first lap you'll be pulled'. So if MvdP does 10 minutes in lap 1 you won't get pulled unless you do an 18 minute lap.
That doesn't make sense, so I just left it at not understanding the rule
Here's the actual uci rule. Explain to me how this means what you say it does 😂
It's hard enough to read through that grammar, but I always thought it said 'if you're 80% slower than the race leader's first lap you'll be pulled'. So if MvdP does 10 minutes in lap 1 you won't get pulled unless you do an 18 minute lap.
That doesn't make sense, so I just left it at not understanding the rule
jverheul@jens_dekker @resultsboy I think you explained it fine during Mol. You may not know this, but you would have lost roughly 80% of the American viewers as soon as you used any kind of arithmetic.
@jverheul @resultsboy I would have also losy my mind because I can't deal with numbers 😂
@jens_dekker it's extremely poorly written as a rule, i just know how it's executed in practice. the way i explained it is how all the UCI officials in the States I've spoken with do it. it's also the only sensible interpretation (IMO)
@resultsboy haven't organised more than 1 big enough race, but as a rider and a fan it looks like it's either a super inconsistent and bad rule or a rule with terrible application.
@jens_dekker it seems like the application of it has gotten particularly erratic as of late. For the most part it works fine, in my experience