If I am reading the report correctly, is the difference between Eric and Josh, that Josh's 3rd leg call in was made but not recd by the phone bank?
Congrats to ALL the riders...some really tough riding, especially thru the final night.
JEF
Yup. You read that right. That's total bullshit. This is the reason I would never give these people my money and let them judge anything. Josh isn't the only one that happened to, and they know their system is FUBAR, but they continue to punish the rider's for the organization's mistake.
If the rider's phone shows the call was made, the points should be awarded. Not cool at all. Josh won this IBR, and for it to be taken from him like that is BS.
So people with only 24 states shouldn't be DNF'd? People with 48 parks shouldn't be DNF'd? Where do you draw the line on not completing something that was the rally pack as a requirement? What about people who are outside of coverage area for their carrier when the window opens?
My first rally with a call in bonus had me stopping (early flip phone) every half hour until I could get through the busy signal. The RM had contracted with the host hotel for a mulit-line voice mail but they only provided a single line. You can't be sure an RM will throw out a requirement before you get to the scoring table, so you do what you have to. That the affected riders had done "insurance" calls on other legs shows they understood the pitfalls and had previously taken precautions. Fatigue and its affects on the rider is one of the challenges. In the aqbove example, the RM did NOT throw out the requirement. Those who threw up their hands and said fuqitall took their chances and lost their bet. Those who followed the requirements of the rally pack and kept at it until they were sure got the points.
Adapt and persevere.
You're comparing apples and oranges. Riders getting their states and bonuses is on them. They KNOW if they got it or not because they were there. A rider in a major metropolitan area with 5 bars and full 4G coverage should expect that any call he makes is going through.
IF that only happened to one person, this would be a moot point; however, it happened on the previous leg, and the staff as much as admitted their system faulted. So, exactly how many times is a rider supposed to stop his ride and make that important call to be sure it goes through on the receiver's end? Twice? Maybe two's not enough. Three times, well, shit does and will happen...4 times, five, Hell, let's say an even 10 just to have as many chances as possible that the call worked.
A glitchy system should not be allowed anywhere near a competition. What if the Olympic's timers didn't get that last race? "Oops, sorry everyone, please run it again." Or as in this event, "Sorry, our timer didn't work. You couldn't have known that, but since you didn't post a time, you're out of the race."
This was a problem that should not have been a problem, and if this IBR was run professionally, it would not have happened. I stand behind my opinion that taking a 1000 point bonus from a rider and then that rider losing by 600 points is bogus. ONLY because the problem was with the organization's equipment. There should be no question that their stuff works, and now there is.
