I'd like to offer a few random thoughts on electronic registration and racing in the mid-Atlantic.  I'll offer them at the end of this posting, but first, a brief re-capping of the events of the last few days.

Angry riders, shut out of the chance to participate in long, rainy, and miserably cold road races in March and April became enraged.  After flaming promoters and each other on email lists, they took their wrath to the streets.  Below is an artisits conception of what the great cycling revolt of 2006 may have looked like. 

cyclists were amazed that events with 100 rider field limits filled within minutes.  a pervasive fear settled over all: missing the first races of the season would set one hopelessly behind one's peers, in both fitness and BAR points, which was undeniably the coin of the realm.  new tires and fresh tubs of cytomax would go unused.  The wheel of emotions revolved steadily, from amazement to fear to loathing.  What happened next was utterly predictable.  Riders lashed out, attacking the server farm where bikereg.com maintained it's services.  Like the luddite rebellion that had gone before, these people turned against technology as a bane.

civil defense forces fought to maintain order and contain the damage of a mob of angry, spandex-clad cyclists.  fortunately, their unusual footware made escape difficult.  running was awkward and the clickety-clack of metal devices attached to their shoes caused many to fall and made them easy to track.

team vehicles were destroyed in wanton and wasteful use of moltov cocktails.

a view of the wreckage early the next day brought equal parts anger, frustration and exasperation.  this cathartic release of energy had done little to change the structural relationship between racers, promoters and registration services.  but then again, burning stuff has always been a popular initial response.

It seems clear that electronic registration is a huge plus for promoters.  it allows them to manage a lot of the complex transactions that are part of putting on a race.  it handles the finances, allows one to move riders between fields, issue refunds, and provides a relatively accurate source of data for pre-event and post-event processing.  anyone who has actually handled hundreds of mail in registrations will instantly be able to tell you what a quantum leap this is in efficiency.  similarly, it's useful for racers as they immediately know if they are entered in a given event, who else will be racing, etc.

however, there are some features that have the potential to cause problems.  whole teams can be registered with the click of a button.  This technology seems useful on it's face, but could also prove to be a tool in a race to the bottom.  in events with field limits of 50 or 75 riders, if you have teams registering 5, 10 or 15 riders with a single click, the available slots become exceedingly difficult to come by.  certainly, those that have the luxury of sitting idle by a computer until a particular race opens will have the advantage. 

this situation is hardly unique.  ask any runner who has spent hours on a website trying to register for the marine corps marathon, or a multi-sport athlete who tried to register online for last years reston triathlon, a cluster$#%@ of epic proportions.  I have heard people propose that teams only be allowed to register a certain number of riders for any given event but I'm not sure that is fair to the individual.  a better choice might be to have a pooled pre-registraiton: everyone interested in a particular event can submit an entry and entry fee and the field limit (and wait list) is then filled by random assignment with entry fees returned to those who do not make it into the event.  the nice thing about this is everyone who has an interest has an equal chance of receiving entry to any given event.  the whole process is transparent to the promoter as they simply get a check from the registration service and an electronic listing of the start sheets. 

there are also valid arguments that the current system is not broken but just adjusting.  I'll try to address those in a subsequent post.

- - posted by scott