Chasing Start Formats etc

[Scott]

I'm trying and failing to see what you would gain from that - isnt the point of a chasing start that the winner wins? (which they wouldnt on day 3 of 5). Is there another hidden benefit of a chasing start that I am missing?

Personally I quite like the fun of head-to-head racing, and we don't get many opportunities to do it. From the middle of the field it's a rather different experience to a mass start - in a mass start you just try desperately to cling on the fast guys for as long as possible, but in a chasing start you go off surrounded by people of a similar speed, knowing that you have to catch X, or don't want to be overtaken by Y. I don't really think it matters so much whether it's to determine the final results or merely the overnight lead.

[graeme]

the second finisher was declared the winner ..That requires more explanation Tatty. Can you elucidate?

I don't know about this example, but in the one seabird suggests you can typically beat anyone you catch just by following them, regardless of who finishes first. It completely
misses the point.
If you have to have round-2 interval starts, fastest-last is best, since it
creates a situation where the lead changes hands several times during the attention
span of recently-finished competitors.

[mharky]

If I recall correctly, I won the prologue but, for some reason, someone I beat started before me in the chase. I obviously, didn't know this, so just kept in front of all the people starting after me. I crossed the line 2nd, having had no one overtake me and having won the prologue... The organisers didn't seem to think they'd done anything wrong...

[andypat]

the second finisher was declared the winner ..That requires more explanation Tatty. Can you elucidate?

I don't know about this example, but in the one seabird suggests you can typically beat anyone you catch just by following them, regardless of who finishes first. It completely
misses the point.
If you have to have round-2 interval starts, fastest-last is best, since it
creates a situation where the lead changes hands several times during the attention
span of recently-finished competitors.

Like in the skiing?
Sounds better.

[IanD]

I like chasing starts for a change, but they do need careful organising from people who really know what they're doing. At my own club's one attempt at a chasing start some years ago, we omitted to make the start queue funnel long enough, so that it wouldn't hold five minute's worth of people.

More recently, at a Caddihoe Chase, I was supposed to be starting in second place on my course about ten seconds after the leader. Naturally I was keen not to let him get out of sight. However, I was also supposed to be starting 1 second after a frail-looking "mature" lady, and the start-line official insisted on delaying me until she had cleared the map boxes.

[Adrian]

I'm not sure what the point of a chasing start race would be at the end of a multi-day event. Some people have only run some of the days, some people have been DQ'd, and everyone is exhausted, so it would be unfair to make it some kind of "final" by which the competitors' overall result would be judged.