Hagaby/loop formats

[Becks]

Can someone remind me how a Hagaby actually works? I've been asked to potentially plan a long race for my US club in the Autumn, but we have one decent classic sized area and that's been used to death. If anyone has other good format ideas for getting long courses out of smaller areas, I'd be very happy to hear them.

[Homer]

Isn't Hagaby just a one man relay?

[Spookster]

Can someone remind me how a Hagaby actually works?

Here's an Attackpoint discussion about formats.

[frostbite]

The Hagaby format is usually for mass start races, but something similar was done for the Home International in 2005 with interval starts. There were 4 loops with competitors setting off 4 at a time on different loops. I think the point was to reduce the start window rather than squeeze a long course into a small area, but it could do both.

Anyway you should know how well it worked since you were there.

[Becks]

I remember it didn't work too well at the SHI, with quite a few packs forming, but it was a long time ago. I think I remember there was one at a JHI at Eggerslack or similar too, but that was even longer ago!

Thanks for the AP link, will go check it out.

[Becks]

I remember why I thought it didn't work well - everyone did the four loops in the same order, so person 1 ABCD, person 2 BCDA, person 3 CDAB etc etc. So if you caught your four minute person you were together for the rest of the course. I think that was the case anyway.

[frostbite]

Yes, I managed to find the results and by the looks of it you are right. They could have varied the order and given lots more course combinations but I guess this way simplified the organisation a lot - you don't have to allocate maps to people, just hand them the next course.

[graeme]

Yes, that's why it didn't work well, they only used 4 of the 24 permutations.
But it was as good as regular 4min start intervals because with a small field people didn't get caught a lap by early starters, and you kept coming back to the refreshment point (important in US ).
For a small area, plan five completely different courses with the same start and finish, say 1k 1k 3k 5k 7k. Then you have one 4-loop Hagaby of 16k and another of 9k.
24 permutations should be enough. If you want a mass start/common last loop your permutations drop to 6, so you probably want 5 loops.
Undergaffled races can be less fair than no gaffling at all, because the result depends on which pack you happen to get in.

[mharky]

The JHIs in the NW in 2000 was good. Standard 1-man-relay hagaby format. I think it was 3 loops (divided into 3 sections with 3 gaffles) and then a short final finishing loop. Instead of having a common control at the end of each gaffled section, the compulsory crossing points were used to bring people back together. Worked really well as a race, but unfortunately someone on both M/W16 had the wrong control descriptions; something to think about if everyone is on a different course.

[Gross]

Best Hagaby in GB was the Elite Test a Devilla won by Steve Palmer in a few seconds over the planned 90 minutes....

All the maps were overprinted using a 'John Bull' overprinters

[Big Jon]

And Chappers got the only dodgy map in the whole event.....

[Kitch]

stand out race that one.
no quarter asked or given
90 minutes of flat out racing.
remember finishing with Jon Duncan
we looked at each other, no words, but eyes just said - "W. t. f. did we just do !?!"
then we collapsed.
killer

[graeme]

Very memorable indeed, not least for the strength of the field. I was with Stan after an hour, thinking "I wonder if I can keep this up"? Found out shortly after
EUOCs mass start race yesterday had something of the same feel to it, though it would have been better if you guys were there.