Two Wheel Blogs

It's official. I am an official.

To become a USACycling official isn't really all that hard. You take a class, pass a test, pay the fee, and you're in.

That's really only the beginning, however. From there you will need a suitcase-full of stuff you may or may not have laying around. Things like a stopwatch, a blue shirt on which to apply your USACycling logo patch, a clipboard... You get the idea.

The main thing you learn on becoming a Cat C official is that at races you'll primarily be relied upon to do three things: Observe, Record, and Report.

• Observing is where the class comes in handy. You need to know what you're looking for to do a decent job of observing.
• Recording is why you go out and buy yourself a clipboard.
• Reporting is where you get to show off your lack of skill at observing and recording.

Friday night was my first time officiating at a race. Well, not really officiating, I was there for practice. Training, so to speak. I found out that for me the observing part is both really easy and really hard. Knowing what to look for isn't all that tough. Remembering it until you can write it down... Now that's hard.

Cross season's upon us. Maybe I'll get to do some for-real officiating this fall. My plan is to try to record as I observe, which basically entails writing while not looking at the clipboard.

We'll see how that goes. My money says I'll observe more and record more; but there's a really good chance my written record won't be very legible.

Truth is, that'll be fine as long as nothing reportable happens.