Trial on Sunday, spectator on the day, who is also a club member, approaches a rider at the end of the trial and says " hope you gave yourself a five for your rear wheel being outside the flag going through a gate on section one, 3rd lap" Rider has no idea what he's on about and explains he couldn't give what he didn't see.

Fast forward 48 hours, rider gets a call from trials convener to say spectator has complained about riders score after having seen the results, that showed rider hasn't been marked for a five.

What is or should be the decision ??

Does anybody take scores in "self observed" trials seriously ?

Does anybody take scores in "self observed" trials seriously ?

It seems so... Hehehehehehehehe

The decision should be if the spectator is so knowledgeable they should be asked why they didn't observe then this situation wouldn't have arisen.

And if they dont wish to observe then they should stop doing so.

Edited November 18, 201411 yr by baldilocks

The rider doesn't dispute that his rear wheel may well have been outside the flag, but his first knowledge of it was after his card was handed in, when said spectator told him.

So should he have asked for his card back to change it or do as he did and just left it ? bearing in mind, this is all on the word of the spectator.

I'm with Baldilocks on this one.

We ride "observe/score yourself" and as mentioned you can't take it too seriously, I see little instances of points lost that don't show in the final tally. I've never heard of another rider challenging another competitor, its just fun and as the saying goes "we're not playing for sheep stations".

Another way to do it is to ride in pairs and score each other. Any way you are really cheating yourself as the aim, I think, is to better your own score. Most infringements I think are possibly unknown to the rider.

Cheers Taff

Oh no, are they going to take all his winnings? Tell them to prove it!

Or how about a trial without observers is actually a practice day

Isn't that just a cheeky one?

Surely its only a five when you actually have to get off the bike and push it out of the section. Or am I missing something here?

I look at it like this .. You are only cheating yourself . If you won by 5 points knowing you had 5 points to go on score you know you didn't win really .. Unless you get marshals on each section . You will always have this .. It's all about beating the course in my eyes

Turns out they adjusted the scores accordingly.

Surely its only a five when you actually have to get off the bike and push it out of the section. Or am I missing something here?

Could be missing something, yes. The rules, perhaps?

This is very difficult, if I was the rider and had honestly believed I had cleaned the section I would have looked for other witnesses or riders (sometimes spectators are not impartial). I may have replied that I'll be happy to adjust my score if the spectator can assure me he will watch every rider through the section and check their scores too. I wouldn't

If the scores have been changed then it might suggest the rider had cheated and been found out, in which case the right descion was made - perhaps even a little too lenient.

My understanding is the rider accepted that the spectator seen what he seen. However, it was after the rider had rreturned his card that this was brought up with him, where he replied he couldn't give what he didn't see.

The trials convener was told about it at the time, it was only 48hrs later after the spectator complained was the results changed.