BC Race entry “Reserve list”

Just signing up for a CX race on the BC site and it’s asked me the question “Are you willing to be listed as a Reserve?” with a Yes/No drop box.

I don’t recall having been asked this before and I’m not sure I really understand the question.

Are they asking if I want to go on a “reserve list” if the event is over-subscribed? In which case I’m inclined to answer ‘No’, I want to race, assuming I’ve signed up before all the spaces are gone WTF would I volunteer to give up my spot?

Or have I completely misunderstood the question? There’s no explanation or anything on the BC FAQs that I can see WRT “Reserve lists” and google just returns a cajillion BC links…

Yes it’s in case the event is over-subscribed.

Probably doesn’t mean anything for a regional cross race and is just an online artefact – just tick yes or no and you’ll get a place anyhow. in principle if the race was crazy popular there would be preference to riders who had signed up for the league.

If it’s for a national trophy cx race then that is a bit different as places are allocated according to points accrued over the race season, and some categories might be over-subscribed. If you didn’t have many points, but did really want to do the race, then you might want to consider the reserve list.

Not sure how this plays out for your event. But some BC events are not populated on a first come first serve basis. The organiser gets to select who gets picked from the list of people who have entered. (I entered one earlier this year which was something like “organising club member, league point scorer, national series point scorer, everybody else”). Which would mean it could be oversubscribed and allowing a reserve list to come into play. But frankly with such low entry volumes for all road races this year it seems madness they suggest it.

there’s not loads of names on there yet, and historically it’s not been crammed in the tubby dad’s Cat so I’m going to tick ‘no’ then…

Cheers.

It’s mostly a thing in road races where entrants are selected after the closing date based on their category and rankings.

Once the full field of (eg) 60 riders is selected, the organiser will put probably another 10% of entrants into a Reserve field.

Selection is being done 2-3 weeks in advance of the race and it’s a dead cert that at least 10% of the selected riders will drop out before the event – injury, illness, family reasons etc. as that happens, the organiser will move the Reserve people up into the “fully selected”.

Note that even if you’re still listed as a Reserve, you are obliged to turn up on the day, ready to race, there’s always a few no-shows on the day too and Reserve riders get moved into those gaps as the signing in closes. If you don’t get a ride, you’ll get a full refund.

If you don’t turn up, there is no refund available.

The principle is to ensure that a field of 60 riders stays at that rather than ending up with 40 on the day due to drop outs, no-shows etc.

We’re a week or so out and 12 other riders are listed as entered so far.

Plus we’re talking about a vets Open cat ion a local league round here, not the national champs or something.

I get that some riders are very committed to some race series and organisers like to hold spaces for series contenders, while I am just a casual participant TBH. I think it’s just whoever is responsible at the local club, applying the same setting for the online bit, as they would for a popular crit.

Perhaps more worrying is that there’s only 4 names against the seniors so far…