[- seb]

As BigTed said, no-one's actually posted an actual rule here that answers the initial question.

Someone's suggested that it's tyre contact patch that counts when you're on the ground, and axle position that counts when you're in the air. Nonsensical though, as what happens if the tape is low (tied to a stump maybe) and you're leant over right next to the tape and you get an inch of air off of a root? Whoa, you cut the course dude! So that one's out.

I see two options:

1) jumping the tape is fine (I'd love this to be the answer, as it opens up extra ninja lines)

2) the deciding factors are the lowest point of your tyres (what would be the contact patch if you were on the ground), and an imaginary vertical wall following the line of the tape. If it's that, as ted says, I need to get my tabletops sorted!

Amazed that there's no proper UCI rules about this, and no, nothing MinorThreat posted covers it. Define "exits the course" for example? It's ambiguous.

 

[graham888]

Theres a good amount of tape hoping going on in the first video on here, http://dirt.mpora.com/news/sda-championships-dunkeld-2010.html
None of these riders were DQ'd as far as im aware, and that line clearly gave a considerable advantage.

 

[EVIL JN]

Wouldnt it be easier if it was like how it is in alpine skinig, just have two poles as gates and both feet has to cross between them on the inside. Then the orgnizers can force riders more directly were they want them to go. Then just space them how you want down the trail and as long you pass between all the polesdown the course all else is fair game. Only problem would be to have enough people to watch the gates down the entire course.

 

[rosenamedpoop]

The official rule regarding course marking:

"Tape on a course is representative of a vertical plane, similar to that of a football endzone. The only time it is ever acceptable to break this plane is:

A. you are crashing
B. you do a very good job of looking like you are crashing and have a miraculous save before re-entering the course."



Source: http://www.uci.ch/templates/UCI/UCI2/layout.asp?MenuId=MTkzNg&LangId=1

 

[big-ted]

The official rule regarding course marking:

"Tape on a course is representative of a vertical plane, similar to that of a football endzone. The only time it is ever acceptable to break this plane is:

A. you are crashing
B. you do a very good job of looking like you are crashing and have a miraculous save before re-entering the course."



Source: http://www.uci.ch/templates/UCI/UCI2/layout.asp?MenuId=MTkzNg&LangId=1

lol at B...

Other than that, your post is largely irrelevant, as the debate here is what is considered breaking the plane.

 

[W4S]

lol at B...

Other than that, your post is largely irrelevant, as the debate here is what is considered breaking the plane.

"Tape on a course is representative of a vertical plane, similar to that of a football endzone.

plane is considered a 90* angle ( 2 dimensional), a rider breaks the plane with any part of his/her body or equipment and it's considered out of bounds. That means if the racers hand goes over a direct line between poles and they should be considered out of bounds.

 

[DBR X6 RIDER]

Are they referring to American football? I could see if they were using the sidelines/out-of-bounds guidelines. Makes more sense than the end-zone/goal-line rules. If there's a questionable line that could be ninjafied, I would assume the organizers/marshals take the necessary precautions to make those lines much clearer. After seeing the Scottish Championship vid, I would say put some poles up and run tape across them to cut the corner off, thus forcing ALL riders around it as opposed to over it??

 

[big-ted]

"Tape on a course is representative of a vertical plane, similar to that of a football endzone.

plane is considered a 90* angle ( 2 dimensional), a rider breaks the plane with any part of his/her body or equipment and it's considered out of bounds. That means if the racers hand goes over a direct line between poles and they should be considered out of bounds.

OK, so we've established where the plane lies several times over. The second part of your post suggests that, even if the end of a rider's handlebar breaks the plane of the tape, he/she is technically cheating. That's ridiculous, (although it might force riders to think twice before bolting on those ridiculous wide bars ). I'm sure someone could find pictures of WC guys "cheating" in this way. That corner at Mt St Anne springs to mind...

Like Seb, I'm amazed this is such a grey area. Even if, at my level, it makes so little difference, I would have thought someone would have gone through the effort to define the rules a little better at the top level.

And for what it's worth, that cheater-line at Dunkeld was WAY worse than my line that made me make the initial post over a year ago!

Edit: OK, couldn't find any examples from WCs, but here's a pic of me from the same local race that inspired me to make the original post, only a year or so earlier. This is NOT the line in question, but an example of what would constitute cheating given the definition above.

My left hand has clearly passed through the vertical plane of the tape. I think I'm right in saying that no-one in their right mind would get upset at this line though, right?

 

[rosenamedpoop]

^ You have to break the plane with your tires goofball.

 

[- seb]

^ You have to break the plane with your tires goofball.

1) you never said that
2) which bit of your tyres
3) the link you provided was actually useless as it wasn't to one particular PDF
4) I couldn't find any rules about taping in any of the likely PDFs - which one should I be looking in?
5) you're full of poop.

 

[rosenamedpoop]

it was a joke

wtf... are you guys for real about this...?

 

[- seb]

it was a joke

wtf... are you guys for real about this...?

It seemed to be half joke half truth given your UCI link. And yeah, we are. I'd like to know the hard and fast rule, one way or another.

 

[rosenamedpoop]

My take is that it's actually better to leave the rule a little loose. Just to keep the honest people honest. Real cheaters will find a way to cheat.