Rules For Ad Hoc Racing

reid_and_carol over at BostonFixed came up with this amazing set of rules. We know we all do this…so what are your rules?

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One way or another, I end up racing people on the road. Either I pass someone and they get pissed, or vice versa. Usually, I just declare myself the winner, but I was wondering if there is any universality in ad hoc racing rules. I’ve made up a series of rules to declare when a race has begun and when a biker can be declared a winner.

Here’s what I got so far:

Rules for beginning a race:
1) at a stop light when people line up at an insurmountable red light
(Insurmountable referring to the impenetrable cross traffic)
2) Upon passing any biker, an implicit challenge is issued for an ad hoc race beginning at the moment of passing.

Rules for ending a race:(this is where I am a bit confused)
1) The winner is whomever has the lead at the point of path divergence
2) The lead must have been held for more than 1 minute, to prevent last-minute sprints just before making a left hand turn after Harvard square (curly haired Fuji-track guy, I’m looking at you).

Anyone have any amendments?
I’m also thinking that there should be degrees of winning.

Something like….

Degrees of ad-hoc race wins:
1) First degree win is when the opponent is a not visible
2) Second degree win is when the opponent is still visible but about a hundred meters behind
3) Third degree is when the opponent is a few body lengths behind
4) Fourth degree is when the opponent is between a nose and a body length behind.

And also, no complaining about getting caught in traffic! Navigation-savvy is part of the race.

Thoughts?

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