Race Referees: I talked to Jim Patton, Kirk Leidy and
their coworkers from the race referee crew before Stage 4
of the Tour de Georgia.

See more TdG photos in in the
Operation Gadget Photo Gallery. [ Photo: Dave Aiello ]

Before the start of Stage 4 in Dalton, I met up with Jim Patton, Kirk Leidy, Cindi Hines, and Bill Samford, the motorcycle-based race referees. I wanted to find out more about what they did to enforce the UCI rules during the Dodge Tour de Georgia.

Patton and Leidy are referees riding one-person motorcycles. Hines runs the time board, where she displays the time gaps between riders. Samford drives the timeboard motorcycle.

The crews ride BMW 1100GS motorcycles. I took a number of good photos of them and their equipment that you can see in the Tour de Georgia photo gallery.

Patton and Leidy both enforce all of the UCI rules within the peloton. They carry paddles that have separate red and green sides. They use them to control the caravan cars. Holding up the red side of the paddle means that cars cannot pass their position. The green side of the paddle means its OK to pass.

When they see an infraction deserving a penalty, Patton and Leidy write the details on a diver's slate. This is a plastic board that can be marked with a golf pencil and will not erase until swiped with a glove. In Stage 4, there were a number of penalties including fines for failure to obey referees' instructions, and disqualifications for motorpacing. Most of these were probably observed and recorded by Patton, Leidy, or one of the other referees.

I asked Jim Patton how he got into being a race referee. He said that he was a racer at one time and an officer in the U.S. Navy. He wanted to stay with the game of cycling and this was a good way to do it.

I also got a chance to talk to Kirk Leidy who told me that he and Jim use Garmin GPSmap 60Cs to keep track of their position during the race. They are able to get the GPS coordinates of the route in advance, load it into the 60C's memory, and get advance notice of important points on the course.

Race officials collaborate on computing time gaps. They each have several stop watches on their handlebars. They use radio communications to mark the time at which the lead rider passes a certain point. When the chasers reach that same point, the watch is stopped and the time gap is recorded. These gaps are relayed to Hines who writes them on the board and shows them to the riders in the lead pack.

As an ice hockey official who works competitive games, I have always been interested in what cycling race referees do. I was really pleased to have the opportunity to talk with the referees working the Dodge Tour de Georgia and find out a bit about the similarities and differences between officiating the two sports. The race referees say it really helps to have had previous racing experience, which is similar to the sense most hockey officials have of previous playing experience.

The referees also have to stay with the players in cycling, which is a bit easier for them since they are on 1100cc motorcycles than it is for hockey officials who must skate. Then again, the technical skills that race referees have (car and motorcycle handling within a moving peloton) are unique and require practice that they can't get until they start officiating cycling events.