A glance at the bigger picture .......
Prior to becoming President in November 1999, I had in mind a project to
bring back the awarding of trophies for outstanding achievement by club
members. For reasons unknown to me, the presentation of trophies was
discontinued in the early 1990's. Later, I'm not sure when, medals for time
trial age/gender results were introduced. Apart from these, no achievements
were recognized or awards presented during the 1990's. By 1998, it was clear
that the category medals (60 to 70 of them each year presented at the the
Annual Banquet at a cost of approximately $600) were not highly valued as
attested to by the large collection waiting for pickup in the Club office
cabinets over the years.
Related were three nice old trophies that gathered dust in the office - the
Best All Rounder trophy (donated by Ottawa Bikeway), the Rider of the Year
trophy (donated by the late Lee Gault) and the Founder's Trophy (believed
to have been donated by Ken Smith). In researching extensively (incomplete)
club records, I found out that a couple of trophies the club had awarded in
the past had gone missing. These were the George Alfred Ellander Memorial
Trophy (for best 1st year junior) and a trophy named "Kitchens by Paquette"
for the four fastest 10 mile TT's. Both of these were donated by OBC founder
and life member, Peter Tyler.
Bringing back awards meant not only the replacement of at least one of
the missing trophies but also ensuring that outstanding performances
by women were recognized. Hence the trophy line up approved by the Board
last year was (* indicates newly purchased trophies) :
1. Rider of the Year (Male or Female)
2. Junior Rider of the Year (Male or Female) *
3. Best All Rounder - Male
4. Best All Rounder - Female *
5. Time Trial Handicap - Male
6. Time Trial Handicap - Female *
The handicap championships and the method of used to calculate results must
be assessed in the context of the demographics covered by the total set
of trophies. We have replaced age/gender awards (many medals) by
age/gender awards that are more narrowly focussed on the best
ovrall achievements, male and female. Also, we have brought back and added
additional trophies to recognize other achievements. In total, two trophies
are reserved exclusively for women, two exclusively for men, one
exclusively for juniors, male or female, and one for all members with no
restrictions.
On further analysis we find, by definition, Junior Rider of the Year will be
won by a young person. The BAR trophies are won on objective results and
more often than not they will be won by younger/youngish high performance
competitors. Rider of the Year is a subjective award and more often than
not it will be won by more youthful members for performance oriented
achievement(s). Thus the TT handicap awards were specifically designed to
recognize age-based performances.
I believe the award lineup provides balanced competitive opportunities
across age and gender boundaries. I also believe this year's performances of
Mary Ajersch and Hermann Kerckhoff in the TT handicap championships this
year were outstanding considering both are over 60 years of age. Both
broke their PBs by a wide margin. If their names were removed from the
results you would still see a reasonable cross-section of other age
categories at the top of the results. In the case of the men, had both Hermann
and Aaron Fillion repeated their previous PBs, Aaron (Senior Men's category)
with no handicap would have beaten Hermann (Master's C category) by five
seconds.
The results this year demonstrate that the system is fair and competitive,
not necessarily perfect. The handicap method was introduced by the Board
one year ago as a trial and by intent, it is not set in stone. The Board
is not wedded to any particular method and will no doubt take into account
opinions expressed here and in other forums, both formal and informal.
--
Avery Burdett
Ottawa, Ontario
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