First lap primes

STOP IT!!!!! It's fucking stupid!!!!!! They had one at Northfield and I assumed it was someone trying to be "neat", then they did it again today at Hopkins. STOP!!!! This is NOT safe!!!! It's one thing if it's a 5 mile loop curcuit race or something, but these are both really short, technical courses.

We're not talking about half a dozen guys lined up across the street, these are fields of 50,60,70 riders that are rows and rows deep. Here's what happens if you start doing your funny first lap primes.

1) Everyone starts crowding the start line. Goodbye people being polite and rolling around the course until it's time to line up. You'll have people standing next to the start/finish and jumping on the course as soon as the prior race is complete, and just standing there. That's not safe!

2) You'll have 60 riders racing to corner one. Half of them trying to get in their pedals riding up the asses of the guys in front of them. (keep in mind now, most of the riders haven't done a warm up lap and looked over the course, and certainly not at race speed with 60 other guys) That's not safe!

3) You create the very dangerous position of racers racing through the field to get to the front. This is why they give riders the same time at the end of races, they don't want stupid people sprinting through groups that aren't sprinting. That's not safe!

4) What's the reward for??? For lining up before anyone else? That's just fucking stupid!

Look, it takes everyone a couple laps around the course to feel it out, see who can't control their bikes, position themselves, find the right lines, etc. We know what we're doing, we know how to do it. The officials/promoters should be looking to make things more safe for us, not more dangerous. This is a horrible idea and should be stopped!