I have been officiating since the late 1970's when Mark (my husband) and I moved to Colorado Springs. When we met, Mark was racing in Ohio and when we moved to Colorado Springs in 1978, Mark began to coach a junior team. Since we were traveling throughout the state on weekends, I decided to make myself useful and obtained an officials license. I was mentored by some of the best officials in Colorado, especially Yvonne van Gent. When the 7-Eleven velodrome was built in the Springs in 1983, I shifted my officiating focus to the track, and became an international track official almost ten years ago.

With the change of the track season internationally to the winter, more and more road racers are looking at track racing as a viable competitive option during the winter months. The challenge in the US is that we only have one indoor track, which makes winter time training difficult unless you live in Los Angeles. Here in Colorado Springs, our local racing series is alive and well, with more and more riders competing every year. The numbers of riders competing at all levels of track nationals are up, too. So, I think the sport is doing well.

USA Cycling demonstrated its commitment to track racing when Pat McDonough was hired as the track coordinator. He has since moved on to Director of Athletics, which also bodes well for track racing within USA Cycling since that is Pat's first love. With the strengthening of local associations across the country, tracks have the opportunity to work with USA Cycling to broaden their local programs. Ultimately, though, it is the responsibility of the tracks around the country to develop their own programs and events, with USA Cycling providing the infrastructure support like insurance, etc. We have an all volunteer group here in Colorado Springs - the Colorado Velodrome Association - and we have taken on the responsibility for weekly races as well as promoting two events per year on the UCI Track Calendar. USA Cycling can't be responsible for local programming at tracks, just as they can't be responsible for local road racing or mountain bike racing. Tracks have to put together a business model that works for their community and track, and avoid looking to USA Cycling for something that simply isn't -- and can't be -- their role.

The best event for an official is one in which no one remembers the officiating because there is no controversy and the right people won. In a track event, it's rare that there is no controversy at all because all of the riders, managers and spectators see everything that the officials do, in real time, and everyone has an opinion on what they saw. So…I can think of many events that I have officiated that don't meet my criteria of "best event" because there were some controversial calls, but the officiating team worked well together, we were consistent and fair. Some of my most satisfying events were those in which I played a behind-the-scenes role as Race Secretary. It's a critical position on the officiating crew and if you do it well, you enable the event to keep moving and you're the communication and information "glue". Still, I think the most satisfying event for me was officiating as part of the 2004 Junior World Championships in Los Angeles with Martin Swinkels, a Dutch commissaire. I learned a lot from him and the rest of the team and the event was relatively controversy-free.

Every call is 'hard' because all officials would rather that the riders determine the outcome of the race rather than having the winner decided based on the judgment of an official. Perhaps my toughest event was the World Cup in Frisco, my first international track race as a starter. When a starter makes a mistake, everyone knows it because it usually involves a pistol shot…which is hard to miss! I stopped a sprint that shouldn't have been stopped, and neglected to stop a keirin that should have been stopped. I learned from both of those mistakes, but it was embarrassing at the time.

Without question, track racing. It requires teamwork, leadership and management skills and the willingness to make decisions quickly and decisively. I love the challenge and the variety within a track event. I find myself easily bored and track racing is rarely boring, with the possible exception of pursuit qualifying. :-)

I'm probably not the best official to ask since I mostly officiate track racing. Every discipline has its challenges for an official, ranging from the weather to communication systems to caravan management. Within track racing, I think the most challenging races to officiate are sprints and keirins because they require a feel for which 'moves' affected the outcome of the race, and which ones didn't.

I fell in love with track cycling the minute the track was built here in Colorado Springs. It's incredibly fun to watch, the track community is made up of wonderful people…the riders, managers, track directors, and it's a challenge to officiate. What's not to like?

We don't. Our whole house is decorated in cycling prints, and Mark is always on some web site keeping up with cycling news (yes, often it's FixedGearFever). He's just recently completed a documentary on six day bicycle racing and since his office is also in our home, it's impossible to escape. It's a great documentary, though! My 'escape' is really in my work. I am the CEO of a non-profit organization that provides early childhood education for young children who are living in poverty. It's a very rewarding job and I work with great people, and it has nothing to do with cycling!

At a national track championship, there are nine officials assigned, one of whom is the Race Secretary, who may or may not be in the infield. There is always a Chief Official, who manages the officiating team and the event itself. There is a starter, who is responsible for starting each race and referring on the home straight. There is a Chief Judge, who is responsible for ensuring that the order of finish in each race is correct, and USA Cycling is now appointing a Judge/Referee, who sits up in turn one and is responsible for making refereeing decisions in sprints, keirins, scratch, points races and madisons, hopefully with the aid of video replay. That accounts for five of the nine officials. The other four are assistant judges, timers, referees in corners, pit officials, laps and bell official, roll out officials at junior nationals, measuring and weighing bikes when necessary. A track event includes a lot of different kinds of races within each session and officials have to be versatile and able to move from one role to another comfortably and effectively. The event also needs to keep moving -- it's a show after all -- so officials have to be involved in the processes that allow the event to flow. Sometimes nine officials aren't really enough!

I think that's largely the reason. Track officiating is fairly specialized and there are only half a dozen officials who have been assigned as the chief official at elite track championships in the last several years, although that's changing (which is good). Therefore, riders and managers tend to get to know those officials fairly well…definitely by name.

Almost all decisions made at a track event are made by a group of officials, particularly if a rider is going to be relegated or disqualified. At national championships, this group is called the Jury. Every official has a different perspective on the race, the only officials that are standing together are the judges on the judging platform. A good chief official will ensure that anyone who has an opinion is heard, to be sure that the best possible decision is made. This all has to be done quickly and crews that work together regularly can discuss and decide in less than a minute. An interesting new twist to this is the addition of a Judge/Referee, who is the official that is sitting outside the track, usually in turn 1. Internationally, there is video replay available to the Judge/Referee and that person is empowered to use that video to make refereeing decisions on his or her own, and the Judge/Referee's decision is final. We have not had the luxury of video replay at national championships but hope that will change this year. In that case, more refereeing decisions will be made exclusively by the Judge/Referee, although he can request input from others around the track.

This is a great opportunity to talk about the use of 'home videos' in refereeing decisions. In short, we don't. Why, you ask? Because just as officials are standing around the track in different positions, and have different perspectives from where they are standing, so too do the home videographers shoot from different positions around the track. If an official were to use one home video to assist in making a call, he/she would be compelled to use every home video that was offered up, regardless of how clear it might be or where the videographer was standing when the video was shot. The only way to be sure that the decision is fair to all involved is to restrict video usage to the official videographer for the event, if there is one. This is always shot from the same perspective and provides consistency. As stated before, we hope to have this for all national championships this year.

I learned very early in my officiating career that sprinters, in particular, often have quick tempers but they also cool down fairly quickly. At national level events, it's usually the coach that speaks with an official, not a rider, which helps to keep the adrenalin spike out of the conversation. If a rider thinks that he can intimidate an official into changing a call, he certainly will try, in fact, it's part of the game, within reason. However, I insist on a basic level of respect and civility between riders, managers and officials, and I try to set that example myself. I've certainly gotten "hooked" in the past by something a rider or manager has said, and responded in a way that effectively added fuel to the fire, but I'm getting pretty good at walking away and asking the person to come back when they are a little calmer or, if I'm not the chief official, directing the conversation to the chief. I also have perfected my "game face" which tends to mitigate my small stature.

Particularly in local racing, tracks often do have customary rules for their tracks that might vary from track to track. Here in Colorado Springs, we have our track rules posted on our web site so that everyone knows how we run a snowball, elimination, or point a lap race. The trick is, do riders and coaches read those rules or the rulebook itself? At this year's elite track championships, I was the starter and had a points race rider ask if there were double points on the final sprint. Guys and gals, there hasn't been double points on the final sprint of a championship points race in many, many years. I watched an elite level rider at Junior Track Nationals this year protest a ruling that a madison team that he was coaching lost a lap because one teammate had a mechanical and was in the pit, and the other teammate was circling around the top of the track, wanting to know who he should go in and out with? That rule was changed at least four or five years ago. My advice to any rider and coach is read the rulebook!

Enforcement of rules will change depending upon the experience of the riders and the officials. There are at least three tracks in the country that, on any given night of local racing, could have two International commissaires working the race. Just through experience alone, these officials are very likely to look at a bike race differently than a newer official, and are more likely to understand the nuances of the race, rather than officiate from a "black and white", "rules are rules" perspective. I tend to be stricter with inexperienced riders because they are generally less skilled bike handlers and are more likely to get hurt. Others may not share my philosophy.

The other suggestion that I have is to encourage anyone who has an interpretation question to find an official and ask. Sometimes you can do it during the meet if the chief official isn't actually refereeing at the time. If not, however, we can usually be found in the hotel bar after the evening session (drinking Perrier, of course) and would be happy to talk with you about rules interpretations, or almost anything else!

During the meet, officials have a job to do, as do riders, coaches and race promoters. Officials are there to ensure that the meet is safe and fair, and well run. Most of us officiate because we love the sport of cycling. We admire great performances but because we need to avoid any appearance of partiality, we avoid congratulating you on your performance until after the session or meet is over…but it doesn't mean that we don't admire the performances! During the session, you need to hear from us if you are being warned, relegated or disqualified…that's our job. Hopefully, we do it in a respectful and professional way. Remember, though, that we are people, with feelings, just like you. Every interaction that you have with another person contributes to a history and relationship between you and that person. It's to everyone's advantage to have that relationship be positive and one of mutual respect…and we both have a responsibility to contribute to that.

Thank you for letting me be a part of this wonderful sport.

It's a great way to strengthen our track cycling community…exchange of ideas and communication is always a good thing!