On Podiums- Or Not

Dismay at the 100% no-show for the DK200 Pro Men's podium awards shown by Rebecca Rusch's Tweet

Podium ceremonies are often held at the end of competitions in many forms of sport. Cycling being one of those sports, of course, and so why wouldn't a big event like the Dirty Kanza 200 have a podium celebration? I mean, if you are billing yourself as "The World's Premier Gravel Event", you probably should have a podium ceremony for the winners. 

Well, I have actually attended the podium ceremony for the DK200 a few times. I have noted no-shows before, and every time I went, there were more than a few, usually from amongst the age groupers. The "premier" over all podium ceremonies were almost 100% attended, as it should be for all podium ceremonies, not just the so called "top tier" event performers.

So, I noted this Rebecca Rusch Tweet Sunday evening and thought it was kind of sad. I would think that anyone signing up to do this event would bother to get to know the details of said event and plan ahead. (It's no secret that the DK has a podium ceremony, by the way) But I've seen it go the other way before. People not having a clue as to what they signed up for and then getting into hot water afterward when their actions didn't align with the stated rules or, as in this case, procedures, of the event. 

 Sometimes winners and placers cannot be at a podium ceremony, but if you are gunning for the top step, well, this ceremony should be the pinnacle of the event for you. Or at least part of the "Top Five" moments for you. I get it. Sometimes things happen, (and one of the Pro guys had owned his no-show publicly), but if you sign up with no intentions of doing the podium, if you earn it, then that is kind of an affront to the organizers. I guess most of the top male racers are offenders then, based on the image shown here today. If that is correct, that is a sad state of affairs.

Personally, I think podium ceremonies are goofy and infinitely boring to attend, but I can see the other side. Those riders earned that privilege.  The recognition of their achievements by their colleagues can be very rewarding. The organization went out of their way to provide a venue and set up the physical podium, PA, obtained the services of an announcer, and publicized the hoopla to the masses. The Dirty Kanza has a history of doing this ceremony. Most premier races have such events. If not showing up when you were expected to isn't an affront to all of that, I guess I just don't get it.

The Tweeted response to the "no-show" Pro Men's podium from the DK200 organization.

 That the organization knew ahead of time that some "travel & accommodation nuances" were going to affect the participation on Sunday morning, and that they bothered to even have the announcement Sunday with no Pro Men there is , on one hand, bad optics. On the other hand, the announcer is there, so "why not?" Then again- why should everyone else be expected to show up Sunday? (All the Pro Women showed up, by the way.) This is a messy looking deal, from where I sit, and I expect it will get ironed out. That said, if you are having "early podium" availability for media and what not Saturday evening, (and the DK200 promotions team did actually announce this on social media), and then you have a Sunday deal "for everyone else", that doesn't look like "equal participation across the board".

Then yesterday this appeared from Peter Stetina's Twitter feed

Again- It looks bad when you don't show up, whatever your reasons are. It also seems rather incredible that not one person organizing the Saturday "podium shot", nor any of the photographers on hand, told any of the five podium guys on Saturday night that there was a Sunday morning gig. That seems.....unlikely. Especially when it was something I had seen announced on Twitter Saturday evening. It's hard to believe not one of the five was told, or more than one of the five, but whatever. It is what it is.

Like I said, podium ceremonies are goofy. But what do I know? I'm just some dude in Iowa who wasn't there. So, there's that.....