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                                                                                     2003 Overall
                                                                                     2003 Solo Women
                                                                                     2003 Tandems
                                                                                     2003 Mixed Tandems
                                                                                     2003 Other Bikes
                                                                                     2003 Non Finishers
                                                                                     
                                                                                     2003 Notes
                                                                                     2003 Results - Alphabetical

2003 Notes

Find below my original notes for PBP 2003. In 2004 we all learned that the official 2003 results would be ordered by rider's last name rather than by finishing position or time. After thinking it over, I decided to switch to the alphabetical list - when visitors clicked on the 2003 link, the alphabetical list appeared. Unfortunately it was confusing - it even confused me. I've now decided that the continuity of this results section is more important than the need to get directly to the official alphabetically ordered results. So now the 2003 link goes to the main time-ordered results list, as is the case with other years. I note on the main time-ordered results page that the alphabetised list is the official one for 2003, and visitors always have the option to view this.

The alphabetised list itself is taken directly from the PBP site HERE (posted ~spring 2007) rather than from the original data base file circulated in 2003, which is the data source for the other time-ordered lists. Three data columns are missing from the PBP web site list: age; # of PBP finishes; start group. Despite the omissions, I have favoured the PBP web site file for my alphabetised list because I think it can be consider more official - maybe there were errors in 2003 data base file that have been corrected. And visitors can always get the missing data on the time-ordered list(s).

Eric Fergusson, October 2007

The data contained in the first six tables in this section, is drawn from the official PBP '03 database file released in late October 2003. The demographic information must be from the registration forms submitted by the riders.

There have been some complaints about the accuracy of some people's personal information.

The ages in column 6 of the first six lists, are not necessarily the riders' ages during PBP. The original database report had a birthdate/year column, not an age column. Mike Poplawski converted the birthday column to ages by subtracting the listed birthyears from 2003. One way to look at this is to think of column six as the age that every rider on the list will be on December 31, 2003.

There was no official DNF or 'abandonées' list, which is a shame - many of the most interesting PBP odysseys are experienced by people who don't finish. Lists showing who didn't make it, and how far they got, answer a few fundamental questions - it's the beginning of these riders' stories. Though there was no official list, it has been possible to use three official sources to construct an informative DNFs list. The first step was to merge the entries list with the finishers list. (Thanks to Mike Poplawski for doing this and sending it to me.) This made it easy to determine which registered riders weren't on the finishers list. Unfortunately this group would consist of both the riders who abandoned and those who didn't start. However, once all these non-finishers were separated out, it was possible to refer to the on-line tracking pages for these riders - the pages that could be used by people back home (or anywhere) to follow a rider's progress during the event. These pages are still online (November '03). [oops - now they're offline (January '04).]The tracking pages supplied the remaining available information: non starters, abandoners, and the abandoners' last location (and time) on the course. There were some obvious irregularities on some of the tracking pages, but it was generally easy to deduce the reality of the situation. In these cases, I have made the changes on my DNF list, and have indicated where I have made adjustments. The 'Non-Finishers' page, linked on the panel above, includes the DNF list, as well as the non-starters list further down the page.

Two files are of more local interest: 2003 BC Randonneurs & 2003 Canadians.

Here is the 2003 Registrants list.

And finally here are the PBP 2003 results as a database file.

Eric Fergusson, Nov. 2003