Western Cape mountain bikers in for a Trailseeker Series treat

Amped!  I love Hemel & Aarde 

There!

Trailbike, smashed my rear my wheel on my other bike so I'll be the fat slow guy come Saturday

There!

 

Trailbike, smashed my rear my wheel on my other bike so I'll be the fat slow guy come Saturday

Riding in a size small shorts and top?

Riding in a size small shorts and top?

Bees!  Who else got stung?  

Speaking to people at the finish, it seems like riders just a bit ahead of where I was didn't even see a bee.  And then riders were diverted via the road to the finish shortly after.  

I was stung at least 30 times, got a tingly head shortly after and then had a terrible evening. 

It was a mess of abandoned bikes, helmets and kit all over the trail with riders running and screaming all over the place.  I managed to keep my bike and gear and push through all of the bees, but damn, that was definitely in my top five of worst life experiences.

I also want to apologize to the guy on the black & white Epic S-works with RS1 in Team Atlantic kit (IIRC) - we'd been swapping places for the whole race and going into the bee section I was in front and went off line sliding off the side off the track.  I honestly don't remember this properly, but I have the roasties to remind me.  This caused him to go off line to avoid me and he went OTB.  In the mayhem of being attacked I jumped over him and his bike and bolted (definitely not something that I would normally do).  I waited at the finish line but he never arrived.  I was chatting to his team buddies for a while and told them the story, but it would have been nice to say it in person.  Hope you're ok buddy, and sorry... 

I heard about the commotion. Was also wondering why so many peeps were taking the short cut back. I took off with A and believe me, I didn't even know there were bees. Didn't see one to be honest. hope all who got stung are ok

Wow that's dangerous and sounds like a nightmare.

There were also bees on the Grabouw trailseeker - I rode past the hives without incident but several people further back had problems I heard.

As i said on the other thread, luckily on friday afternoon the doc said i must give it a skip. My riding partner also went OTB because the rider infront of him fell because of the bees. (he was riding a bergamont) he pulled his shirt over his face to protect it and started running. Apparently running into a fence and got stung even worse.

The medics took out 26 "angels" from his back alone but they went to town on his head through his helmet. he also had bad fever etc on saturday evening. Saw him yesterday and he looks like a 15 year old going through puberty. He was very upset because they had to wait quite a while at the end for his bike to arrive.

And not to mention the guys picking up the bikes and transporting them had no respect for the equipment judging on all the scratches on his frame.

Does anyone know what the official word from organizers were regarding this?

Does anyone know what the official word from organizers were regarding this?

I'd also be keen to hear, although being attacked by bees is beyond their control...

On a positive note - they stepped up their water table offerings!  I've always loved the tables at the Trailseekers, but this time to have all of the sugary sweets and nuts that they've always had in the past, they now also had energy gels, energy bars, koeksisters, crunchies and chocolate brownies!   There will be a photo of me riding through a mud pit shortly after one of the stops with a handful of brownies trying to navigate the mud with one hand without falling!  Made me laugh

Bees!  Who else got stung?  

Speaking to people at the finish, it seems like riders just a bit ahead of where I was didn't even see a bee.  And then riders were diverted via the road to the finish shortly after.  

I was stung at least 30 times, got a tingly head shortly after and then had a terrible evening. 

It was a mess of abandoned bikes, helmets and kit all over the trail with riders running and screaming all over the place.  I managed to keep my bike and gear and push through all of the bees, but damn, that was definitely in my top five of worst life experiences.

 

I also want to apologize to the guy on the black & white Epic S-works with RS1 in Team Atlantic kit (IIRC) - we'd been swapping places for the whole race and going into the bee section I was in front and went off line sliding off the side off the track.  I honestly don't remember this properly, but I have the roasties to remind me.  This caused him to go off line to avoid me and he went OTB.  In the mayhem of being attacked I jumped over him and his bike and bolted (definitely not something that I would normally do).  I waited at the finish line but he never arrived.  I was chatting to his team buddies for a while and told them the story, but it would have been nice to say it in person.  Hope you're ok buddy, and sorry... 

Hey Dirtypot, Nate was the rider in the Team Atlantic kit, I conveyed this post to him.

You would think the organisers would have learnt from the Grabouw race to NOT take the riders past any beehives. It is as if they are tendering for a moerse lawsuit should somebody die from this. It is a small miracle that your mate did not go into anaphylactic shock from the stings. If that happened, he would have been in serious k@k.

Note to organisers. The indemnity is not a cop-out to take responsibility for the riders safety.

Does anyone know what the official word from organizers were regarding this?

This is a question from someone who was stung and the reply on the Trailseeker Facebook page:

"Comment: Can the race organizers give us an update on the bees? I know of 30 of us that we're attacked by an angry swarm of bees. 4 of us were hospitalized. Seems like the landowner cleaned out the beehives on raceday as some guys saw the guys in the white bee suites. The ambulance did not have any comms.

Reply: This is the gist of it:

We wanted to be sure we have all the facts before we speculate on anything.

The landowner was on site but he only arrived in reaction to the incident to help us manage it with our team on the ground. The guy in the beekeeping suit was actually one of the organizers going in to retrieve bikes and keeping tabs on the situation. We assure you that there was no landowner emptying any hives that caused this.

We had no issues with the front groups, but we suspect the constant stream of riders or even someone taking a nature break close to the hive might have caused them reacting to the riders. Keep in mind these are permanent trails that are frequented by riders and never before have they had any issues with bees on the trails.

We are really sorry you had a bad experience but we assure you this was a freak natural occurrence and was not done intentionally, accidentally or caused by negligence in any way."

Interesting that 2 out 2 events of trailseeker they had a "freak natural occurrence" these guys should buy lotto tickets.

????????????

Change the series title to Bee-Seeker

Bzzzzz

Interesting that 2 out 2 events of trailseeker they had a "freak natural occurrence" these guys should buy lotto tickets.

Like I said, they knew this happened on the Grabouw race, and still continued to make the same mistake in this race. Did they somehow expect a different result?

If I remember correctly, their explanation for the bees stinging the later riders was the same BS story. That somebody swinged their hose at the bees.

Interesting that 2 out 2 events of trailseeker they had a "freak natural occurrence" these guys should buy lotto tickets.

Two out of three

Two out of three

if you dont count the first one 2/2. or the last 2 or 2 in a row or or or 

You would think the organisers would have learnt from the Grabouw race to NOT take the riders past any beehives. It is as if they are tendering for a moerse lawsuit should somebody die from this. It is a small miracle that your mate did not go into anaphylactic shock from the stings. If that happened, he would have been in serious k@k.

 

Note to organisers. The indemnity is not a cop-out to take responsibility for the riders safety.

You are right.  

IIRC an indemnity form does not indemnify the organisers against gross negligence.  Routing 100s of riders past bees would be gross negligence in my view.

I almost lost my riding mate to a SINGLE bee sting:    he made it to the hospital just before he went into shock and - get this - he's never shown an allergy to bees before.

Glad everyone is OK.

IIRC an indemnity form does not indemnify the organisers against gross negligence.  Routing 100s of riders past bees would be gross negligence in my view.

I disagree.

In general bees don't do anything to people riding past.  We'll most likely never know why these bees were so angry, but for the vast majority of the time you could ride past there with no issues at all.  

It makes me think of somewhere like Oak Valley where you ride past lots of cows that are all over the roads - they're always chilled, but what if one of them decided to charge at you - would it be gross negligence then to have a route around where the cows are roaming free?

I definitely don't hold the organizers responsible for being attacked by bees.  That is for sure beyond their control.  You realistically can't ride anywhere off road without going past bee hives, either man controlled or natural so to blame them on those grounds is illogical.  

How they deal with the fallout from the bees is far more important in my view.  The speed at which they close the route and divert riders around is vital.  Looking at Strava, there are many riders who were behind me and got diverted and went back along the road and through the finish line ahead of me - that's just annoying.  There was a route around the bees and back up the gorge which some utilized, but I feel that it should have been put into action sooner.  

They may be open public trails but from a bee's eye view there is a difference between 5 or 10 riders racing past the front door to your hive and a stream of a thousand of the sweaty buggers. 

They may be open public trails but from a bee's eye view there is a difference between 5 or 10 riders racing past the front door to your hive and a stream of a thousand of the sweaty buggers. 

Are we debating bee thought logic processing power?

Lolsies 

i ride the trails at TBMBC and have been going past hives for years now with no problem. 50/50 chance one of us will get sting, we are MTBs and puts us at more risk even when training.

Bees can be a hazard, esp this time of the year.  Often hives split and the scout bees are a little more aggressive. 

Often drier too and they will go for moisture, sweat is wet.

Anyway - people have differing opinions re bees, but we move hives that are close to a route where we cannot circumnavigate them.  When we ride the routes here in ones or twos we generally don't have problems, but if there is an extended time of people flowing past we will avoid the hives.

If you ride in fynbos this time of the year and you see a clump of hives - take note of the bee activity and rather keep some distance.  If you sweat a lot don't dawdle

Edit spelling

So, Trailseeker #4 in the Western Cape - Bosman - chances of bees?