Take your gripes to the organisers ... they placed the Standard Bank group in a later start slot. Not their fault I would say. There's always an element of risk when riding in a big bunch, in almost any race. It's an accepted fact of cycling. If you don't realise that this has the potential to harm you, then I'm afraid you'll only learn the hard way. Unfortunately. If riding in bunches scare you, particularly big bunches, then avoid them as far as possible ... but hey, it's not a perfect world. Expect the unexpected. I'm pretty sure nobody [i hope :-)} goes riding with the intention to hurt other riders, or place them in harms way, but there are those riders who lack the bunch riding skills needed and quite rightly they will get crapped on. Unfortunately in my experience their ego's won't allow them the vision to accept some constructive criticism. As for what we all enter a race for; it's an accepted part of cycle racing, for most, that the challenge lies in completing it within a certain time. That's why almost all competing riders wear a timing chip, or else what's the point of wearing one if you are out for a paid-up Sunday jolly ? Some riders will wear a timing chip merely to record attendance at a race [notch in the belt achievement] but then they mostly start way at the back. They should anyway. So those people competing for a timed result invariably love to hop into any passing bunch/tandem faster them, and sometimes they are way out of their league for doing so. So if race time was not important for you, and you weren't wearing a timing chip, then surely you had an option to sit-up/stop/pull over to the side for a few seconds to allow the big, dangerous, inconsiderate, bunch to pass ???? Jittery riders are as much a danger to other riders as they are to themselves.
