Here is my 2 cents worth. Firstly I think marking was not that good aspecially if you do not know the area and some of the usual routes. Secondly I was also stoped at the Botanical gardens by 1 angry manager and a 4 ton truck parked infront of the gate to prevent the riders going through the gate. After trying to speak to her and she cleary not keeping the her story the same. It seems that she was upset because a fence was cut when she arrived(she said she was late) so 1 of the fathers of a junior rider who was leading a shorter distance race did cut the fence. So she decided to show everybody who is in charge and stopped everybody. Later on she received a phone call and did open the route again, but it was to late for most of the riders(me included). It is unfortunate situation and not PPA's mistake, but then it comes back again, someone should have gone to areas like that to ensure that all markings is still there, gates were open, marshalls were in place, water points were manned, ect. Thirdly on the road race there were so many traffic cops, lots of bike marshals and lots of PPA people on the road. There is so many road works in Bloemfontein, that forced PPA to use all the roads available and also the taxi drivers are so aggressive in Bloem, at one of the trafic lights we also had a taxi refusing to stop, so the trafic cop was busy arguing with him, then his friend just went over a red light and almost hitting the other cop and a bike marshall. We were informed by PPA to write our contact details on a list and they will communicate further. Hopefully it will be better, because last year the MTB event was flawless.
