Bluebull15

The organisers dont have to give anyone lessons in common decency. That particular point was specifically aimed at bad mannered and arrogant mountain bikers of whom there are more than I thought. I dont really accept this. The people seeded late pay the same money. They should get the same experience. If you cant offer the same experience to everyone then limit the entries. I am not sure much science goes into the groupings for the 22km riders anyway. The bottom line is there were just too many riders on the course. I guess that makes some sense. But thats something I guess the organisers can learn from for next year.

So my feelings on the event are a little mixed. The route really could have been awesome but this is not the first mass mtb event ever organised and some of the delays really were unacceptable. It took me 2hrs and 30 minutes to finish the 22k and more than half that time was spent standing next to my bike. I dont care what anyone says thats doesnt point to much planning and in the moment isnt a whole lot of fun. That said - there needs to be a survey at entry time to assist with the seedings. As an example - I had to get off my bike behind about 10 people coming out of the cemetry at the corner of Judith street. I mean really if you cant manage to ride through a meter wide gate and get down a 6 inch pavement drop off I am not sure you should be entering this ride. And if you are then you should have the option of electing a specific start group. Many of the people getting off their bikes looked very apologetic and if they could elect to ride with a group of similairyly skilled riders I am sure they and everyone would enjoy the experience more. For the organisers one big plus point was the start / finish venue. Easy to get in. Easy to get out. Despite all the people. Overall the organisers will probably get a second chance from this rider because I still had fun despite the waiting - but it does need to be addressed. However - the thing that made me mad enough to get an account and make a post on this forum was the amount of riders that show no respect for their fellow competitors. At a number of the queues people just rode past, squeezed in the front - knocking over marshalls and other riders in an attempt to just ride through. Guess what.... probably half the people or more standing in a lot of the queues could ride the drop offs or bridges that were causing the bottleneck. We would all love to be riding. But there is a queue - deal with it. By being the guy who thinks he is better and cool enough to ride to the front and barge through the traffic you are making the problem worse. If the queues are unavoidable next year I really hope there are some extra marshalls on the route - it probably wouldnt matter much but on principle these riders race numbers should be noted and they should be disqualified.