Warning, serious rant below. This race was for sure the worst one I’ve done to date. There are a number of reasons, but let’s list a few of them here. Some of these issues may not be universally applicable but I still feel they played a role in the overall poor experience had by myself and many other participants. Note that I also did this event last year, and I loved it 1. Registration: I didn’t go to the registration myself this year, but my buddy who offered to stand in line for a group of us had a miserable time. Took him over an hour. From what I gather the tablet system was to blame. I guess that actually boils down to either using an untested system or poor planning and execution. 2. Loading of riders into start chutes: I started in B batch for the Marathon. I was there on time, but still didn’t manage to get in the chute before the gun went off. I estimate that a third of the batch was still trying to get in by the time the gun went off. Again, the tablets and scanners are to blame. There were only two guys loading us all in. When I did manage to get in the people were already putting up the tape for C batch. Surely management should have recognized the issue and delayed the start. 3. Water points: Three. I don’t need to say more, but I will. This was simply not enough for this race. And then when you got to them they had nothing. “Uh sorry, our water is done”. 4. Route: Hands down the most boring route I have ever done. Last year the route was awesome, in fact it was the reason I joined Tygerberg MTB club. This year it was the Tour de Sand. If I say there was 3km of singletrack I’m probably exaggerating. After 30km I was totally over it. 5. Post race area: It looked like the Ashburton clients had a brilliant time. If you were however, like me, not one of their clients you really didn’t have much choice. If you were very determined you would have found the small little table that sold some beer off to the one side. Thanks for alienating your potential cleints Ashburton. I don’t think I want to be one of your clients after that display. 6. Results: uuh...All I get is an Error 404 page. It was not all bad though, the Biogen cooldrinks were actually quite nice, and I dig the free socks. The negatives unfortunately far outweighed the positives and I will not be doing any more races in the Ashburton series, ever. Wish I rather went for a ride with my buddies in Jonkershoek yesterday.
