[Event] NISSAN TRAILSEEKER #3 Down & Dirty

[jcza]

Hey guys, great meeting the hubbers that pulled in for a Jager + Spyker!

 

As for the race, it was a bit meh but we knew what it would be, just a flat out sprint race. Much prefer the MTN series even if it is out of town. I was lucky. only got caught in 2 bottlenecks and didn't wait more than 5 mins total. Started in C. Hope we have more vertical metres next time.

 

Legs are tired after D2D today. Wasn't bad but I took it easy.

[Richard the Lion Heart]

Great race until the bottleneck at the end. I think even if that bridge was fixed,most MTBers would have struggled to get up the steep bank on the other side, it was slippery to even walk up. They should have let the 40km riders come back on the single track next to the river like last year, splitting the route even further.

[mbrand]

What was your time?

 

My clock time 2:55 -- Official time today received 3:18

[Nofearnofun]

On the result print outs put up on the day my time was 2:31 and my results email today say 3:05..... SERIOUSLY WTF!!!

[rouxtjie]

some pics of Johan(jcza) making the spykerbombs...those ones went down like a homesick mole for divernick and myself

[Mr Winter]

Well that was a bull***t call by them. 40min versus 3min does that seem right

 

Agreed!!

[rouxtjie]

Agreed!!

Ja if you didn't start in A or B batch(the bridge broke between B and C batch) your time will have to be taken with a pinch of salt(don't know what will happen to seeding indexes...to be honest I don't actually give a crap).

[steve61]

My ride time on my Polar was 2:31 my official time 3:06......I honestly never finish that far back in the results. I rode had and thought I would have been around 300th in a field of 1000 so the results are a lot of crock. From where I was waiting in the bottleneck I saw tons of riders going straight past the turn off. When we rejoined the tar there were as many riders coming along the tar from the left as there were coming off the jeep track.

What makes someone who knows he has cheated go through the finish?

[Muddy]

Interesting to read all the views, most negative, about the race on Saturday. Maybe just something to consider -

 

Agreed that the bottle necks and the broken bridge was a let down but with the exception of the timing bridge at the start (WTF!!!) the rest you could attribute about 95% to your fellow MTB'rs. Let me explain. On the last single track there were 3 obstacles - the big tree followed by the little wooden bridge followed by the blue plastic bridge. I started in A and had a mechanical that lost me some time so got passed by lots of people and ended up getting to this section probably just after the brige broke. First rule of riding is that if you cannot ride an obstacle then get of the line. Only one of the three that might be excused is the big tree as it comes up on you suddenly. There is no reason not the ride the wooden bridge and if you can't, don't stand looking at it. Then the broken bridge. Everybody was standing around waiting for the front smuck to try and cross it without getting his feet wet. For crying out loud just walk though the water and up the other side. The fact that the bridge was there at all was a nice to have since there is nothing wrong with a portage section in a MTB race. So some went past the queue, thought the water out the other side. Why should everybody stand around like sheep trying to negotiate a faulty bridge on foot just because some chose to?

Edited September 3, 2012 by Muddy

[Thorn199]

1st Trailseeker event for me. I have done a couple of the Nissan national events and I think the standard of rider ability is far better at the national series. Serious bottlenecks on Saturday at even the smallest of obstacles. The step down into the drainage ditch next to the R21, the short climb next to that conference centre, the corner onto the R21 cross over, the rocky downhills, and of course the single track towards the end with the bridge. I estimate I spent at least half an hour in bottlenecks. I was hoping for a sub-2 hour 40km, but not to be.

 

The rocky downhills were great. On the one gnarly rocky downhill, I did stop and pick up someone's keys that were lying in the track after an what must have been a huge crash! Reckon 50 riders passed me during that short stop.

 

I also witnessed a large group of riders taking a massive shortcut, after the long tar road section back along the R21. They missed a turn off the gravel road, and cut out a good 3-5 kms, which included a long uphill. They must have saved a good 5-10 minutes.

 

Apart from the bottlenecks, I enjoyed the rest of the route, and it was a good way of getting back onto the bike after a bit of winter lay-off.

[jcmeyerSS]

Well I got to the field before the single track at the broken bridge at 3:10 and stopped my stop watch once I saw the debacle ahead. The queue was all the way across the field and turning left. My official time 4:07. How do I get a DNF of DQ. That is bullsh1t. Especially since a family friend that I overtook with 15km to go was sent around and has a time 37 min better than mine.

 

You know what to be honest I could really care about my time that much cause I do races to enjoy the route. Oh wait what route. It was basically ride to kempton on the left of the railway line, ride back on the right.

 

Oh well TIA.

[Dustbin Dog]

Waiting to cross the river. To many cyclists not enough track. Organiser's need to learn how to build a bridge, those two at the river were scary.

[sr2106]

Was my first Nissan race, just cant beleive the !!@##$ up of a broken bridge that cost us at least 25 minutes and a 3h30 finish time - tend to agree with the over subscription ~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sometime]

Looking at those photos reminds me how much I hate bottlenecks and how much more I hate queue jumpers. It also reinforces the need (for me anyway) to be seeded high up

 

Note to self:

 

Keep training hard throughout the year, ignore those eveil voices wanting to keep you in bed on those cold winter mornings, always race has hard as I can in seeding races.

 

All the gripes are understandable and the organisers need to do some serious introspection on everything from the initial seeding, the start layout, the bridges, potential bottle necks, route marking, marshalling, cold (not warm) drinks at the water points and the number of racers a route can accomodate.

 

Fortunately for me I did this race last year and didn't enjoy anything about it so I arrived with no expectations beyond getting some much needed race pace training.

[Helpmytrap]

It seems quite a few of us missed the split at the approx, 49km mark where the 70km turned right away from the road running downhill along the R21. I was unashamedly sucking the wheel of a tall strong guy on a Tallboy and we also hooked up with some youngsters riding the 40km route and put our heads down on that downhill. There was certainly no marshall calling the split which is poor. Looking on Strava it seems that we did about 3km less than those who did the full route. Apologies for those that had to pass me again. I should probably add about 5-10 mins to my time for that shortcut.

Since I landed up passing people twice, I wonder if they maybe missed the split and I managed to take it? Because if I did do 3km less I wouldn't have passed them at all for a second time... I started my computer late about 5.72km into the race if I compare to other peoples data... Which means I rode 71.8km in total.

 

Here is my route: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/217564108

 

EDIT: click on "Down&Dirty Trailseeker #3 2012"

Edited September 3, 2012 by Helpmytrap

[Mojoman]

Sjoe. looking at that second photo of Dustbin Dog leaves me thankfull we did not bother entering! If they (organisers) did go overboard on the amount of entries they accepted, then some apologising is in order.