[Event] MTN NATIONAL MTB SERIES #1 Dullstroom

[jcza]

1935 pre entries...Dullstroom is going to be BIG!

 

Oh....wonder why Fritz thought there would only be 1,000. Would also like to know why parking, registration, other purchases were such a mess and why advendurance does not respond to email.

[Lexx]

Just Bring Back Baberton as a MTN Race. Problem solved!!!!

[kosmonooit]

Just Bring Back Baberton as a MTN Race. Problem solved!!!!

 

Barberton is doing fine, a real mtb event with great local flavour. Water points were excellent this year, the last one was even serving up dops.

[Acre]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for all the feedback. We are in the process of communicating to all the riders to apologise for the mishaps and explain some of the issues, so you should be getting the below message quite soon, with some more detail on photos, results etc.

 

 

 

Thank you for participating in the MTN National MTB Dullstroom, driven by Nissan event #1 on Saturday. We are very thankful for the great support and our participation numbers completely exceeded our expectation.

 

 

 

There were some challenges that accompanied the great numbers, so I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the participants that were affected by this and assure you that you have my commitment to sort out these issues before the next event. I would like to elaborate on a couple of points:

 

 

 

Water points:

 

The nature of the route forced us to place water points at remote locations without easy access to running water, but we allocated huge quantities of food and drinks to the water points and it should have been sufficient in our experience. The muddy conditions, high participation numbers and warm weather put the water points under pressure, and some points ran out during the event. The water point personnel reported that the water was not only used for consumption, but many riders also washed their faces and bicycle chains, which amplified the problem.

 

 

I assure you that we will increase quantities at the upcoming events to prevent the same problems.

 

 

 

Congestion on route:

 

We pride ourselves in offering you great routes and we go out of our way to avoid congestion on route, so it is especially disappointing if we don't get this right. We expected between 1000 and 1500 participants at Dullstroom and was confident that the routes could handle the load, but there was a massive influx of last minute entries which bought the total to over 2500 entries.

 

We will definitely split this event over 2 days next year, which will resolve this issue.

 

 

 

Medals

 

Advendurance started an initiative with Qhubeka, where we give riders the option to donate their medals to the charity, which will use the funds to empower communities with bicycles. Your response to this initiative was great and we had over 50% of you donate your medals to Qhubeka, which means that we will donate R15 000 from this event to them. We had 1200 medals, which should have been sufficient, but we had many riders who still took medals, event after they opted to donate the money and some of you therefore did not get medals. I believe it is a great campaign and we will therefore keep doing it, but we will orders more medals to have some reserve and improve our control at the finish.

 

 

 

Results:

 

We started using a new timing service provider in 2014 and we are really excited about working with them, because they offer amazing technology like live timing and sms updates. This was however their first event with us and we experienced some teething problems. LiveTime did capture the results and it is available on www.livetime.co.za, so please visit the site and let them know if there are any issues?

 

 

 

 

We really liked the amazing scenery and route options in Dullstroom and believe that this will grow into one of the best events on the MTB calendar. Thank you for your continued support and we hope to offer you many world class events going forward.

 

Kind regards,

Fritz Pienaar

Thanks for the feedback Fritz, as mentioned above, the marathon route was amazing and I really enjoyed a tough day in the saddle but come on Fritz, your statement is the same old same old which you have used time and time again. Surely it can't be that difficult to keep the routes separate near the end?....it really is unfair on ALL participants whether it be ultra elites or short distance riders to try and negotiate tight singletrack. On the water points, get the farming community involved with their water tankers man, most farmers will have a tractor drawn bowser as part of their kit. No excuse not to have registration peeps ready and waiting at the advertised Fri time of 17h00. Come on man, we want to support you but forget about maximising your profits. I will be at Sabie because I know for sure that the locals who are involved know their sh*t when it comes to MTB.

[Lexx]

Oh for sure! Baberton was awesome as Usual, except that new damn rocky Hill!!!!

[davetapson]

I'm going to put up a refreshment stand on the Sabie Ultra route, just after the waterpoint. R50 a Castle Lite.

I'll give you R60...

[Sharkie 2]

Thanks for the feedback Fritz, as mentioned above, the marathon route was amazing and I really enjoyed a tough day in the saddle but come on Fritz, your statement is the same old same old which you have used time and time again. Surely it can't be that difficult to keep the routes separate near the end?....it really is unfair on ALL participants whether it be ultra elites or short distance riders to try and negotiate tight singletrack. On the water points, get the farming community involved with their water tankers man, most farmers will have a tractor drawn bowser as part of their kit. No excuse not to have registration peeps ready and waiting at the advertised Fri time of 17h00. Come on man, we want to support you but forget about maximising your profits. I will be at Sabie because I know for sure that the locals who are involved know their sh*t when it comes to MTB.

If only it was that easy all of us would organise events and make millions like you state

[NotSoBigBen]

Just Bring Back Baberton as a MTN Race. Problem solved!!!!

 

No, please just leave it as it was this year!

[Sharkie 2]

So many variables to a day that can occur...sure some of you would have pissed on them had it rained as well.

 

Many of you complain about Advendurance events...if they are so bad then stop supporting them.

[Thug]

So many variables to a day that can occur...sure some of you would have pissed on them had it rained as well.

 

Many of you complain about Advendurance events...if they are so bad then stop supporting them.

 

And that is exactly what we do.

 

Then you get people who are willing to accept the status quo even if they get shafted.

 

I presume you fall into the latter category.

[Acre]

So many variables to a day that can occur...sure some of you would have pissed on them had it rained as well.

 

Many of you complain about Advendurance events...if they are so bad then stop supporting them.

Advendurance have been doing these mass events for long enough so there is no excuse to not have the basic requirements in place and route merging at the end should just not happen, period. I have always supported them since the beginning when they took over the Sabie Classic and introduced the Trailseeker series and to be honest, with exception to one two events, I have always praised the experience. I am one of them that will never complain about the weather, this is beyond anyone's control.

[Karooryder]

...and yet we still support Advendurance events and pay the cash.

 

Sounds a bit like South African politics.

[Watcher]

I wonder if someone from LiveTime could come and explain the registration and results shambles - what a mess from what I have experienced and can see online?

 

I have never seen results change almost by the hour and then get published to SASeeding as correct when it is still obviously still being sorted out??

 

I had my issues with Spectrum Sport on occasion, but had good comms with them, and they were accomodating. With these okes, I don't even know where to start???

 

wtf is going on?

[Thug]

A question to the cyclists that voiced their unhappiness.

 

Are you happy that Fritz's statement addressed the issues adequately?

 

 

From my perspective, his statement raised more questions than answers...

 

Why claim you were expecting between 1000 - 1500 cyclists when you knew that there were over 1900 pre-entrants?

Why utilise a new timing company for a national race without first having a trial run?

If the WP's did not have access to running water due to the nature of the route, why place them there?

If you knew there was no running water at the WP's why not arrange for water tankers?

and the list could go on...

 

And one of a general nature..

 

Does Advendurance "own" the national series or does CSA issue a tender to run the national series?

[Ramrod]

To be honest no I am not satisfied but can we change it?

[Lexx]

I Fully Agree with you Thug!

Why Change something if its not Broken.