sometime Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 So I entered my first road race in a long time and lined up with the VB group. Being in VB you expect the guys to be experienced and mostly competent riders. And as our race evolved this expectation was met with generally good riding from everyone. But what I couldn't believe was the amount of littering taking place in the bunch. Rider VB502 wearing Spur kit. You quite happily twice threw away plastic and containers out of your pockets within the first 50km. Rider VB427 in Cycle Nation kit: you threw a large empty packet away in the final 30km. But no doubt you're the type of people who will drive past a township and go 'tut, tut' at all the litter you see there or get angry when you see the leftovers from a takeaway meal being thrown from a taxi window. But seeing as you're actually no different to those litterers may I suggest that you rather take your families and go live in a township where you should be comfortable living in litter. You'll probably have to go to the shantytown area though as I'm sure the residents of the wealthy parts of the township have educated, first world value systems and will look on your filthy littering habits with the same disgust as your suburban neighbours will. In short clean up your act or rather stay away from bike races.
HowardSteele Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 "In short clean up your act or rather stay away from bike races." War on the tossers, well put ,hopefully these guys read this and rethink the next act of blatantly littering ...which used to be against the law,has this changed?.
F111 Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 At the water points you can dump your rubbish. Their are dustbins and people cleaning.
GaryvdM Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Pitty that racetec don't publish race numbers. Would like to have their names here for google, and the world to see.
Rider On The Storm Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Saw the same at Berge en Dale last week On one of the long straight portions I witnessed a rider open a small plastic bottle - probably some carb booster - discards the metal cap on the road in front of me & other riders, glugs the solution & throws the empty plastic bottle onto the grass verge right in front of a game fence. I asked him who he thought would pick that up & he replied "Probably no one - Sorry" Blood boiling stuff
iainravenhill Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Here are details for the race organiser, last year I got in contact with a rider who did exactly the same thing you mentioned here, they took the matter up with the rider directly, my feeling is to name and shame!!! Claudette MedefindtDeputy president | Retina International Director for Science | Retina South Africa Postnet Suite 75 | Private Bag X10020 | Edenvale | 1610 M:+ 27 (0) 833065262 | F: +27 (0) 0866334189 | E: medefindt@intekom.co.za | W: www.retinasa.org.za NPO 003-184 | BEE Category EME
sometime Posted February 17, 2014 Author Posted February 17, 2014 Trust me if I could find their names on the entry list, I would've named and shamed. But when your own value system is so low that you blatantly and intentionally litter, then probably being named brings no shame. You'll justify it with the excuse so beloved by the morally corrupt: "Everyone does it".
GaryvdM Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 But when your own value system is so low that you blatantly and intentionally litter, then probably being named brings no shame. You'll justify it with the excuse so beloved by the morally corrupt: "Everyone does it". But hopefully clients, employees, and family will see it.
Lone Rider Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Some riders are just plain ignorant to the fact that littering is detrimental to the sport. The organisers should help raise awareness in this regard.
cheezy Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Evening everyone. I'm rider VB502. I normally do not litter my sachets and do not have an excuse for Sunday during the race. I apologies for that and I actually did not do that further in the race.
Tjokkits Posted February 17, 2014 Posted February 17, 2014 Evening everyone. I'm rider VB502. I normally do not litter my sachets and do not have an excuse for Sunday during the race. I apologies for that and I actually did not do that further in the race. Good for you owning up, hope you also commit never to do this again, and welcome to the hub
DR ◣◢ Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 Evening everyone. I'm rider VB502. I normally do not litter my sachets and do not have an excuse for Sunday during the race. I apologies for that and I actually did not do that further in the race. Why not? No packets left to throw out?
LongDonkey Posted February 18, 2014 Posted February 18, 2014 Good for you owning up, hope you also commit never to do this again, and welcome to the hubYou assuming its not a 2nd or 3rd nom de plume. But either way, hope everyone ups their game on keeping rides clean.
sometime Posted February 18, 2014 Author Posted February 18, 2014 Evening everyone. I'm rider VB502. I normally do not litter my sachets and do not have an excuse for Sunday during the race. I apologies for that and I actually did not do that further in the race. Thank you for that
Craai Posted February 19, 2018 Posted February 19, 2018 Another weekend, another race, some more inconsiderate individuals that think it's okay to discard their gel wrappers/water sachets/whatever other rubbish to the side of the road. I did two races this weekend; Tuks 21km and Ride for Sight yesterday. It seems to me that the behaviour is becoming more and more prevalent and it's now the norm rather than the exception. I call people out on it whenever I see it with the responses ranging from lame excuses like " I don't know where the litter zones/rubbish bins are" (FFS, are you blind, or have you not noticed the huge bins every 3km at the waterpoints. Hartbeespoort running clubmembers, it seems to be a club competition to see who can toss the most rubbish outside the litter zones in a race) to being totally ignored and pretend that I'm not there. So I now make a point of memorizing the race numbers of these individuals and calling them out on the hub. First winner spotted at Dischem Ride for Sight: Mariam Desai of group EL http://results.racetec.co.za/results_by_person.aspx?PID=337807 This female thought it okay to take out her gummibeary juice at approx 60km, and toss the proppie to the side. (At this point I thought she might just have dropped by accident). Not so, the actual bottle went next, thrown with the power of Zeus to the side of the road. When I made my displeasure known, I was ignored and pretended that I don't exist. Coming up next week; Deloitte Marathon and Berge & Dale
Letum911 Posted February 19, 2018 Posted February 19, 2018 Another weekend, another race, some more inconsiderate individuals that think it's okay to discard their gel wrappers/water sachets/whatever other rubbish to the side of the road. I did two races this weekend; Tuks 21km and Ride for Sight yesterday. It seems to me that the behaviour is becoming more and more prevalent and it's now the norm rather than the exception. I call people out on it whenever I see it with the responses ranging from lame excuses like " I don't know where the litter zones/rubbish bins are" (FFS, are you blind, or have you not noticed the huge bins every 3km at the waterpoints. Hartbeespoort running clubmembers, it seems to be a club competition to see who can toss the most rubbish outside the litter zones in a race) to being totally ignored and pretend that I'm not there. So I now make a point of memorizing the race numbers of these individuals and calling them out on the hub. First winner spotted at Dischem Ride for Sight: Mariam Desai of group EL http://results.racetec.co.za/results_by_person.aspx?PID=337807 This female thought it okay to take out her gummibeary juice at approx 60km, and toss the proppie to the side. (At this point I thought she might just have dropped by accident). Not so, the actual bottle went next, thrown with the power of Zeus to the side of the road. When I made my displeasure known, I was ignored and pretended that I don't exist. Coming up next week; Deloitte Marathon and Berge & Dale This was a ride for sight? On a more serious note, I had this same issue during the 947 last year. Horrible to see how little respect people have for their image, the image of the sport and the poor people who have to come clean up after you. On the MTB races I note that the littering is getting less, so welldone on that guys, lets show these roadies how the cleaner species ride!
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