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JUMA Rant - Show me the money


MTB-BFK

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Race entries - approx R2 million (R375 per 52 K - VERY EXPENSIVE)

Hollard sponsorship - R1.5 million 

Other sponsors? who knows how much more these okes milked out of this race

 

Income: minimum R3.5 million

 

Costs:

Prizes - R370,000

Goodie Bags - R0, absolute rubbish

Course build?  The half-baked course design with a few scaffolds (some of which failed early on), but lets be generous, lets say R500,000

Marshalls - these were not marshals, they were people paid to stand (in most cases lie) around looking disinterested, certainly contributing in no way to race flow, pointing out dangers etc etc - minimum wage stuff - prob cost less than R20,000 in total

water tables/refreshments? a DISGRACE - 1 minging water table at 16K, nothing else, not even at the finish - cost? R1000 at the most.  This was the most startling, as you cannot attribute this to a first time race mistake - races always have water/drinks at multiple points.  Even children know this

 

Profit: well over R2 million - lekka business

 

This whole thing was a racket.  The course was designed by amateurs, with unbelievable bottlenecks after the first 3 groups.  Even for a first attempt it was poor.  I saw more injuries in this race than in many other series such Nissan Trailseekers, etc etc over a whole year.

 

Amazed that Hollard put their name on this - pretty cr@ppy marketing if you ask me

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I don't know what happened but you left off a pile of costs:

Fencing

Standby Paramedics

Affiliation fees

Online entries fees

Registration costs

Joburg metro fees

Event organiser fees

Etc etc etc

 

I'm not saying 375 was worth it or not..but if you want to rant then make sure you know your facts and understand how managing and running an event works

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I am sure they will learn and respond appropriately for next year. Great to see corporate money coming to the sport. The 94.7 which has a long history had similar issues last year. Thiscwas billed as an adventure not a race. I also felt that safety needs to be upgraded, especially in the dark tunnels where some ofthe drop iffs were surprising . Inexperienced riders could get hurt. I would still rather that this type of event grows and improves than to just write it off.

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Sigh. you cant please all the people all the time

 

What else did you expect for, what was guaranteed to be a popular event on a course that has its limitations?

 

Let it go guy, most people seem to have enjoyed it

You are right, and it was a bit of a whinge, but don't you also just get tired of being ripped off?  I saw dozens of riders wiping out badly due to some really foolish course design, in spite of this thing being a big money spinner for the organisers.

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Hated every metre of the anatomic tunnel. Far to dark and lightning was basically non existent . To easy to come a cropper. As for the rest of the race was cool,luckily started early enough to almost avoid most bottle necks.

 

2 mates started just before 7am total time 5h30. Riding time 3h50. That's not exceptable.

 

Sister & brother and brother in law did the 22km,one bottle neck 45 min!!! Seriously.

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I thought the course design was great. What did you wanna ride, a road? Please man. It's a mountain bike event you need challenging things and this was awesome. I understand the tunnels were dark and spooky but fully rideable.

 

Some of the things you mentioned I agree on, lack of water tables, no drink at the end, the terrible marshals in the open veld area (I distinguish them as the ones manning the road crossings were great)

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OP - I don't agree with your assessment.

 

I did the 52km and can say that the greatest single contributor to the bottlenecks was not the course design, but rather lesser skilled riders who couldn't negotiate technical terrain/descents. 

 

I was caught for almost half an hour at the bottleneck before the descent leading past the RedBull stand, because most people couldn't ride that section.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as I had accepted that there were going to be bottlenecks, large crowds, etc., etc. 

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OP - I

 

I did the 52km and can say that the greatest single contributor to the bottlenecks was not the course design, but rather lesser skilled riders who couldn't negotiate technical terrain/descents. 

 

 

I agree 100% some very basic rideable sections,lots ppl jumped of and walked causing the bottle neck. Surely that's a seeding issue?
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Had a blast, crashed like a boss but nothing broken. Started early & had the first cold one before 9. Thx Mike, Ross, Chukky, Escapee, Travis, shaper & everyone else. Great day out. Need more SkilZzz & training

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22km (definitely not a pro rider!) - Bottle necks aside the concept was great.

There needs to be a way to split beginners from the intermediate and advanced riders.

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