JUMA Rant - Show me the money

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

you seem like a sad-assed d!ck dude.

 

what other people make is their business. I enjoyed the ride and I enjoyed the vibe. I'll pay R350 bucks for it next week again if I could. Maybe you should go complain to your mama, she'll listen.

 

of course its not perfect and of course there are bottlenecks (duh, what did you expect with 5000 entries...) but still a good effort, well organized and I enjoyed the ride

Keep the insults for the playground, rudi

[rudi-h]

Keep the insults for the playground, rudi

 

he was pretty insulting towards the organizers himself wasnt he...  why is his insulting allowed?

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

he was pretty insulting towards the organizers himself wasnt he... why is his insulting allowed?

I came to the latest post - yours was it. Your insults are personal, name calling and crass.

 

His are expressions of distaste and frustration towards the organiser, but no insults.

 

Again. Keep them for the playground.

[patches]

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 riders that overestimate their skills, in spite of this thing being a big money spinner for the organisers.

 

Are you aware that the course designer did so on a voluntary basis. He has a day job, like most of the participants and whiners out there, but in his free time he designed the course to try make it as fun and adventurous as possible.

 

How about next year you spend your free time designing a course to try keep 5000 people happy?!

[Undun]

I LOVED THE FANS IN THE TUNNELS!

 

The race was great, the bottle necks sucked.

Thanks to everyone involved except the people with the yellow/green neon outfits that were sleeping in the bush.

[Undun]

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

DONT FORGET THE FANS IN THE TUNNELS! They were awesome!

[Undun]

They did advertise it as being "a challenge", not a race.

 

I think the course was great. The people riding it however has made me not want to be called a 'cyclist'.

 

There was alot of mixed vibes from the participants.

At the bottle necks, people were getting P***ed Off.

Other than that everyone was generally in high spirit.

People that i spoke to the usually rode the spruit knew what they were in for, that it was going to be cramped, they all chose to just enjoy and not try and race. I bust my chain twice at the bottle necks due to unusual circumstances. I was grumpy but got over it.

The challenge was good.

Next year can be better!

[Louis_Nel]

Just a note , I started later with a friend and his girl , it was her second race and first 52 km , (third time on a bike ) so I knew that it would be a long day , yes the first few groups ran well and its easy planning for them but where thought should have come in was for the people at the back , those who would be out the longest , I saw people in a state of dehydration and heat exhaustion because the water stations had packed up , I raced ahead to buy water and food at a pick and pay for us and shared it with other cyclist who were struggling as well , this was very dangerous and a big balls up on the organizers part ,

 

When highlighting it with them on there Facebook page they just delete comments they don't like , Bad form on there part and that is why I probably wont ride it again , they might control the Facebook page but cant silence the hub.

 

I didn't mind the bottlenecks and yes a lot of the scaffolding bridges angles was to steep for most riders , I enjoyed them but was forced to walk some of congestion .

 

I just think if they issued a statement of some of the problems rather than closing the comments on there page and deleting others they would have handled it better and kept some respect

[Ispeed_V]

Had a blast. Yes there were plenty bottlenecks and some of the scaffolding's were not ideal but it was an awesome adventure.

 

Only major gripe was the one water point on the 52. They could easily of put two more along the course. Yes it was a long day in the saddle (just under 4hrs), but good fun non the less

[Li Mu Bai]

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

 

yawn

 

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

 

Honestly, were you expecting anything different? Any mtb race in and around JHB is a little contrived and surf n turf. Unless you start in A batch, you WILL wait at the first obstacle as other riders take their time to negotiate it. 

This happens every year at 94.7 mtb race.

Value for money? well it all depends what you were looking for when you entered. If it was to race, well then you wasted your time. If it was to have fun and a chilled ride with some mates and see what challenges the route builders could set up with the limited terain offerings, then you would have got value.

From what I have read, your attitude going in to the event would have formed your opinion. Most people actually enjoyed themselves, getting out doors in pretty good spring weather and getting on with it.

Real value for money mtb events: go do the MTN National series, or the Roag (Karkloof, Eston) races in KZN. Even the trailseeker series has improved remarkably from the contrivances it started off with. Great goodie bags, great atmosphere, good pricing, and great routes.

JHB is bursting with cyclists and new cyclists. Anything offered interms of events in JHB has to make use of the regular training routes that most of us use. being able to generate anything interesting in terms of route finding, is BIG value in my opinion.

So stop complaining. Races and events are put together to make money. Otherwise why bother.

Chose your battles more carefully next time and you may actually enjoy yourself...

 

oh and waterpoints... jeepers. It wasnt hot sunday morning. If you had prepared yourself properly, even with just 1 water bottle and 1 table on the 52 km route you should have been more than fine. Or are you used to stopping every 10km for some refreshment...

Far better in this sort of event to nip across to one of the many B&B's, hotel, breakfast restaurants, coffee holes, etc on route for a quick dop with your buds and really get into the spirit of things....

[Peach.]

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

 

 

Please do the math for 94.7

Road and MTB race......

[madbradd]

I didn't race this year as i thought "R350 to ride the spruit when i can ride it for free every other weekend???" Rode the spruit on Saturday, and given the maintenance done to the track... I'd be happy to pay that once a year and not even have a race! So I will definitely be entering next year!

[jcmeyerSS]

Unfortunately MTB is the fastest growing sport in the country. An events like this, the 94.7mtb and even the Nissan series they are a victim of their own success. Personally I did not enter because I have not raced in 2 years and know my seeding would be k@k, and thus I knew I would be stuck in the bottlenecks.

(which is pretty much the reason I don't race, cause I'm not the fastest on my SS but can ride or at least try ride pretty much anything that is found on our mtb coarses but end up behind people walking)

 

 

The organizers had to add some challenges to make it interesting other wise not many people would want to ride if it was R350 to just ride the plain spruit.

The lack of water tables are inexcusable. They should have planned better on that side.

 

In your Maths you are forgetting thing like venue hire. I cant imagine Markspark, emmerentia, parkhurst GC donating the use of their facilities.

[Nayr]

R350 extremely well spent IMO! Normally pay about +/-R150 for a Trailseeker event (which is also worth it) but look how much more went into the organizing of this event... And OP, the course build cost R1,5mil alone...

[Vangar]

oh and waterpoints... jeepers. It wasnt hot sunday morning. If you had prepared yourself properly, even with just 1 water bottle and 1 table on the 52 km route you should have been more than fine. Or are you used to stopping every 10km for some refreshment...

Far better in this sort of event to nip across to one of the many B&B's, hotel, breakfast restaurants, coffee holes, etc on route for a quick dop with your buds and really get into the spirit of things....

 

Pretty much yeah I stop every 10km. I finished 2 bottles and 1 refill. Still HTFU'ing and getting fitter so I drink too much I guess. Would not have been an issue, I left the camelback at home to be a bit lighter. Would have brought it along if I knew the promised water point was missing. But this isn't and empty complaint. Just constructive criticism. The race was very close to perfect otherwise.

[Paulst12]

Not entirely amazed by the whinging on the hub... happens after every race. There was fair warning on plenty of the JUMA threads about the technical side of the course, the possible bottle necks, sewerage in the drains etc etc... i know because i wrote them after scouting the route 2 weeks back.

If you didnt consider all of those beforehand, well then why are you dishing it out after the race?