General vote of no confidence - NO GPS tracking rule.

[Shebeen]

 

13.7 No rider shall trespass at any time of the year on land which is not open to the public for mountain biking and which forms part of the race route of any edition of the race, nor will any rider distribute any GPS co-ordinates in respect of the route at any time.

 

14 Prohibited Equipment 14.1 No rider may track the route via the use of GPS units or by any other means. The use of GPS units to monitor heart rate, cadence, speed etc is only allowed if the track log has been disabled. It is the responsibility of the rider to switch off the tracking functionality.

https://www.cape-epic.com/downloads/2014AbsaCapeEpicRules.pdf if there is an updated 2015 version of the rules, I couldn't find it on their page.

 

First off - I'm really against rogue riding/trespassers. I have a loosely vested interest in this in that I organise adventure races, so I deal with landowners and needing to ask/beg for permission to use their private land. Many of the races I've put on are in the area that the ACE currently uses.

 

I've always (with my sceptics hat firmly on) felt that this rule had its genesis in the time when Polar was an important sponsor of the race, and garmin/suunto et al were killing them with superior gps offerings in the fitness watch segment that they had been dominant in for 10+ years. It made (a somewhat shady) business sense to ban these devices. That is neither here nor there now, but I still believe the reasons for the rule - to protect access to private land - are misguided.

 

I can understand the thought process here, that by saving your GPS tracks you can go and reride them exactly. By publishing them to the general public, anyone can go and download them and follow them blindly. For me the crime in trespassing happens when you put the bike over a fence/gate and physically get on the land. Having a loaded gps route doesn't make you do it.

 

It's not like a GPS track unlocks this secret route. There are MANY ways to know where the Epic route goes.

a)the actual route map published in the spectator guide/route launch video etc etc

b)the live tracking function

c)the memory banks of the riders - I can remember the routes of my rides, went past this bridge, turned up that road to this dam etc etc.

 

and if they were really precious about it. they wouldn't link it straight onto their webpage.

here is the link to today's route kml - http://www.cape-epic.com/livetracking/kmz/ACE2015_S3.kmz

 

It's a contrast to how other races do it....despite being the 'leading' stage race I don't think anyone else bans you from using your own equipment. Infact joburg2c embrace technology so much it's mandatory...(wouldn't have the problem of people going off course as badly as the leading ladies did in stage 2 either     )

 

Some will say that there is precedent, and that wannabes lost some land access due to people riding epic tracks. For me it proves that the rule doesn't work - or I'm totally off course here and it needs to be monitored even more strictly. I'd hate it to be the latter.

 

[T-Bob]

I guess they can't stop you recording it but maybe the publishing and distributing is the issue and one of the reassurances that they have give to the private land holders that the routes go though to gain access this year and for next.

 

To be honest it seems to be fairly short sighted as the live track, spectators guide and all those things you can work out where the route is going roughly. That said, not sure how many guys are going to descend on out of the way parts of the Cape to try and find the ACE route and ride it in part or in full.  

 

In the end I think it's just a thing they can point to and say 'look let us ride your land, we promise we'll keep it a secret'.

[Fly2High]

 

Some will say that there is precedent, and that wannabes lost some land access due to people riding epic tracks. For me it proves that the rule doesn't work - or I'm totally off course here and it needs to be monitored even more strictly. I'd hate it to be the latter.

 

 

The Wannabees actually lost the potential of 15kms of single track (was planned and budgeted for) and a fantastic route along the mountain due to the route / segments being published on social media.  It all again boils down to cyclists understanding that we cannot ride where we want to. (and I do not want to start a rant n rave about where we may and may not ride).  We need to ensure we ride with the appropriate access rights.  Monitoring social media does not work but we need to monitor ourselves else we will lose access.  

[Shebeen]

 

Some will say that there is precedent, and that wannabes lost some land access due to people riding epic tracks. For me it proves that the rule doesn't work - or I'm totally off course here and it needs to be monitored even more strictly. I'd hate it to be the latter.

 

 

The Wannabees actually lost the potential of 15kms of single track (was planned and budgeted for) and a fantastic route along the mountain due to the route / segments being published on social media.  It all again boils down to cyclists understanding that we cannot ride where we want to. (and I do not want to start a rant n rave about where we may and may not ride).  We need to ensure we ride with the appropriate access rights.  Monitoring social media does not work but we need to monitor ourselves else we will lose access.  

 

I don't know the specifics of this incident, but it seems like its blaming the gun shop for a murder, not the guy who pulled the trigger.