Nissan Trailseeker #5 Diamond Rush

[Odinson]

Video recap of what happened:

 

 

Battery was kaput about 3 hours in, so I didn't catch any of the last fun singletrack sections

 

You should submit this vid to pinkbike - there were some sick skillzz on display by some of the riders in front of you.

[Pall Catt]

I did the marathon in C batch. Started at the back so when the guys at the front realised they had got mixed up at the early split (never actually looked at the sign myself) I was conveniently positioned to backtrack and be one of the first to get back onto the correct route and from then there were no issues except that I also felt like we merged with the other races a bit early and it was rather frustrating having to navigate my way through the 40km F-batch.

 

Overall though, I thought the route was much tougher than the profile suggested but it probably also had to do with the heat and the fact that I left my Garmin at home and so had no idea of tracking how far we had gone throughout the race.

[bertusras]

 Unfortunately, this video is not available in your country because it could contain music from UMG, for which we could not agree on conditions of use with GEMA.

 

Strange? I know it's blocked in Germany.

 

 

You should submit this vid to pinkbike - there were some sick skillzz on display by some of the riders in front of you.

 

 

Hahaha, with me falling over at the end? I think not

[BarHugger]

Strange? I know it's blocked in Germany.

 

 

 

 

Hahaha, with me falling over at the end? I think not

 

Did you fall?????

 

.....and there I thought you were admiring the scenery.......or making sure the rock with the arrow was pointing in the correct direction   

 

Personally did an involuntary lie-down in the river crossing just before WP1.........   

[bertusras]

Actually, I found a penny  

[NelAndre]

The thing about that route marking though, it definitely said straight, but it just felt wrong as you had to leave the trail, bundu bash over some dirt and catch up to a trail on the other side. 

 

(Maybe I actually have this mishap on video, I'll go look)

You are quite right Bertus, it did not "feel" right and I simply followed the guys in front of me. I have no-one to blame but me as I did not trust my gut.

[edgarblount]

The whole of A, B and a part of C did a shorter route, +/- 28km - I followed all route markings so unless a sign had fallen over I don't think there was a sign at that point in time. One of the advendurance guys in a Red Nissan bakkie was busy opening a farm gate shortly after the second water point when I passed him, so I assume this is where the route deviation occurred (I compared my Strava ride with a mate of mine's who was in one of the lower batches).

 

With regards to timing, they must either DQ all riders in the half, or try to adjust the times either up or down to "fix" the times

^This

 

Decided to do the half after doing marathons the whole year. Came in with a good time doing the "full" 36km.  Might've received a lekke race index after this race. 

 

There is no way that Avendurance can fix this Closed-gate saga without p!ssing some people off. DQ everybody, p!ss everybody off and we will get over it. After all, we are mountain bikers! 

[CMK]

Strange? I know it's blocked in Germany.

 

 

 

 

Hahaha, with me falling over at the end? I think not

 

Yes Our internet breakout is in Germeny( Thy don't trust our internet    )

[Karin]

There is no way that Avendurance can fix this Closed-gate saga without p!ssing some people off. DQ everybody, p!ss everybody off and we will get over it. After all, we are mountain bikers! 

 

The problem with this is that almost all in the A batch are 15 - 18 year old boys trying to make up points for Gauteng colours and possibly to get noticed for sponsorships and selections by teams (yes this does happen), so to DQ them all will cause some serious harm. If you look at the youth and junior standing of the A batch over the last couple of races, it's pretty standard and those guys would've still won and still made it in ridiculous times.

 

This is really a tricky one!

[Avo]

Entered the marathon and started in batch E. Ended up back at the tar road after about 5km's close to the start where a huge discussion with C and D batches riders as to the correct way. Rode back and was then behind batch F, G and H.

 

Ended up doing about 78km's...completely broken at the end. 

[karlito]

Entered the marathon and started in batch E. Ended up back at the tar road after about 5km's close to the start where a huge discussion with C and D batches riders as to the correct way. Rode back and was then behind batch F, G and H.

 

Ended up doing about 78km's...completely broken at the end. 

 

Same here, started in E and ended up doing 80km. Combined with the heat and the fact that most of the climbing was at the end I was completely knackered.

 

Lessons learned. Do not get caught up in the chase at the start of a race. Stay calm and follow your instinct, not the group.

 

Start relaxed, finish strong.

[CMK]

Drinking bear at the first loge/water point did not help either

[PoiZoNouZ]

I really do wonder how they will sort this mess for the half.

 

Last years winning time is 1:33, this year its 0:59

 

Granted not the same route, but what about the guys that did the legit route, why must our seeding get messed up now?I normally average about 25-30 min behind the winner, now its almost 50 min!

 

Oh, and having done all 5 races this year, and seeing the organisation get worse worse, done with Trailseeker.

[Zariuss]

Obviously a talented rider....

 

He is forking quick!! One day when I'm big I will ride like that... lol

[ahp005]

They must declare the race null and void and give everybody there money back or a voucher for next year. I will prefer the money this was the cherry on the cake wont be doing trailseekers anymore.

[edgarblount]

The problem with this is that almost all in the A batch are 15 - 18 year old boys trying to make up points for Gauteng colours and possibly to get noticed for sponsorships and selections by teams (yes this does happen), so to DQ them all will cause some serious harm. If you look at the youth and junior standing of the A batch over the last couple of races, it's pretty standard and those guys would've still won and still made it in ridiculous times.

 

This is really a tricky one!

 

 

I really do wonder how they will sort this mess for the half.

 

Last years winning time is 1:33, this year its 0:59

 

Granted not the same route, but what about the guys that did the legit route, why must our seeding get messed up now?I normally average about 25-30 min behind the winner, now its almost 50 min!

 

Oh, and having done all 5 races this year, and seeing the organisation get worse worse, done with Trailseeker.

Here in lies the dilema. Just two of the scenarios that are playing out. 

 

There is no right way of fixing this.

 

They cannot adjust the whole of A\B\C batches times to say a "winning" time of 1:15-1:20. What about the ABC batchers that actually did the whole 36km, are they getting penalised by 15-20min now? 

 

They cannot leave the times as-is because that affects about 1000+ riders indexes and what about the guy\gal that came in "first" doing the 36km route?

 

The crux of the matter is you don't know which rider did 28km or 36km. If you can establish 100% what riders did the 28km route you might be able to adjust their finishing times based on their average speed over the 28km route.

 

Good luck sorting this sh!t out!

 

Oh, PoiZoNouZ, I am in the same boat as you. Rode balls to the wall and got a lekke time. Was hoping to get that index down.