Race Fail: Ashburton Meerendal 2016

[Thermophage]

I asked the same question on their facebook page- even got an very assuring and quik response that it would still be up tonight(yesterday).

 

 

Maybe they lost all the results....

I got the same response...4kol up yet

[Meezo]

Look for R240 i can get 2 pairs of versus socks 2 usn bottles and can still ride Meerendal + Contemans

 

Results are overrated anyway

[Mike Bike]

PPPPPP....excuses excuses constantly...no reparition ever

[SiriS]

Never racing where I live (and ride) again! Very disappointing 40km route, as if they deliberately tried to take all the fun ST out of it and make it "afkark". Share the sentiments around organisation as well.

 

No 99er, Ashburton or Durbie Dash for me again.

 

Stage races aside, the smaller ones are much more fun ie Philadelphia, Darling Brew etc

 

Really didn't enjoy this Ashburton race.

[karma]

They apologized, explained what happened and gave us assurances that they will improve. I am not sure what more they should do 1 day after wrapping up a race weekend 1500km from HQ. If you want a refund, just ask them.

 

 

Your first post was well written and it seemed like you wanted to be constructive. Your reply to Fritz make you sound like a dwis.

 

 

You sound like a real classy guy. Here I was following a thread hoping the organizer respond to the complaints raised here. It seems like you did not want to be constructive about it after all, just wanted to have a goeie ou moan?

Here is what you probably could have said to Fritz:

Thanks for taking the time to respond to our comments here. While we appreciate the time taken to try and explain where and how things went wrong and how you will improve things in future, I am not quite satisfied. There seems to be a history with sub-standard events from tour company in the Cape in particular and while I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt, I'll rather sit out the next event that you have down here to first see if you have addressed the issues. Cape Town riders in particular set the bar quite high as we have other world-class events on our trails. Hopefully your next event is on par with these events and perhaps in future I will be persuaded again to enter one of your events once it is clear that the issues were dealt with.

 

How much do you get paid by them...?

 

People are allowed to complain all they want, to be exact, 350 reasons why. 

A simple sorry year after year doesn't cut it anymore, and boycotting the events in the future doesn't fix the past and money spent.

 

On a personal note, do everyone here a favor and stop climbing into their characters, regardless of their comments. Your every thought doesn't justify a post.

[Carmichael]

Meezo that is brilliant. I agree

[Skubarra]

 

 

Meerendal: a great venue for a short race, but actually very limited trails, so for anything longer, the expectation is that the rest of the TMB will simply be made available. I imagine there is a cost to that, both direct (wear and tear on trails), keeping usual members out for a while and the logistics of crossing some very busy roads which have commercial and other interests. So they send the long route out into the dusty farms toward Philadelphia for a couple of hours. The Epic has the same headache and the same complaints, its going to be a very creative route director who gets that field from Boschendal to Meerendal without some very loud complaints of endless dusty roads - lets wait and see.

 

 

Never racing where I live (and ride) again! Very disappointing 40km route, as if they deliberately tried to take all the fun ST out of it and make it "afkark". Share the sentiments around organisation as well.

No 99er, Ashburton or Durbie Dash for me again.

Stage races aside, the smaller ones are much more fun ie Philadelphia, Darling Brew etc

Really didn't enjoy this Ashburton race.

 

 

Just some perspective

 

Something I didn't really realise until I helped out with a local Durbanville race, The TMBC trails & surrounds literally traverse dozens of farms with each farm owners having their own idea on where and when races are allowed over their farms - if at all and then some change their minds anyway. You really can't just draw a route on google earth and expect to race it, it's a big challenge to design and get permissions for a proper & balanced route.

 

Siri - interesting that you mention the Philadelphia race as better because that race actually goes through most of the same dusty "boring" bits you mention.

 

Tubed - I have always thought Meerendal would work better as a prologue venue where you can just do the local trails as opposed to a finishing venue because there is no way you gonna skip the "boring" wide open areas between Stellenbosch and Meerendal

 

[Meezo]

How much do you get paid by them...?

 

People are allowed to complain all they want, to be exact, 350 reasons why. 

A simple sorry year after year doesn't cut it anymore, and boycotting the events in the future doesn't fix the past and money spent.

 

On a personal note, do everyone here a favor and stop climbing into their characters, regardless of their comments. Your every thought doesn't justify a post.

 

forgot to mention, did he even ride/do this race...

 

unless he's an Ashburton VIP

[GLuvsMtb]

How much do you get paid by them...?

 

People are allowed to complain all they want, to be exact, 350 reasons why. 

A simple sorry year after year doesn't cut it anymore, and boycotting the events in the future doesn't fix the past and money spent.

 

On a personal note, do everyone here a favor and stop climbing into their characters, regardless of their comments. Your every thought doesn't justify a post.

All I am asking for is mature comments, its probably too much to ask for. PS: I have no vested interest in Meerendal, Ashburton or Fritz's business. I do however think that event organisers will stop responding to comments here on bikehub if we all act like spoilt 5 year olds in how we engage with them. Then we all lose.

[Skubarra]

How much do you get paid by them...?

 

People are allowed to complain all they want, to be exact, 350 reasons why. 

A simple sorry year after year doesn't cut it anymore, and boycotting the events in the future doesn't fix the past and money spent.

 

On a personal note, do everyone here a favor and stop climbing into their characters, regardless of their comments. Your every thought doesn't justify a post.

 

It is fine to complain, and in this case the organisers acknowledged & responded to the complaint, apologised and promised to work on the problems going forward. What then do we expect to achieve further by keeping on whinging? 

[Meezo]

All I am asking for is mature comments, its probably too much to ask for. PS: I have no vested interest in Meerendal, Ashburton or Fritz's business. I do however think that event organisers will stop responding to comments here on bikehub if we all act like spoilt 5 year olds in how we engage with them. Then we all lose.

 

read this part again, C A R E F U L L Y AND S L O W L Y

 

People are allowed to complain all they want, to be exact, 350 reasons why. 

A simple sorry year after year doesn't cut it anymore, and boycotting the events in the future doesn't fix the past and money spent.

 

[GLuvsMtb]

forgot to mention, did he even ride/do this race...

 

unless he's an Ashburton VIP

No I did not ride the race. I did ride the Nissan series race last year though, and found it to be a tough but good event. I was hoping that the organizer see the comments and respond to them in a professional manner, as we need events like these, despite the feelings of the "I ride with my buddies for my kicks" crowd, who I have a healthy respect for.

Seeing an organizer coming here and apologising, explaining and putting forward a plan of action is encouraging. The "poohpooh face peace out" comments thereafter are amusing, but does not add any value to the discussion and are reminiscent of kindergarten playground talk.

[MuddyMike]

I have been riding for a few years now and back then I used to ride a race or maybe 2 every month, they were cheap and cheerful and FUN. It worked. Then the big corporates arrived and we thought cool. Ummmm not so cool. Focus drifted from giving riders great day out to ensuring that every tree, toilet and dog was branded with the sponsors logo and the entry fees started to climb and climb. Shouldn't entries get "cheaper" with bigger cash injections from sponsors or does that go straight into organiser back pockets? Somehow many organisers have forgotten why we do this and why they organised races.

 

So what do I do now instead of paying out loads of cash for below average events for the riders? I go to Van Gaalens with my mates, smash some awesome trails for 50 bucks. Stop and take in the beauty around us, we laugh our asses off most of the time and then get back to have a few beers for half the price of a race. Now that's why we started riding in the 1st place.

 

So instead of doing "races" week in and week out I rather pick and choose very special events where I don't mind paying the cash because at these events, riders come first and sponsors a very distant second. So for this year I have committed to 1 stage race being Berg and Bush and the rest of the time you will find me tearing down some or other trail in baggies, camera in one hand a beer in the other. (and have extra cash saved from over inflated races for those cool upgrades like a dropper post  )

 

PS: Advendurance had water problems (Read: NO WATER deep into the 120km race) at a very hot Dullstroom Ultra in 2014 and vowed they wouldn't make the same mistake again? slow learners? I have never ridden another of their races again.

[GLuvsMtb]

It is fine to complain, and in this case the organisers acknowledged & responded to the complaint, apologised and promised to work on the problems going forward. What then do we expect to achieve further by keeping on whinging? 

My point exactly. If you want a refund, mail them and ask for one. If you are voting with your wallet for the next event, also good, but for the love of all that is holy, if you are not looking for anything constructive from the conversation, why waste your (and everyone else's) time with meaningless rants? I think we all suffer a little bit from keyboard activism (myself included), but we would all do well to consider how we can add value to the discussions here on bikehub.

[karma]

No I did not ride the race. I did ride the Nissan series race last year though, and found it to be a tough but good event. I was hoping that the organizer see the comments and respond to them in a professional manner, as we need events like these, despite the feelings of the "I ride with my buddies for my kicks" crowd, who I have a healthy respect for.

Seeing an organizer coming here and apologising, explaining and putting forward a plan of action is encouraging. The "poohpooh face peace out" comments thereafter are amusing, but does not add any value to the discussion and are reminiscent of kindergarten playground talk.

 

A true apology, 2nd year in a row = part of the entry fee back. 

It is very simple. Your entry fee buys you a lot of things that make up the race. 

If they can't deliver all of the above, a refund is in order. 

 

Did they deliver water to everyone? No? Refund. 

Did they deliver a timing system that works? No? Refund.

 

The organizers operate as a corporate business, and in any other field, not delivering what was proposed up-front would result in refunds or penalties. 

 

Surely a man of your obvious mature stature can see the logic in the above. 

[GLuvsMtb]

A true apology, 2nd year in a row = part of the entry fee back. 

It is very simple. Your entry fee buys you a lot of things that make up the race. 

If they can't deliver all of the above, a refund is in order. 

 

Did they deliver water to everyone? No? Refund. 

Did they deliver a timing system that works? No? Refund.

 

The organizers operate as a corporate business, and in any other field, not delivering what was proposed up-front would result in refunds or penalties. 

 

Surely a man of your obvious mature stature can see the logic in the above. 

100%, but conveying the message in a mature and objective manner like you did above goes a long way to get organizers (and casual observers like myself in this instance) to take you seriously, being a douche about it does not further your cause.