Rated Event: 65.556%
funkymrmagic wrote:
I was originally signed up for the 104 mile ride, but given limited time on the day, I opted for the 63 mile ride instead. The ride itself was enjoyable, but I felt that there were a number of small niggles that made the event less successful than it could have been.
Firstly, the timing system required you to be manually registered at each stop. A marshal/helper had to swipe your chip in order for this to occur. It was a bit of a pain, and also made for some interesting scrum-like situations at the earlier feed station.
Signage was small and ambiguous. In fairness, I should probably have read the rider manual more thoroughly before riding, but it's the kind of thing that it would be prudent to re-emphasise on the line. Having nothing but a black, blue or green arrow (and at times, all three) makes it difficult. I had to ask another rider at Forestburngate to clarify which was which. There were no signs to warn traffic that an event was going on, and there were no marshals anywhere other than at the feed stops.
I got the impression that a lot of the staff/marshals/helpers were not really that bothered about cycling. That obviously isn't a criticism, but you can always tell when people are more involved in promoting an event. I saw people texting/talking on mobile phones and at the end of the ride the marshal looked right at us, before looking down at the ground, leaving me and a companion to right to the wrong entrance.
Beyond that, the ride was very enjoyable. The weather was kind aside from a block headwind over the middle 20 miles when I was largely riding solo. The roads were quiet and I think whomever put the route together should be applauded for putting together a number of well thought-out options.
