You are hereForums / General Discussion / PMBC Chat / Cape To Cape.....
Cape To Cape.....
Well, what a brilliant event this year's C2C was....I only did the last 2 days so have nothing but admiration for all those riders that completed the 4 back to back days. Such magnificent country, awesome margs s/track and friendly vibes allround.
Still, I'm gonna say what everyone was probably thinking on Day 3...that is.... Why didn't the organisers stagger the start into groups(given there was sooo many riders) instead of a mass start. The number of bottlenecks in and around margs township and throughout the whole of(what should have been sweet flowing singletrack). 90% of riders were reduced to endless stopping/starting through 90% of the carters road area and the Pines. It was so disappointing not only for myself but all the other hundreds of punters who were expecting to give the trails there a decent crack.
Hopefully, it was simply an oversight by the organisers and next year we'll see this premium riding area enjoyed to its full potential by all. Apart from that, the event was, in my opinion, flawlessly run by the event staff....well done and thanks
Sitting in amongst the back end of the masses, it was really humbling to see everyone gutsing it out, knowing full well that there's no prize money or trophy waiting for them at the end,just the satisfaction of having pushed themselves through their own private pain barrier and inner demons to reach that finish line. Well done to all of you....you know who you are!!
- Login or register to post comments
- Bookmark & share
hey gepro,
just to let ypu know, the flow also had the same issues towards the front. i dont think staggering the start would make any difference as there are soo many people who are quick on the flats and slow on the twisty stuff and vice versa...meaning by the time we all get to the pines, its a mix and match affair. and the holds ups still happen.
pete
I don't know about staggered starts. I love the mass starts and I think it may even be better next year seeing 1000 people on the line ready to start. It just means you always have someone to chase and always have a group to ride with. I think they maybe could have done more settling before hitting singletrack (that is maybe a quick climb) but overall I thought it was ok.
I did probably hit the pines within the first 50 so had no troubles on any of it to do with traffic. I knew that the 3rd day was the day you really had to smash hard at the start so that's exactly what I did.
Thanks to the organisers and volunteers on the cape to cape, great event, loved it!
Very well run and just hard enough but not too hard! Nice balance.
For me the third day definitely had the worst congestion problems - I seemed to spend way too much time standing still in a long line for no particular reason. I think it was partly some inexperienced riders joining for the weekend and stopping at every obstacle (at least the one infront of me did!), and there wasn't enough road/fire trail at the beginning for the riders to sort themselves out into ability before we hit the singletrack, like on the other days.
Well done again guys. Geeze traffic jams? you guys need to pedal a bit harder at the start.
isaw about 3 guys in pines.maybe a huge climb will spread us out next year.
Great event but I have to agree with the above comments re section 3.
I rode 3 & 4 and started sec 3 about 2/3rds of the way back. I'm not super fast but can ride off road. After hitting a few long queues near the beginning I managed to get some riding in. I even managed to ride some of the pine forest at speed due to a bit of minor bullying through but then got caught behind another slow moving caterpillar of about 12. I felt sorry for the guys watching as I'm sure they helped build the trail and envisaged people whooping it up over their work not snaking through it like a procession of Japanese tourists sightseeing in a strange land.
Obviously starting further towards the front would have reduced the backing up effect but imho there were fundamental problems with the start. 1. Riders weren't asked to self seed at all and 2. We hit narrow stuff way too soon.
Other than that it was great, my ass & legs were pretty stuffed by the 60km mark of day 4 although they did wake up a bit on the last rocky section. I felt sorry for those riders on superlight tyres that made it to that section in good time only to pick up a pinch flat on the rocks with a k or so to go.
A big thanks to all of those who helped make the event happen especially those who manned the crossings and turns, pointed where to park, held out waterbottles for us masochists and cheers us on through the pain.
All the best. T
I don't feel sorry for riders who pinchflat considering how easy and cheap it is to go tubeless.by day 3 riders should have a fair idea where they belong inthe field. If you only did stages3/4 well you missed out on the best stages in my opinion.this event should be declared a public hol:)
Fair point. That's why I was on Armadillo Fastracks running tubeless.
Congestion/ self seeding. There was a huge increase in riders for stages three & four because it was the weekend. Many of these wouldn't be regular racers so they just placed themselves wherever.
Public holiday C to C days... Yeah, I'll vote for that