Well said Lisa, both events were published in the CTT Handbook for some time & both events cleared by the police. I do agree Alex that you are in no way at fault but given the intransigence of CTT, having allowed both events to be published may I suggest that we could have avoided cancellation of a medium gear event on the day by using a modified course somewhat like we have done before. We could have started at the first farm gate on A29 after Bear Green R/B, thus on the police approved course and then done a shortened event to finish either at the normal finish (railway bridge Bear Green) or go onto the normal 10 finish at North Holmwood. Handicapping could have been pro-rata according to the distance of the event covered somewhat less than 25 miles.
Especially as the weather was so good it's such a shame that our first event of the 80th year was cocked up in this way on top of the bad weather we had for our postponed reliability ride!
Lets hope for something better on Sunday 20th March for the SCCU Sporting 21 where KPRC have 6 riders entered in a brave effort to retain the Rawson Shield, including the oldest fart in the field, yours truly MMHM. May I suggest that Sundays ride should be a support team to cheer us on at Bletchingley. Tea and cakes in the village hall HQ. Rick Opie is first rider off at 9.14am. I wish you all well and trust that my improving left knee will hold out, it's a hilly course not to be attempted on 72" fixed.
I will come out to support our riders.
ReplyDeleteWell done Jake you are a star and always very supportive of your club mates. We all LUV U a lot! I saw Ray D today on the MWW ride & encoraged him to come and support also. Maybe you can call him & ride out together?
ReplyDeleteWith time to consider things - and hindsight - the event could have been run as a 10 (from the clash perspective), but we would have needed police permission.
ReplyDeleteThe issue was not the piece of road shared by both courses/events - which we would have easily been clear of by the time the other event came through. The issue was the A24 between Great Daux and Capel roundabouts, which was decreed many years ago by the District Committee as unsuitable for allowing riders in both directions due to the narrowness of the road and the issues created with cars attempting to overtake riders in both directions. That said, 8-10 riders, each spaced more than a minute apart at that stage in our event, do not present the same issues as 120 riders using the road in both directions in a single event.
I am curious at who pointed the issue out to Alex, and who put pressure on him to cancel, as it is a funtion of the job of the District Club Events Sec to ensure that things like this do not happen.
It brings the District Committee into disrepute, if they are unable to manage the affairs of the District without cock-ups such as this.