GVBR - Rumours

Brad McArthur said:

Greetings,

A friend's son is on the current Great Victorian Bike Ride. He's done it
before so he knows what to expect. However, when he rang home the other
day, he wasn't happy. Queues are longer than they have ever been before.
I heard that there are about 8000 riders this year. Yikes! I did it in
2000 and there were around 3000 and I thought that was too many.

I'm actually on it right now, sitting on a computer in Apollo Bay
(bored, not much to do, etc., etc. 🙂 My experience so far: great bike
ride. Pity about the organisation. I've been buying my meals at pubs and
the like, because of the queues; there seems to be an issue with getting
accurate information to people; all up, well...

This is bike ride #6 for me. For the _first time ever_, I'm seriously
considering jumping ship back to Melbourne early. There's something
subtly off this year -- nothing I can put into words, but overall, I
don't think it has been a great ride. It's a pity, because the scenery
is magnificent.

Quoted message said:

Anyone heard similar complaints about numbers this year. Does Bicycle
Victoria need to limit the number of riders?

For a start, yes. If I'd known it was going to be over 8000 (I've heard
8500, and rumors say that about 1000 have already bailed), I wouldn't
have come in the first place, "free" bike or not.

--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@ to usenet".

keep us desk riders up-to-date Stuart

D

----------------------------------------------------------
Dallas

When in doubt, jiggle the cable.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Stuart Lamble" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Brad McArthur said:

Greetings,

A friend's son is on the current Great Victorian Bike Ride. He's done it
before so he knows what to expect. However, when he rang home the other
day, he wasn't happy. Queues are longer than they have ever been before.
I heard that there are about 8000 riders this year. Yikes! I did it in
2000 and there were around 3000 and I thought that was too many.

I'm actually on it right now, sitting on a computer in Apollo Bay
(bored, not much to do, etc., etc. 🙂 My experience so far: great bike
ride. Pity about the organisation. I've been buying my meals at pubs and
the like, because of the queues; there seems to be an issue with getting
accurate information to people; all up, well...

This is bike ride #6 for me. For the _first time ever_, I'm seriously
considering jumping ship back to Melbourne early. There's something
subtly off this year -- nothing I can put into words, but overall, I
don't think it has been a great ride. It's a pity, because the scenery
is magnificent.

Quoted message said:

Anyone heard similar complaints about numbers this year. Does Bicycle
Victoria need to limit the number of riders?

For a start, yes. If I'd known it was going to be over 8000 (I've heard
8500, and rumors say that about 1000 have already bailed), I wouldn't
have come in the first place, "free" bike or not.

--
My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@ to usenet".

Stuart Lamble said:

Brad McArthur said:

Greetings,

A friend's son is on the current Great Victorian Bike Ride. He's done it
before so he knows what to expect. However, when he rang home the other
day, he wasn't happy. Queues are longer than they have ever been before.
I heard that there are about 8000 riders this year. Yikes! I did it in
2000 and there were around 3000 and I thought that was too many.

I'm actually on it right now, sitting on a computer in Apollo Bay
(bored, not much to do, etc., etc. 🙂 My experience so far: great bike
ride. Pity about the organisation. I've been buying my meals at pubs and
the like, because of the queues; there seems to be an issue with getting
accurate information to people; all up, well...

This is bike ride #6 for me. For the _first time ever_, I'm seriously
considering jumping ship back to Melbourne early. There's something
subtly off this year -- nothing I can put into words, but overall, I
don't think it has been a great ride. It's a pity, because the scenery
is magnificent.

Quoted message said:

Anyone heard similar complaints about numbers this year. Does Bicycle
Victoria need to limit the number of riders?

For a start, yes. If I'd known it was going to be over 8000 (I've heard
8500, and rumors say that about 1000 have already bailed), I wouldn't
have come in the first place, "free" bike or not.

This is the forst time I have been on the ride and I am very
disappointed. The organization for the first two days was very poor. At
Port Fairy it three hours to load the luggage truck beacause the trucks
had not arrived and then they loaded one at a time. We did not leave port
Fairy until 12:30. Took ages to find the luggage because the flag that
mark trucks were not being used. Same problem at Port Campbell. At Koroit
the queues for breakfast was over an hour.
Three laps of the Football oval. Then a half queue to load luggage. The
camp site was so big that the
person next to me in the queue for breakfast had a 15 miute walk for
breakfast! We did not leave until 8:40. Ended up on the Sag wagon
because we ran out of time.

At Port Campbell dinner was late., Sag wagon could not cope with the
number of people dropping out. Sag wagon got us into camp at 7:30pm and
riders were still coming into camp because of the late start at
Koroit. I agree with the lack of information, but I think that may be
due to the size of the camp.
The first rest stop on Monday did not have toilets. The bushes
got well fertilised! No excuse for that. That is a health hazard.

We pulled out at Camperdown because it was an easy place to get picked
up or failing that we could get the train, although the train was full I
think beacause a lot of other people had the same idea. Unfortunately for
us we found out after we had arrange to be picked up that BV was offering
a 2 day sag wagon whereby they would put your bike on a semi and bus you
from Camperdown to Gellibrand and then to Apollo bay. We found out about
this at 9:00. At 7:30 we were told there nothing they could do, you rode
or made your own way home. My wife suggested to the volonterred theat we
would ride out the gate and stop a few kms down the road. I think that a
lot people may have been doing that and hence the bus offer. Or perhaps
they were getting worried about the numbers dropping out.

I think the numbers were too large and that BV was not able to handle it.
As Stuart said it is hard to say exactly what is wrong but it seems that
BV has bitten off more than they can chew tis year. I would not go again
if the numbers are over 3000.

far out that sounds bad.
seeing how a large group feels bad about it. you could do a mass group ride straight home to Melb. More than 50 riders you might even get a police escort.

"Marx SS" <[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

far out that sounds bad.
seeing how a large group feels bad about it. you could do a mass group
ride straight home to Melb. More than 50 riders you might even get a
police escort.

Don't try to go through any tunnels.. ;-)

hippy

hippy said:

Don't try to go through any tunnels.. ;-)

hippy

Or any bridges. Kinda gone off those for a little while.

Anyway, back on topic. BV should seriously take a reality check after this. People participate in these events because they're FUN. With the concept of the Great Vic, I think BV have gone to the well once too often. Cap the numbers, do more OH&S, improve logistics & practical safety tips etc for the riders. How about 500 Giant OCR's instead of 6500 [censored]? Quality not quantity.

Pardon the footy analogy but the BV admin should go stand in that room of mirrors for a while. I know some cyclists dislike BV for some decisions that have been made (or not made) over recent years, but I dislike the fact that many cyclists were promised a good, well run event and are unfortunately having a [censored] time of it. Not fair.

"cfsmtb" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]

[...]

Quoted message said:

Anyway, back on topic. BV should seriously take a reality check after
this. People participate in these events because they're FUN. With the
concept of the Great Vic, I think BV have gone to the well once too
often. Cap the numbers, do more OH&S, improve logistics & practical
safety tips etc for the riders. How about 500 Giant OCR's instead of
6500 [censored]? Quality not quantity.

So how would you decide who got one and who didn't? I could be persuaded to
go if I'd get a Giant OCR.

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A: Top-posters.
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DRS said:

"cfsmtb" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]

[...]

Quoted message said:

Anyway, back on topic. BV should seriously take a reality check after
this. People participate in these events because they're FUN. With the
concept of the Great Vic, I think BV have gone to the well once too
often. Cap the numbers, do more OH&S, improve logistics & practical
safety tips etc for the riders. How about 500 Giant OCR's instead of
6500 [censored]? Quality not quantity.

So how would you decide who got one and who didn't? I could be persuaded to
go if I'd get a Giant OCR.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

Price is an excellent sorting device... the GVBR is clearly too cheap!

Ritch

Cap the numbers.
Who ever was recieving the entires for the GVBR & did not notice that it was topping 7000+ should get a kicking.
Haven't all previous GVBR been 3000odd?
More than double for 2004? "No worries, we'll just get a larger truck to move the gear".

More cyclists riding more often?
I suppose events like the 'Bay ride' can cope with being inuudated with participants as the only real bottleneck is the ferries, the rest of it was riding out on your own.
The GVBR needs camping, facilities & transportation to cope with every single entrant. Last years camping gorunds would have needed to be double in size for 2004, at least twice as many breakfast/meal stations etc etc.

Who remembers the BV Melb bike ride earlier this year?

cfsmtb said:

but I
dislike the fact that many cyclists were promised a good, well run
event and are unfortunately having a [censored] time of it. Not fair.

Isn't this a case of "getting what you pay for"
A cheap, mass event that relies heavily on volunteers, which means that
a lot of things can be highly variable.

However, given the number of times these events have been run, a monkey
should have been able to run it. Has BV been replacing event
co-ordinators like BNSW was recently?

harry b was just on 774 trying to sell the failure 🙂

ho hum

D

--

----------------------------------------------------------
Dallas

When in doubt, jiggle the cable.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Terry Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

cfsmtb said:

but I
dislike the fact that many cyclists were promised a good, well run
event and are unfortunately having a [censored] time of it. Not fair.

Isn't this a case of "getting what you pay for"
A cheap, mass event that relies heavily on volunteers, which means that
a lot of things can be highly variable.

However, given the number of times these events have been run, a monkey
should have been able to run it. Has BV been replacing event
co-ordinators like BNSW was recently?

Terry Collins said:

cfsmtb said:

but I
dislike the fact that many cyclists were promised a good, well run
event and are unfortunately having a [censored] time of it. Not fair.

Isn't this a case of "getting what you pay for"
A cheap, mass event that relies heavily on volunteers, which means that
a lot of things can be highly variable.

Heavily isn't even the beginning. I saw a couple of volunteers yesterday
who were jumping ship. To be fair, I don't know the whole story, but
they said that they'd basically been sacked for sitting down when they
were supposed to be up and doing things. Read into that what you will.

Quoted message said:

However, given the number of times these events have been run, a monkey
should have been able to run it. Has BV been replacing event
co-ordinators like BNSW was recently?

I remember some time ago -- probably in '98 or '99 -- a regular volunteer
[censored] about the lack of respect BV was giving them, and warning those
around him (mostly other volunteers) that if the current lot left,
there'd be almost nobody who knew how to run the equipment BV owns. Come
to think of it, I haven't seen _any_ of the vollies (apart from one ex
route marshal, now in the medical team) that I knew from the early days.

I'm bailing. The problems have got to the point where I'm not having any
fun at all. Consider:

* Koroit. Long queue for dinner, although it only took ~15 minutes to
get from the end to the start for me.
* Koroit. Long queue for breakfast. Ten minutes I was in it, and it
didn't move an inch. I left it at that point, and bought a couple of
egg and bacon rolls. Come to think of it, I've only had breakfast
once, and that because I took the sag wagon from Gellibrand to
Apollo Bay[1].
* Gellibrand. Got in fairly late, and took quite some time to find a
camp site. Some enterprising folks had parked their tents _between
the luggage trucks_, making it bloody hard for latecomers to get to
their luggage.
* Gellibrand. The day before the ride to A.B., we were told we could
sign up for the "sag express" to AB instead. I did so (see above).
Put bike in compound, bag in luggage truck, and take just yourself
to the bus. The following morning, they canned the sign up bit; you
basically rocked up or not as you chose. The queuing system was,
basically, a token effort... imagine the chaos as a couple of
thousand (at a guess) cyclists run for five or six buses. "Last" bus
left at 9:30, and there was a six hour wait for them to return.
* Apollo Bay. The luggage truck with my luggage arrived at _four
o'clock in the afternoon_. This is four hours after campsite opened.
It had been bogged at Gellibrand. Fortunately, I took my tent with
me on the bus, so I was able to set up my tent early. Pity those
cyclists that didn't have that luxury.
* Apollo Bay. As of 7am this morning, I checked the whiteboard. It
said "Pick up your sagged bikes from 8am to 10am". I rocked up at
9:30. "Bikes from Gellibrand not arrived yet. 11:30 and 3pm."

There are too many cyclists, too many [censored] by BV, and not enough
communication from BV to cyclists to tell them what's going on. I have a
very sour taste in my mouth from this whole affair. Information opens
once more at 4pm; I'll be there in about 45 minutes to get my bike if I
can and inform them that I'm pulling out. If I _can't_ get my bike, I'll
be telling them to take it with them to Aireys Inlet and Queenscliff;
I'll drive down to collect it from Queenscliff. I'm _not_ waiting around
-- I'm catching the 6am bus back to Geelong, then the train to Melbourne
(bike's absence matters not, since I'd be walking it back from the
station anyway -- I don't fancy riding with an 18kg pack on my back.)
The later bus is likely to be held up by cyclists. I suppose I can pick
it up from A.I. ... I'll play it by ear.

It's a shame. Before this year, I would have said, without hesitation,
to _anybody_, "Do it. At least once." Now, my advice will be a bit more
qualified.

Some people haven't had problems. Maybe it's the vast majority. I don't
know. All I can tell is my own story, and that's just what I'm doing.
For a start, BV needs to keep numbers _down_ -- maybe 3000 tops. If
there's more that want to do it, maybe run a second ride. I don't know.
But as it stands, it's too big, too unwieldy, and it's exposing too many
flaws in BV's organisation of the ride.

[1] Dicky knees, plus cold and wet conditions, meant that I wasn't
prepared to ride. My knees act up too much when they're cold, and
since they'd played up a day or two before that, even when they were
warm...

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My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and
the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@ to usenet".

and this...

the.standard.net.au1101577523127.htmlOpen ↗

"Bike ride toll blamed on roads
By LIZ McKINNON
December 1, 2004
A MOBILE Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedic on the Great Victorian Bike Ride has blamed the condition of south-west roads for the high percentage of casualties less than halfway into the event.
A quarter of the 8000 field had pulled out of the ride by yesterday
afternoon as the ride headed into Gellibrand on the final leg of day four's
72km ride.Paramedic Bruce Rae said rough roads and poor weather conditions had contributed to the 2000-cyclist fall-out and growing injury list. "The roads are rough, the edges are deep and there is lose gravel on corners
which is contributing to a lot of the incidents," Mr Rae said.
"Combined with a loss of concentration riders are being injured. If the
roads were in better condition there would be a lot less falls."
The roads rated as B and C class by Mr Rae had resulted in 15 cyclists being transported to hospital on Monday with fractured bones, with more serious
respiratory and cardiac conditions due to exhaustion.
Yesterday, the injured list rose further with five more fractures and
several cardiac arrests in what Mr Rae referred to as a quiet day, largely
spent attending to common cuts and abrasions.
As of last night about 20 people had been transported to various hospitals
by ambulance and about 400 people had been treated at the clinic set up for the ride.
Mr Rae has ridden four Great Victorian Bike Rides and this year's is his
sixth as a volunteer paramedic. He is among a team of four volunteer
paramedics touring the route on BMW motorbikes fitted with full medical
equipment.
"This is a tough ride for the inexperienced. Yesterday (Monday) was very
hectic and today has been a breeze," Mr Rae told The Standard yesterday
afternoon.
"The number of people getting injured is totally unpredictable. There could
be a whole stream at once and then none. Things are quieter now because it is the more experienced left - it's taken its toll on the novices."
Tackling the non-competitive ride are people of all ages including an
85-year-old male, a five-month-old baby and a daredevil blind cyclist on a
tandem bike towing his dog.
The ride will finish in Geelong on Sunday."

Stuart Lamble said:

For a start, BV needs to keep numbers _down_ -- maybe 3000 tops. If
there's more that want to do it, maybe run a second ride. I don't know.
But as it stands, it's too big, too unwieldy, and it's exposing too many
flaws in BV's organisation of the ride.

Why stop at 2? One main ride and a number of smaller ones.
What size would the police be comfortable to have going often?
And if you regularly have 200 going through, semi-permanent sites, local support, international cyclists & year10 groups with the BIG ride as the flagship.

Stuart Lamble said:

Terry Collins said:

cfsmtb said:

but I
dislike the fact that many cyclists were promised a good, well run
event and are unfortunately having a [censored] time of it. Not fair.

Isn't this a case of "getting what you pay for" A cheap, mass event
that relies heavily on volunteers, which means that a lot of things can
be highly variable.

Heavily isn't even the beginning. I saw a couple of volunteers yesterday
who were jumping ship. To be fair, I don't know the whole story, but
they said that they'd basically been sacked for sitting down when they
were supposed to be up and doing things. Read into that what you will.

Quoted message said:

However, given the number of times these events have been run, a monkey
should have been able to run it. Has BV been replacing event
co-ordinators like BNSW was recently?

I remember some time ago -- probably in '98 or '99 -- a regular
volunteer [censored] about the lack of respect BV was giving them, and
warning those around him (mostly other volunteers) that if the current
lot left, there'd be almost nobody who knew how to run the equipment BV
owns. Come to think of it, I haven't seen _any_ of the vollies (apart
from one ex route marshal, now in the medical team) that I knew from the
early days.

I'm bailing. The problems have got to the point where I'm not having any
fun at all. Consider:

* Koroit. Long queue for dinner, although it only took ~15 minutes to
get from the end to the start for me.
* Koroit. Long queue for breakfast. Ten minutes I was in it, and it
didn't move an inch. I left it at that point, and bought a couple of
egg and bacon rolls. Come to think of it, I've only had breakfast
once, and that because I took the sag wagon from Gellibrand to
Apollo Bay[1].
* Gellibrand. Got in fairly late, and took quite some time to find a
camp site. Some enterprising folks had parked their tents _between
the luggage trucks_, making it bloody hard for latecomers to get to
their luggage.
* Gellibrand. The day before the ride to A.B., we were told we could
sign up for the "sag express" to AB instead. I did so (see above).
Put bike in compound, bag in luggage truck, and take just yourself
to the bus. The following morning, they canned the sign up bit; you
basically rocked up or not as you chose. The queuing system was,
basically, a token effort... imagine the chaos as a couple of
thousand (at a guess) cyclists run for five or six buses. "Last" bus
left at 9:30, and there was a six hour wait for them to return.
* Apollo Bay. The luggage truck with my luggage arrived at _four
o'clock in the afternoon_. This is four hours after campsite opened.
It had been bogged at Gellibrand. Fortunately, I took my tent with
me on the bus, so I was able to set up my tent early. Pity those
cyclists that didn't have that luxury.
* Apollo Bay. As of 7am this morning, I checked the whiteboard. It
said "Pick up your sagged bikes from 8am to 10am". I rocked up at
9:30. "Bikes from Gellibrand not arrived yet. 11:30 and 3pm."

There are too many cyclists, too many [censored] by BV, and not enough
communication from BV to cyclists to tell them what's going on. I have a
very sour taste in my mouth from this whole affair. Information opens
once more at 4pm; I'll be there in about 45 minutes to get my bike if I
can and inform them that I'm pulling out. If I _can't_ get my bike, I'll
be telling them to take it with them to Aireys Inlet and Queenscliff;
I'll drive down to collect it from Queenscliff. I'm _not_ waiting around
-- I'm catching the 6am bus back to Geelong, then the train to Melbourne
(bike's absence matters not, since I'd be walking it back from the
station anyway -- I don't fancy riding with an 18kg pack on my back.)
The later bus is likely to be held up by cyclists. I suppose I can pick
it up from A.I. ... I'll play it by ear.

It's a shame. Before this year, I would have said, without hesitation,
to _anybody_, "Do it. At least once." Now, my advice will be a bit more
qualified.

Some people haven't had problems. Maybe it's the vast majority. I don't
know. All I can tell is my own story, and that's just what I'm doing.
For a start, BV needs to keep numbers _down_ -- maybe 3000 tops. If
there's more that want to do it, maybe run a second ride. I don't know.
But as it stands, it's too big, too unwieldy, and it's exposing too many
flaws in BV's organisation of the ride.

[1] Dicky knees, plus cold and wet conditions, meant that I wasn't
prepared to ride. My knees act up too much when they're cold, and
since they'd played up a day or two before that, even when they were
warm...

I too had problems as mentioned in an earlier post. If you feel strongly
you should email BV or preferably write. I emailed a copy of my earlier
post to BV and will write to them in the next few days. It may not make
any difference but if nobody writes then they will feel that they have got
away with it. In noticed an article in the Warnabool Standard where it was
reported that 16 people had been taken to Timboon Hospital but the ride
director had only heard about one. I think there has been a lot of
problems with communication.

I also agree that the numbers are too high, the camp sites too big. I
spent an hour in the breakfast queue and the bloke next to me had had a 15
minute walk from his camp.

I hope that many people had a good time because it should be possible to
run this successsfully. I do not think it acceptable to say that it is
always chaotic for the first two days. If it is always that way you can
fix it. Bit it appears that BV are not interested as they always get a
lot of people. I think that the other problem this year was that the third
day was very hard. Some of the locals I and my wife spoke to in
Camperdown while waiting for our transport to arrive could understand why
BV had chosen that route. It was the hardest and steepest in the
district. They said they have lots of cycling events around Camperdown
and never had problems with closing roads. An event such as this that is
promoted as being suitable for the average cyclist should have a route
chosen with that in mind. It should be fun not an allday slog with many
people walking the hills.

aeek said:

Why stop at 2? One main ride and a number of smaller ones.

Won't work, or rather, you would be the first in the world to make this
happen.
Annual big rides attract people, for various reasons (novelty, tick it,
try it, fascinating, etc, etc, etc) and these rides run because
Volunteers like to come on the big one.

Once you have multiple trips, you have to run it as a commerical trip;
with fully paid staff. Even the organising staff have to be paid higher
(you are working 16 hr+ each day and on-call the other 8).

Quoted message said:

What size would the police be comfortable to have going often?

One big problem is that people will make the effort to come on the big
trip, but if they have choice, they always think there will be another
and many just don't go.

Actually there is a solution to this.
Join MBTC or
mbtc.org.aumbtc.org.auOpen ↗
or Audax
audax.org.auindex.aspOpen ↗
or the Melb Middle Distance Bicycle Club (when they open up membership again)

Small quality rides, excellent support, well organised. If you live in Victoria, think about getting involved & supporting these groups

hi

i have audio from today's 774am arvo show with an interview with harry b
talking about the gvbq

email me if you want a mp3 file of most of it (800kb)
i missed the first bit with the original question but he tries to squirm out
a few times

also he encourages emails to him on the bad points of the ride
so get writing if you've given up riding.

add .au to my email address to reply

D

--

----------------------------------------------------------
Dallas

When in doubt, jiggle the cable.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Dallas G" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

harry b was just on 774 trying to sell the failure 🙂

ho hum

D

--

----------------------------------------------------------
Dallas

When in doubt, jiggle the cable.
----------------------------------------------------------
"Terry Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

cfsmtb said:

but I
dislike the fact that many cyclists were promised a good, well run
event and are unfortunately having a [censored] time of it. Not fair.

Isn't this a case of "getting what you pay for"
A cheap, mass event that relies heavily on volunteers, which means that
a lot of things can be highly variable.

However, given the number of times these events have been run, a monkey
should have been able to run it. Has BV been replacing event
co-ordinators like BNSW was recently?

"John Venables" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In noticed an article in the Warnabool Standard where it was
reported that 16 people had been taken to Timboon Hospital but the ride
director had only heard about one. I think there has been a lot of
problems with communication.

You posted the link to the Standard item, but you seem to be playing to the
crowd here. According to the item there were 14 treated by ambulance
officers, but only "about 10 cases" transported to Timboon. Not 16.

Quoted message said:

The RAV spokesman put the number of injuries from yesterday's stretch at 14

and said there had been "a couple of collarbones, quite a few fractures and
lacerations, several middle-aged riders with cardiac-related chest pains and
three asthmatics".

Quoted message said:

"I don't remember there being quite so many last year," the spokesman said.

Quoted message said:

"They're all in keeping with the kind of injuries we'd expect," he said,

adding that none were life-threatening.

From Timboon Hospital's director of nursing:

Quoted message said:

Ms McMeel said a dislocated shoulder and chest pain had been the most

serious cases, with grazes and cuts being the main complaint

This all doesn't sound quite so distressing, given that there are about
twice the number of riders than have been on previous rides, and the roads
around Timboon are a little narrow and quite hilly. As for the ride director
Vincent Ciardull, he quoted one as the worst he had heard of :

Quoted message said:

Event director Vincent Ciardulli played down the number of injured riders,

saying that the worst he was aware of was a broken wrist. "There's only been
about five or so who have had to stop riding because of injury," Mr
Ciardulli said when he spoke to The Standard at noon yesterday.

He's not saying he's only heard of one. So it would be great if, like the
mass media generally, you can get the details straight and avoid putting
words in people's mouths.

Quoted message said:

I also agree that the numbers are too high, the camp sites too big. I
spent an hour in the breakfast queue and the bloke next to me had had a 15
minute walk from his camp.

Fair call. I was on the 1988 ride with 5200 riders and it was busy but far
less queuing than smaller rides in 84 & 85. Absolute numbers are not the
only factor. How many kitchens? (I'd think at least two seperate meals areas
would be desirable). Are meals run for extended hours? How many
toilet/shower units compared to previous years? And are they kept running or
frequently out of action?

Quoted message said:

I hope that many people had a good time because it should be possible to
run this successsfully. I do not think it acceptable to say that it is
always chaotic for the first two days. If it is always that way you can
fix it.

This ride _is_ always chaotic in the first couple of days. People don't get
the chance to practice riding in groups of several hundred at a time, with
traffic on open roads. And very little BV does can avoid this. It is a case
of gaining the experience on the ride with more experienced riders helping.
Maybe everyone should start out on seperate route with only 1000 riders then
converge on day 3 in a group of 6000. But imagine the logistical nightmare
of that!

No, good marshals, signs for hazards, police on deck and a fair spread of
experienced riders along are the only way to deal with this issue. And you,
as an experienced rider have a role to play in telling people directly how
to ride safely and predictably, how to use their gears, how to call out
warnings of cars, potholes, gravel, stopping etc.
So get out there and do it.

Cheers
Peter