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August Issue 2014, Vol 16
MOUNTAIN BIKE MONTHLY
Coaching
pg18
Where to Improve Single Day Races
W
e’re very fortunate in South Africa to be spoilt with a massive array of mountain biking events. From the world’s biggest stage race in terms of sheer participation numbers, in the sani2c, to the host of weekend races, conveniently held nearly every weekend in the Western Cape and KZN in particular. Most of those races are well organised and the more established races are world leaders. The MTN National Series for example is the envy of marathon racers the world over. But while there is room for improvement in even the slickest running local race, sadly there is significant room for improvement in other races. Others are just down right terrible. If you’re an event organiser, you need to take an honest look at your events and fix where you’re going wrong before riders simply stop entering your events.
You should have ridden a fat bike Technical routes, though a constant source of complaints due to the perceived inability of fellow riders to navigate technical challenges with enough speed, aren’t an issue in themselves and the matter is actually quite easily resolved. But more on that later…
Sani2c by cyclocross Bike Review
pg08
pg16
Dusi2c
pg24
We’re sure you’ve done at least one. A shocker. A race that’s poorly organised. A route that’s poorly marked. A course that’s generally unrideable. We’ve used some of our reader survey data and Seamus Allardice spoke to a bunch of riders about what bugs them about, and on, mountain bike races and used that information to produce a guide for race organisers to help get all little local races up to a general standard. The real issues arise from long sections of unrideable terrain. Kilometres of soft sand, unless it’s Stage One of the Epic (where the aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff) should be a major no. A couple of sandy stretches are okay, but when then entire field is reduced to trudging along pushing their bikes for 20 out of the 60 kilometres you’ve got it wrong. And you should have known better! Sand is avoidable too, it’s not like things suddenly become sandy overnight, riders are understanding if torrential rain turns a route to a mud bath or washes dongas into your trail, that’s nature. Planning your route along a sandy road is stupidity.
Route markers? Where were they?!? The second route issue that kills the enthusiasm of a field is poor route marking. Now as I heard an organiser say recently, “[you] can’t mark for stupidity”, and that’s true, some people can get lost even with ideal route marking. But the general rule of having a clearly designated route with arrow boards at every intersection is a must, unless your route is GPS navigated. Go for bright contrasting colours and place them in highly visible locations, not half
WWW.OAKPICS.COM
MTN National Series pg14
Make use of clear and highly visible route marking to keep race entrants safe and on the right track.
behind bushes. An odd bit of red or yellow duct tape on bushes or trees lining the route will let riders know they’re still on the right track between the markers; just remember to remove them after the race. Then it’s also important to brief the marshals. They have to know which direction riders need to go and it’s especially important where various distances split. And finally, how about a bit of route marking improvement, why not introduce pre-signals for high speed corners?
Safety The safety of every rider in the field
should be your number one priority. I was told by a friend about a race he did in June where there was not a single medic on the route. That’s bordering on criminal negligence. Accidents happen and as a race organiser you need to be prepared to deal with worst case scenarios. You should mitigate the risk by offering chicken runs for potentially dangerous route features, and if that’s not possible communicate clearly to the riders that they will need to be able to safely navigate that particular challenge in order to
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