Cycling in Melbourne Australia

Eastlink ride

I heard on TripleR this morning that it might be possible to print out a bib for Sunday's Eastlink ride for those who haven't registered (apparently registration is now closed). Does anyone know of a link for this?

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Permalink Reply by Lunda on June 14, 2008 at 4:30pm

Can you open pdf files?

Take your pick of what is useful for you.

Attachments:

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Permalink Reply by Lunda on June 14, 2008 at 4:35pm

More pdfs.

Attachments:

EastLink_News_-_April_2008_English.pdf, 435 KB
EastLinkNews_May08.pdf, 1.4 MB
EastLinkRoadShow_EventMap_4June08.pdf, 389 KB

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Permalink Reply by Lunda on June 14, 2008 at 4:36pm

More pdfs.

Attachments:

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Permalink Reply by Lunda on June 14, 2008 at 4:37pm

One more.

Attachments:

Welcome Letter V2.pdf, 205 KB

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Permalink Reply by skillsy on June 15, 2008 at 2:35pm: What fun that was. Fun trying to find out how to get to the start, fun locating the tent with the transponder, fun attempting to get to the start of the race, fun avoiding the road cones at 60kmh and total fun avoiding the riders who collected cones. I don't mind accepting some risk when riding but there was an unacceptable level of risk exposure today.

Skillsy; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nick Hubbard on June 15, 2008 at 11:30pm: I dont know what was more fun, please choose for me
-avoiding cones at speed
-haveing a two sided freeway yet using 1 side for a looped race,
-telling a marshall that a girl was down with what looked like a broken leg, to be told you will have to tell a medical officer (isnt that what the mashalls job is?)
-People who dont understand that thier mountain bike is not the speedracer they thought it was as they sit as far right as possible.
-encountering 30km riders on the wrong side of the road in the last few km oblivious to the head on collision they are about to cause.
-not getting a timing transponder despite getting in early
-Bogans entering at random freeway entries with thier 4 year old kids (example) and riding across the path of the challange race, excellent parenting.
-people who dont know how to signal trying to join fast moving packs, then causing the accident.

I think that is enough of a vent. Despite this I loved the race, however it was a ashame that the organisers had no concept of race safety.

Cheers
Nick; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dave Rooney on June 16, 2008 at 1:45am: Nick,

Your comments say it all !! Had I have known that the event was going to be run like the way it was, I would have caught up on some much needed sleep and not gone.

Dave; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pete on June 16, 2008 at 12:10am: The organisation of this wasn't good. I started late and immediately wondered how you run a road race while mixing in all those on a 30km and 10km ride. Seemed like a great way to cause accidents. Call me crazy but I would have run the race on one side of the freeway and let the "cruisers" go crazy on the other side.

My wife and I did the 30km on MTBs and could give a long list of many crazy things that I saw but I think my wife (who doesn't particular like riding with cars) summed it up best by saying she'd rather ride in traffic (cars) they're more predicable.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex 4.0 on June 16, 2008 at 1:31am: i reset two bollards, mid ride, before i shrugged and left them to perform their natural selection duties. I was there to ride, not play route marshal. Wow, they were so under-staffed, or should that be under-volunteered? I agree with the whole 'why not use the whole freeway' argument. What a stinker.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by ChrisS on June 16, 2008 at 1:48am: We had to go elsewhere. Please can some one fill us in on the missing word on this HPV's fairing? The mystery is got us in suspenders.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Hielke on June 16, 2008 at 1:52am: I didn't do the race, but we started late on the 30km fun ride at 10:30. I saw only 2 people fixing flats but at least 5 (!) people wrapped up in space blankets being attended to or brought over to an ambulance. I could not believe my eyes and got spooked enough to, when the time came to loop back, switch to the other side of the highway. The phrase "but we parked our car just over there" while pointing up ahead did get us around most marshalls. Then an older one replied "yeah, they all say that!" but didn't do anything and finally there was some 6 foot 8 guy that looked he would have yanked me off the bike so then we had to join suicide-alley. He was unmoved by my argument that we were actually riding on the half where it was safest!
I don't think I would do it again, but at least whenever I will drive on Eastlink I think of riding my bike instead.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Guav on June 16, 2008 at 2:32am: I rode the 65k challenge. yep, not a very well run affair at all from both an organisational and safety viewpoint, but from what I've been told, quite typical for a CSV event, surely BV will be having a little chat to them after this. Here's my list of observations in order of encountering them:

1. crap web page
2. number and transponder mailout failure
3. poor email communication with registered entrants
4. concrete blocks across advertised entrance points (princes highway\heatherton rd northbound), no marshals
5. general chaos at marshalling area, poorly sign posted, 2000+ people trying to line up at the registration tent 10 minutes before start
6. no separation of racing grades and rec riders
7. car parked in the middle of the road 50m from startline, the first 30 or so riders had to swerve to miss it as someone tried to start it and move it out of the way
8. 20,000 riders travelling in opposite directions on the same road with no separation.....why not use the southbound lanes???
9. severe lack of visible course officials
10. drinks station located at the turn around points.....were we supposed to get off our bikes and block up the turn point??
11. from about 10km out from the finish, northbound recreational riders all over the road, blissfully unaware of the riders coming in the opposite direction
12. even if only half of the 20,000 riders there had paid their registration fee, they must have made around $400,000 from the event.....this isn't enough to properly run it?? (I have no idea how much it would actually cost to run something like this, but nearly half a million sounds like a fair bit when you have a lot of volunteer staff)

Am I missing anything?; ▶ Reply to This