Etape Caledonia Sabotaged
- Thread starter Isla Valassi
- Start date
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ferret fur
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Roseburn
Also some of the roads are tiny. You could not squeeze that number of bikes past a car going in the opposite direction safely. Don't forget you have bunches of 50+ riders going at speed into tight bends. It is one of the sillier arguments for having this event with open roads: If they were open you would be extremely stupid to drive down them.
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
What springs to mind is that unfortunate death of the bloke doing a TT the other week, it reinforces the idea of mixing traffic and a race being a bad thing.
Personally, I think that IMG should move their operation. What they sell is a guaranteed income for a market town. Look for a new town, a new route and run the same concept. I really think that the prats who put the tacks down will be back for more if the route is run again. In my opinion, the route could move over a range of routes with Pitlochry being used in 2-3 yrs time. The protesters believe they have a legal basis for the argument and will push this one quite hard. If the money income was removed from their area, I can guarantee, they will become persona non grata.
bigskelf
New Member
- Location
- Near Perth
Turns out Mr Hounman He Of Acre and Keep Driving to Church Sacred group is the owner of Legends of Grandtully. Choccies and posh gifts etc. So guess who's never getting any of my custom :-)snorri said:
bigskelf
New Member
- Location
- Near Perth
Sheepish
Guess I must be pretty annoyed, just posted for the first time after lurking for several months
Guess I must be pretty annoyed, just posted for the first time after lurking for several months
RSV_Ecosse said:How many members does ACRE have?.
I just Googled it and they have next to no web presence at all.
Do all three members of ACRE live in the same house without a telly, running water and most importantly, the internet?.
You could probably ask their head honcho, his email address is [removed] turns out they do have internet access after all...
Dayvo
just passin' through
- Location
- 59° 50′ 5.55″ N, 10° 47′ 41.89″ E
bigskelf said:Guess I must be pretty annoyed, just posted for the first time after lurking for several months
What, for outing yourself and revealing your identity?
Welcome to CC!
It's time like this (the tack incidence) that cycling and cyclists have to stand up together and be counted.
bigskelf
New Member
- Location
- Near Perth
Thanks.... more of a wannabe just now, getting back to the bike after several (cough.. twenty) years. But I do hope to be up for next years etape. I'm just south of Perth so almost a local and both annoyed and embarrassed.
During the first Etape Caledonia, I was a spectator near Aberfeldy. The other people at this place were 2 local (Aberfeldy) marshals, the uncle of the organiser and a man from visitscotland. It was a very interesting few hours, talking to local people and watching/encouraging the cyclists going past (about 55 miles).
The organiser himself had been to school in KinlochRannoch and, I think, later in Pitlochry. He wanted to do something to benefit the area and thought up the Etape Caledonia concept - knowing that, if it could be on closed roads, it would be a 'special event' in UK cycling. The timing of that first event was not brilliant, the date having been decided fairly late and 'noses were put out of joint'.
Part of the problem is that Pitlochry and Aberfeldy have never had good relations with one another (Edinburgh/Glasgow comes to mind) and don't talk very friendlily (?). The majority of the complaints were from the Aberfeldy area. The local couple understood both positions but could see the potential and "to close the roads for 6 hours each year (!) is worth it, in the long run". Visitscotland man was also pointing out that the benefit to the local community would not necessarily be felt that first year. It would be from the cyclists who came to the area for perhaps the first time, liked what they saw and would go back to their club, family etc and tell of the great area and return for a club training week, a family holiday, a weekend or whatever. It would only be a year or two down the line that the benefits/malfits (??) would be really experienced.
Some folk walked along from the local kirk and passed us with comments like "Well, we've just been to church" - and did I detect a slightly smug tone of voice ?
I've been to churches where the times of the services change quite often - and it's no big deal. For 1 day in the year, could you not have your service starting at 1430 ?
The roads are NOT closed all day - the signs being shown on the BBC news this evening clearly showed that the closure was for 4 hours (only). Statistics can tell us anything but apparently Perth and Kinross Council reckon the event is worth £440,000 to the local economy.
The independent economic assessment carried out on the 2008 event found:
• There were 2013 entrants, of which 1,702 participated in the event. There were an additional 2,592 spectators. (The 2007 figures showed 1,022 participants and 1,514 participants)
• 85% of these people were from outwith Perth and Kinross, of which 38% from were outwith Scotland (2007 figures: 80% and 20% respectively)
• 81% stayed overnight (2007 figure: 70%)
• A total of 4,294 visitors attracted a net economic impact of £416,885 for Perth and Kinross (2007 figure: £191,337)
• 89% of visitors rated their visitor experience to Perth and Kinross as good or very good, and 84% said they were likely or very likely to return to the area outwith the event over the next three years
• 91% of spectators rated the Etape Caledonia as good/very good.
(full report here)
Note this too:
Ideas currently being discussed for the 2009 event include:
• A new endurance hill climb for cyclists up Glen Quaich (the longest sustained hill climb in the UK) 
It is worthy of note that BBC Scotland, The Scotsman and The Herald newspapers, in all their reports about the 'tacking' incident, have described it as a "charity bike ride". I thnk the Polis will do the necessary work on this and bring the miscreants to justice - there is too much at stake for it to be put under the carpet.
Apologies for the long post but I think this is too good an event to be messed up by a few, who have legitimate concerns ... but are a bit, shall we say, narrow-minded ?
The organiser himself had been to school in KinlochRannoch and, I think, later in Pitlochry. He wanted to do something to benefit the area and thought up the Etape Caledonia concept - knowing that, if it could be on closed roads, it would be a 'special event' in UK cycling. The timing of that first event was not brilliant, the date having been decided fairly late and 'noses were put out of joint'.
Part of the problem is that Pitlochry and Aberfeldy have never had good relations with one another (Edinburgh/Glasgow comes to mind
) and don't talk very friendlily (?). The majority of the complaints were from the Aberfeldy area. The local couple understood both positions but could see the potential and "to close the roads for 6 hours each year (!) is worth it, in the long run". Visitscotland man was also pointing out that the benefit to the local community would not necessarily be felt that first year. It would be from the cyclists who came to the area for perhaps the first time, liked what they saw and would go back to their club, family etc and tell of the great area and return for a club training week, a family holiday, a weekend or whatever. It would only be a year or two down the line that the benefits/malfits (??) would be really experienced.Some folk walked along from the local kirk and passed us with comments like "Well, we've just been to church" - and did I detect a slightly smug tone of voice ?
I've been to churches where the times of the services change quite often - and it's no big deal. For 1 day in the year, could you not have your service starting at 1430 ?The roads are NOT closed all day - the signs being shown on the BBC news this evening clearly showed that the closure was for 4 hours (only). Statistics can tell us anything but apparently Perth and Kinross Council reckon the event is worth £440,000 to the local economy.
The independent economic assessment carried out on the 2008 event found:
• There were 2013 entrants, of which 1,702 participated in the event. There were an additional 2,592 spectators. (The 2007 figures showed 1,022 participants and 1,514 participants)
• 85% of these people were from outwith Perth and Kinross, of which 38% from were outwith Scotland (2007 figures: 80% and 20% respectively)
• 81% stayed overnight (2007 figure: 70%)
• A total of 4,294 visitors attracted a net economic impact of £416,885 for Perth and Kinross (2007 figure: £191,337)
• 89% of visitors rated their visitor experience to Perth and Kinross as good or very good, and 84% said they were likely or very likely to return to the area outwith the event over the next three years
• 91% of spectators rated the Etape Caledonia as good/very good.
(full report here)
Note this too:
Ideas currently being discussed for the 2009 event include:
• A new endurance hill climb for cyclists up Glen Quaich (the longest sustained hill climb in the UK)
It is worthy of note that BBC Scotland, The Scotsman and The Herald newspapers, in all their reports about the 'tacking' incident, have described it as a "charity bike ride". I thnk the Polis will do the necessary work on this and bring the miscreants to justice - there is too much at stake for it to be put under the carpet.
Apologies for the long post but I think this is too good an event to be messed up by a few, who have legitimate concerns ... but are a bit, shall we say, narrow-minded ?
