lanternerouge
Veteran
- Location
- Leafy Cheshire
Just got back from this event, and thought I would give it a review on here. My friend and I signed up for it as it was rated a 2/4 for both trails and climbing, and we are not very experienced off road riders. It looked like fun.
We got an email at 6pm on Thursday telling us that a mistake had been made and the climbing was actually a 3-4 and the trails a 3. However the email did say
"Really sorry about this, if you are expecting a bimble in the Peaks, take your time and enjoy the scenery, if you were expecting it to be a bit of a challenge with blasting down hills, then enjoy."
When we arrived, a member of staff told us that this was the toughest out of all the Ride It! events, and further that none of the Evans guys had been able to complete the whole thing! Gulp...
Out on the trails we could see why. Everyone was walking up one particular hill and there was a lot of complaining going on! It didn't help that I had a massive off trying to go down a rocky, fast descent - worst one I've ever had actually, blood everywhere! Stopped at the food station to get something for my finger, which I'd almost sliced the end off (!), but the guy at the station only had elastoplasts to offer and said that his first aid kit had "run low". It was a this point we decided to bail out. We went back on the Sett valley trail to New Mills, to find lots of riders who had also bailed out early. When I got back and asked for a first aid kit I was a bit surprised when the organiser complained that he had just started his hamburger!! To be fair though he was very good after that and helped me get my finger patched up.
A few thoughts - this was definitely not suitable for families and kids, I don't know how many were out on the trail. It was also poor about the lack of 1st aid out on the route.
On the plus side, it was well signposted and smoothly organised, with timing chips etc.
Overall though I think a lot of people, us included, didn't enjoy it and found that it was not what they had signed up for. I felt really sorry for two lads who had driven up from Portsmouth to enter on the day, but not had an email and were having a pretty bad experience. I don't expect anyone to stop me going too fast and crashing, ns I know we could always have gone home when told how hard t was, but we had got up and gone up there with all our gear, plus the email was reassuring.... the whole event had the feel of a massive cock-up, and one the staff seemed blithely unconcerned about! I filled out the feedback form to this effect.
Crap event, or am I being unreasonable?
We got an email at 6pm on Thursday telling us that a mistake had been made and the climbing was actually a 3-4 and the trails a 3. However the email did say
"Really sorry about this, if you are expecting a bimble in the Peaks, take your time and enjoy the scenery, if you were expecting it to be a bit of a challenge with blasting down hills, then enjoy."
When we arrived, a member of staff told us that this was the toughest out of all the Ride It! events, and further that none of the Evans guys had been able to complete the whole thing! Gulp...
Out on the trails we could see why. Everyone was walking up one particular hill and there was a lot of complaining going on! It didn't help that I had a massive off trying to go down a rocky, fast descent - worst one I've ever had actually, blood everywhere! Stopped at the food station to get something for my finger, which I'd almost sliced the end off (!), but the guy at the station only had elastoplasts to offer and said that his first aid kit had "run low". It was a this point we decided to bail out. We went back on the Sett valley trail to New Mills, to find lots of riders who had also bailed out early. When I got back and asked for a first aid kit I was a bit surprised when the organiser complained that he had just started his hamburger!! To be fair though he was very good after that and helped me get my finger patched up.
A few thoughts - this was definitely not suitable for families and kids, I don't know how many were out on the trail. It was also poor about the lack of 1st aid out on the route.
On the plus side, it was well signposted and smoothly organised, with timing chips etc.
Overall though I think a lot of people, us included, didn't enjoy it and found that it was not what they had signed up for. I felt really sorry for two lads who had driven up from Portsmouth to enter on the day, but not had an email and were having a pretty bad experience. I don't expect anyone to stop me going too fast and crashing, ns I know we could always have gone home when told how hard t was, but we had got up and gone up there with all our gear, plus the email was reassuring.... the whole event had the feel of a massive cock-up, and one the staff seemed blithely unconcerned about! I filled out the feedback form to this effect.
Crap event, or am I being unreasonable?