I'll be organising another MTB weekend in Wales shortly, and there will be none of these shenanigans. No ride requirements. If you smash yourself up, then we will get an ambulance and drink a few beers for you after.
Its a sorry state of insurance these days when informal rides turn into legal minefields.
Hmmmm. A few thoughts: bear with me on this.
1. Imagine a commercial, profit-making company organised an MTB weekend in Wales and you took part, was injured for some reason and claimed on your own insurance. So far, so good.
2. Your insurance company will inevitably seek recompense from another insurance company. In this case it'd almost certainly make a claim against the insurance company used by the profit-making entity that organised the event. So far, so good. These companies have their own ways of sorting this out.
3. Imagine exactly the same incident happened to you but it was a CTC ride. You'd claim on your own personal insurance and your insurance company would seek recompense from the insurance company used by the CTC. Fair enough.
4. Now imagine exactly the same incident happens on a Fridays ride, which is run by
@Andrew Br and you make a claim on your own personal insurance policy. The insurance company you use will seek money from the organiser of the ride. Because
@Andrew Br is a Fridays ride leader he's covered by the CTC insurance company, from where your insurance company will try to seek recompense. This is very far from "an informal ride". Nor, I should add, is this "a legal minefield" - there is long established precedent in this area.
5. Here is the interesting bit. Imagine he isn't a Fridays ride leader. Your insurance company will try to get recompense directly from him. As
@dellzeqq once said, he could lose his house.
6. That's why The Fridays have a bulletproof insurance system which we enforce rigidly. I'd be the first to agree that a couple of days with four mates pootling around Welsh lanes is an entirely different thing. But taking nearly 100 riders gathered at random on the internet out of Hyde Park Corner at midnight on a Friday, across south London, the Downs and into Brighton/Whitstable/Southend/Maldon/Bognor or across northern moors in thick mist and low temperatures is a completely different risk matter. There is a reason we have waymarkers, TECs, All Uppers, and now sometimes, "wingmen" (who aren't always men).
7. Hence Fridays ride leaders are sick of me saying: "What would you tell the coroner?" Maybe: "I was a bit tired so took a short cut and 80 riders followed me on to the A27 which was really busy with heavy lorries at the time?" Or how about: "The route wasn't planned really as ICBA so I made it up as I went along and was a bit tired so took 65 tired cyclists at speed down a steep gravely hill and that's how the accident happened?"
8. (Sorry to go on.) Remember The Fridays do about 10 UK rides (usually with at least 50 riders, sometimes 100) a year, in all sorts of weather, and an annual tour abroad for a week. Each route, *inc the foreign ones*, is ridden beforehand (preferably at the same time of day or night to gauge traffic conditions). So there has to be a system, to which we as a club, and you as riders, must adhere.
9. Finally, ride leaders are very hard to come by. There are not many cyclists who can come up with a route, recce it, then lead dozens of unknown riders all night in all weathers and take responsibility for the whole shebang. So as a club, we tend to look after them, because without them there'd be no rides at all. So - a word to the wise - it's better to not take the p!ss if you think you want to ride with us in future.
10. Of course, you don't have to agree with all this, or follow
the rulz at all. But there again, you don't have to ride with The Fridays.
