The Black Rat Bristol

9jan11

I rode the Black Rat North Devon last year and it was superb; a classic cycle route.

JUST DO IT!

On the strength of that I thought I'd give the Bristol one a go. What a disappointment. The route is boring, contrived and complicated, needing too many signs and turns.

Who can say they did the full route with every correct turn? There were too many looking lost, back tracking in packs and confused by-standers waiting for someone to help.

The general topic of conversation afterwards was not 'what a great ride' but all about how many miles people had done, where they thought they'd gone wrong and places they had missed.

It's true the wind didn't help, blowing some signs around so they couldn't be seen, some were just missing I'm sure - blown away or taken away? But using small, flimsy signs, just off the ground is asking for trouble - and did they get it.

The Somerset Hills last weekend was a lesson in signage; signs 2 ft across, mounted on hard board and placed out of easy reach 12 feet up. True they didn't need so many, that's because the route was less complicated.

I wasn't bothered about a time, just wanted to ride 103 miles but I would ask what is the point of a timing mat on the 103 mile course if you then bring the routes back together only for them to split for a second time, this time with no timing mat?

Many riders will have done the 103 mile ride up to the second split then, then by accident or design, followed the 100km back to the finish giving them 85 miles and a very fast 103 time.

Did I mention that wind?

bikeboff

Have to agree the signage was terrible, and there really should have been a few more marshals. This was the worst sportive experience I have had.

Fortunately I had downloaded the course onto my Garmin beforehand, and was able to follow that. Otherwise I really don't see how it would have been possible to have followed the correct course. I bet the photographer on Belmont Hill towards the end didn't see as many riders as expected.

The times will be meaningless for many riders.

Oh, let's not even get started on the subject of the wind ....

pantsani

Yep, that was pretty poor tbh, as said above the times will be completely meaningless as I think we all did a different route.

pantsani

Just reading the email sent out by the organisers. Good of them to apologise but doesn't make me feel like I'd sign up again next year at this point in time.

Funny they they mention a guy in a red ( I remember maroon sort colour ) VW van taking down signs. I witnessed him driving like an absolute loon in the opposite direction with his horn on constantly through a village ( not sure where - 10 miles'ish from the start ) missing cyclists by inches. He could have easily caused multiple serious injuries or killed someone - mental. Hope someone got his reg, judging by the way he drove intentionally at cyclists, that guy will be involved in a serious incident with a cyclists sooner or later.

vs

I managed to negotiate some sort of route similar to the real one. When I checked my Garmin upload against their's, I did go off course a couple of times and doubled back a couple of times and somehow came up with 102 miles and 8400 feet of climbing - 1 mile less but 400 feet more climbing - in 5 hours 59 minutes.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87469085

I know, I know, I should have uploaded the route to my Garmin to follow but my 305 doesn't seem to like the files - do they even work on an old 305?

The wind was pretty rough but not in the same league as the storm force gale which almost wrecked the Exmoor Beast in 2009.

I also rode the North Devon event which was great and I will ride again but I won't do this one again in a hurry.

I didn't get the email, what did it say?

gert_lush

I quite like the route as its a nice mix of hills and undulations, but mixing it with the 100km on various occasion did seem to confuse things especially with the lack of clear signing due to whatever reason.
Quite a few junctions there were quite a few bemused looking people and it was only the fact I have some local knowledge and could remember where the route was roughly meant to go meant we got around in 102 miles which was about right. Missing a turn at 1.8 miles didn't massively amuse me I have to say!

I think almost everyone I saw missed the turning on the cleavdon-portishead road that then takes you up back to the coast over the cliffs to portishead, there was a photographer there and I bet he saw no one! The sign was tiny and if there was a car at the junction it wasn't visible.

Still really enjoyed it though as I like hills!, can imagine lots didn't due to the signing, If i wasn't local I would have really struggled without GPS

pantsani

vs wrote:

I didn't get the email, what did it say?

Here goes , see below . . .

==================

Well that was a day to remember!

Firstly we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s event and despite some problems and very testing conditions, did so for the most part with good humour and no small amount of determination. You helped make it a success, so well done!

Now we must make a couple of apologies. Despite spending 8 hours on Saturday putting out signage, we were unprepared for a storm of the ferocity that occurred on Saturday night, which ripped most of the signs down. We got a team of people out on the course early yesterday to put new signs in their place but the wind was so strong that even these were being torn down, resulting in some people missing turnings and going in the wrong direction. If you were affected, please accept our sincere apologies. It is a harsh lesson learned – but learn it we will!

We also apologise for the idiot in the red van who decided it would be fun to remove signs around the Chew Valley area (as if things weren’t difficult enough for everyone). When confronted by some riders he apparently drove his van at them, so if anyone managed to get his registration number, please forward it to us and we will inform the Police.

We would like to thank the team of helpers who worked tirelessly yesterday; helping riders and us to keep things moving. Special thanks should go to Anders of Chaos Cycles, who was fantastic again this year. He helped repair numerous punctures, gear problems, a shredded tyre and even lent his own bike to someone when theirs was beyond immediate repair. If you are in Bristol his shop is in St Nicholas Market, so please pay him a visit. Our feed station staff were also brilliant, standing around in the cold wind for hours, yet still able to smile and make riders feel welcome.

Classic Catering Company were very impressive, with some delicious food on offer at very reasonable prices. If you are holding an event you can see what they have to offer at www.classiccateringgroup.co.uk

The photographs from yesterday will be online later today. You might see one of yourself leaning over at 45 degrees whilst riding along! Please visit www.sportivephoto.com

The timings for everyone should also be online later today at www.stuweb.co.uk As 100 mile riders will know, the timing mat at the top of the Blagdon climb was flapping around like a flag in the wind yesterday and the timing guys have asked whether we could confirm to them the riders who completed the 100 mile ride so that they can collate results properly. We know that a lot of riders who entered the 100 mile ride decided to change to the 100km ride after experiencing the conditions early on, so if riders who did complete the 100 mile ride could drop us a line to confirm that they did the 100 mile ride, we would be very grateful.

Thanks again for taking part, we hope that your memories of the day will be good.

The Black Rat Team

vs

Missing a turn at 1.8 miles didn't massively amuse me I have to say!

I missed that left turn as well.

I'd left the group we started with one other rider who said his Garmin said straight on even though I thought I saw a sign - which must have been hard to see because before long we met a group of about 20 riders coming back.

Because I had a vague recollection of seeing something yellow I went back with them to find the turn. I guess the other guy, who carried on, got sorted by his Garmin in the end.

I think almost everyone I saw missed the turning on the cleavdon-portishead

Yep, I missed that one

vs

Well the times are up. Just a list of people and times with no mention of which route they did - however most probably did neither route to be fair.

Not that it really matters but a bit annoying that after 6 hours of slog in that wind I'm down for a time of 6.42 when clearly (as posted earlier) my Garmin shows I was just under 6 hours for 102 miles.

Just about sums it up for me - one to forget in a hurry!

andyrich_1

100 miler in just 88 miles, brilliant.

I missed the clevedon turning too, really annoyed. I doubt I'll do this one again it was a shambles. The best bit was the free bottle of cider at the end

rbarcan

I hate to criticiise and do appreciate the organisers have recognised that things were not up to scratch but sorry to say that I have to agree with what others have said, and I too had really enjoyed last year's North Devon version.

I am local so the constant stopping, backtracking and conferriing with others was merely irritating more than anything else. But I spoke to 2 poor riders who were from another part of the UK - completely lost and flummoxed because they had no bearings and had it seemed not got anywhere near Cheddar despite being vaguely heading back towards Bristol..

From speaking to others at the finish I reckon that there would have been an almost infinite number of permutations of routes actually ridden so the timings are completely meaningless.

Felt more like an Audax really - but one where my route sheet had sailed away with the first gust of that wind!!! (I'll leave to others to point out any differences between Sportives and Audax)

pantsani

The times are screwed I came in just over the 100 mile mark somewhere in the 5:40's maybe 5:50's with food stops and stops due to being lost, I am down as having a time of 5:14 , eh ?!

But as said above it's all meaningless anyway , I did a 'special' route that I'm pretty sure no-one else did!

9jan11

So where's Mr gooner to explain all of this...

When you choose to pay these high entry fees you expect a certain amount of professionalism - I feel this was missing - they were trying to wing it.

Where were the marshals at the dodgy junctions?

Why was the signage able to 'blow away'? That's an easy one because it was inadequate.

Why are the timings so poor? They have no splits at all. I went back and over the split mat twice but it still didn't beep.

At the Somerset Hills last weekend every split was accurate and there were 3 on the long route. And 3 feed stops - here there were only 2. Only 100 people entered that ride - it was perfect, great signage and a much better route.

I wish I'd just turned up in Backwell with my bike for a Sunday morning ride and roughly followed the route - which is basically what I did but paid £25 to do!

How about a partial refund Mr gooner - I'll pay for the parking and the cider. Let's call it a tenner.

Mendip rouleur

Planned to do the 100 mile then bailed at the split point and followed that route until somewhere in Nailsea where it all went to pot. I ended up doing 61 miles, but my time says 3 hours 33! I wish. My time was more like 4 hrs 10, and that includes a few head scratching moments, my personal favourite being the time I tried to piece back together a ripped sign, jigsaw style.

I think everyone needs to chill a bit. Yes, I know I'm local so always knew where I was, but I actually think the wind was stronger than on Exmoor 2009, it felt that way as the branch fell out of the tree on my descent of Goblin Coombe anyway.

Things go wrong sometimes, I chatted to the organiser afterwards, he was distraught, really genuinely upset at the thought of ruining people's day. Never met him before but we all make mistakes don't we?

We shelled out a bit of money, got lost and still rode around some great scenery on our buikes doing the thing we love. The worst thing about yesterday was the wind imho. None of us died.

vs

think the wind was stronger than on Exmoor 2009,

No where near - remember they actually delayed the start for an hour and cancelled the 100 mile ride on Exmoor that day - there was never a thought that this event wouldn't happen. It was a strong breeze in comparison to a storm.

I was blown off my bike twice on the top of the moor on Exmoor and saw many others also come off - that was never going to occur yesterday.

I do think that given the fees paid there could have been some marshals and better signage.

Gooner69

@9Jan11, im here mate. Trying to catch up on the work i let slide last week prior to the event.

Dont think we arent disappointed ourselves, it was a massive firefight once we realised the signs weren`t any good to lay out new ones and try to stay ahead of the ride in doing so (this aint easy) We thought that the new signs were an improvement on previous ones as they stated the turn direction and had the logo on to stop them being tampered with. BUT clearly they werent strong enough and we will in future make sure that they are laminated/correx and up to the job. Lack of marshalls was down to us calling them all onto the job of refixing missing signs, they couldnt be in two places at once.


After an hour or so we thought we had got on top of the situation, only to find that signs we had replaced first thing were being shredded again due to the extreme winds. Paticularly at the beginning of the ride, finally it was blatant sabotage that caused the problems at the Ubley/Chew area. Please let us know if you are able to provide any more info about this. Apologies have been sent to all riders as printed above.

Timing issues arent easily solved, we paid a fortune to the timing guys (same ones we had at Devon last year) and we dont feel they gave value for money at all. The only reason we had a split timing mat was because we drove over and placed it ourselves (before it to got whipped up by the wind and dragged around) And at the last minute they informed us a "bigger" event was getting the helmet sticker type timing equipment we had ordered. After Devon last Sept we thought they were top quality, we are currently reconsidering this..



This isnt an attempt to change anyones opinion about the ride, but just to let you know how it felt from our shoes.

Currently exhausted after an early start today and a long drive, time for bed.

9jan11

I hate to go on about it and I have no vested interest apart from I rode it.

However at The Somerset Hills, aside from the 3 accurate split times, there was a instant print out when you finished giving your time and position at the time you finished plus a screen showing all finishers times at they crossed the line.

All this was sadly missing at the Black Rat and should be sorted before Devon - can I suggest you find out who did their timings.

we dont feel they gave value for money at all.

I can empathise with you there. I suspect quite a few others share these feelings to.

pantsani

Hey Gooner69, thanks for explaining , sounds like hard work all round - must be very disappointing to put so much effort into for it to go tits up due to various factors you cannot control.

dodgerdog

It was my first sportive, but being very local managed to complete what I believe the route to have been for the 100km. My final distance was 64.4miles. My only issue on the route was the route from Nailsea to the finish which I ended up having to make assumptions about.

Clearly the lessons about the quality of signage have been identified and learnt by the organisers. Despite the windy conditions and route marking issues I was pleasantly surprised by the event and would do it again. I guess being local has allowed me to overlook what must have been very frustrating for those not familiar with the area.

The one observation I would make is that having recognised the need for two diversions it would have been useful to update the online route info and mapping. I am not a fan of SATNAV traces as it leads to blindly following a trace but in this case an updated trace or at least an updated online map would have allowed those bothered to read it chance to understand the changes and if necessary relate on the road to other riders.

Timing - I will leave to those who care/know much more about. My 'official' time was within 2 minutes of my personally tracked time although the official time added the 2 mins pushing me over the 4hr mark.

andyrich_1

Fair play Gooner69 for explaining the problems on the day, it can't be easy to organise. If it had been a sunny wind free day the reviews would have been a lot more positive.

As a suggestion, apart from the making more visible and sturdy signs would it be possible to have a different colour for the 100km route?

3Pears

For what its worth I really enjoyed the Black Rat. Yes the organisers fell victim to the harsh weather conditions blowing signs away ! The signage let the event down cos there were a lot of good points that have been over shadowed :?

I got luck in 3 junctions but managed to complete the full route and my timing actually matched my Garmin, not that mattered

Being a new area for me to ride in I found the route interesting

sciencegeek

Me and my rider friend started and left together (aahh..) but got different times. By 30 mins. Apparently I was much quicker, so I shouldn't complain as it is only a true reflection of my ability. We definitely can't trust the times published.

The Route was great though, well the one i did. And Cheddar with a tail wind..Wahoo...did it at 19mph!

They really should credit us with something for our trouble...no route, no timings, no goodies..where did all the money go?