Albi 2017 - Fat Lad World Champs

cruff

Anybody else do this and pretty appalled by the organisation? I got taken out by a Swede on a descent (accident, couldn't really have been avoided) but after limping down the rest of the descent on only my front brake, I decided to stop near the bottom and was appalled to find a rider in a ditch at the side of the road, with the world's most useless marshal tending to him. They had at least called the ambulance, but weren't offering him even the most basic of care - when I first arrived, they were asking him "can move your 'ead" (his back was crushed against a tree ffs!). Took 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive (were fantastic when they did). The bloke was extremely lucky to survive (eventual toll was eleven broken ribs, broken shoulder, broken collarbone, two fractured vertebrae, punctured lung). After eventually getting in the broom wagon, we passed numerous riders who were clearly struggling - apparently the last two feed stops ran out of water about halfway through, which wasn't a surprise since I went through the first feed stop with the bunch for my age group and it already looked pretty thin on the ground - one ended up in hospital in a coma and is awaiting a liver transplant.

Considering it was basically the chopper worlds, I was expecting quite a bit of sketchy riding, but to be honest, it wasn't as choppy as most 3/4 races - but I was shocked at the absolute shambles of organisation. Surely somebody must have thought it might be a good idea to check how much water was at the feeds - considering it was 35 bloody degrees!

Garry H

Sure it wasn't a turnip?

DeVlaeminck

I was thinking of doing this next year too, I know a couple of women that rode his year and read a report on an LVRC site and all seemed fairly positive.