Yeah must agree, as much as you cant change the weather, I do feel not lighting  the uphill part and other areas was a bit of an oversight.
But hey I had fun,
I will be doing it next year and generally Chris and co did a good job.
It scares me to think how much organising and coordinating that race took!!

Some riders thought it was hard to be standing at the top waiting for there race run but the event team was out in the rain all day, The guys from Kinky Bikes and Paragon Cycling Club, we would not have been able to run the race with out you and would like to thank each and everyone for standing out in the rain from early morning to the end of the race. They are the true hero’s of day.

Yes, it was hard.  I know you think you did no wrong, but Chris, if you take anything from this race, please just think about getting information to the riders - I reckon we wouldn't have minded so much if one of the race officials had explained about the hold-up and roughly how long it would take, rather than just being stood out in the rain for over an hour with no idea when we'd start.

I agree entirely.  I think people need to engage brains a bit more, look at which riders are coming down before you head up, compare the time they come down to the time they should have come down, etc.  In seeding & race I spectated along the jumps section until Masters had finished, then headed up.  Not rocket science!

I was riding hardtail, the first class out in both practice, qualifying a racing - so how would that work then?

cocks!

But unfortunately not everyone is experienced as yourself at racing and this makes it harder for those less experienced.  For you Col is second nature of where to be and when.....

yep, I admit is was my first race, so very inexperienced - I was very nervous, first practice run was 9.06am - got to the top for 8.50am, then was stood on the line till 10.20am next to that woman marshall who couldn't give us any info other than they're finishing the track and no uidea how long it would take.

Sorry if my earlier comments are seen as childish, but I don';t think its too much to ask for a bit of a clue how long the delay would be.................I could have gone for breakfast rather than standing out in the wet and cold.

fair point Mike, but just for the record it didn't take me 15 years to work it out

communication is vital, but so is sticking to what you say.  My main problem with the event was the free for all with the practice.  The idea of having set times, or at least going down in number order, was a great one.  As soon as they let that go out of the window, problems arose.

I had no problem with practice.  It was a shame it started late, but not the end of the world.  TBH I don't much see the point of number-order practice, just makes things a ball-ache for everyone involved.  It's never going to run smoothly/easily as in 1000 runs you're bound to have some holdups, people who miss their slots, crashes, etc etc.  I understand the theory of setting people off at 20 second intervals, but first-come first-served seems easier, and is what they did most of the day.  Seemed to work to me.

I think the main problem comes from all of those people who didn't realise that you could sit in the warm with a cup of tea and a mean bit of chocolate cake

And as Hughes has just posted, everyone bitches about not being told - when in doubt I asked someone and they always seemed to have the answers.  The commissaire guy waiting at the top of the first set of steps even looked after our bikes for half an hour during the delay in the morning so me & my mate could go and walk the track to see what awaited us!