Rider Behaviour in the BUPA Challenge ride

[BoardRider]

After seeing the Tv news reports about dangerous riders ,I have to agreed. On the ride I found other cyclists to be mainly riding safely on the whole.
There was a few riders who took unnecessary risks.This type of behaviour has seemed to have increase this year. One incident I saw was a cyclist passing a patient motorist on the wrong side of the road across double lines on a bend.Only to cut the vehicle off because of oncoming traffic forcing him to swerve and brake to the left, pushing a cyclist passing on left on to dirt to avoid contact.Both cyclists looked the at driver like he was the dangerous one, when he really kept them both safe.
I notice a policemen writing out an infringement notice,maybe that is why we had number plates/stickers .I guess I am a bit disappointed too.
No longer do I think as cyclist we have the high ground.Great ride lots of descending good fun.
What do others think of the behaviour of other riders?

[jcjordan]

I stopped doing this ride for a number of reasons the not least is the wider behavior of the masses.

The problem arises when you put a large number of riders in a limited solace, who have little or no concept of bunch riding and on the whole don't want to be kept up by slower riders so they missrepresent their speed.

You then get the small element which hate the 'racer' element who see the ride as a opportunity to set a personal goal time. These people seem to always find a way to accidentally hold up the faster riders whom they think are not participating properly in a community event.

Best thing to do is avoid it completely.

[BoardRider]

I stopped doing this ride for a number of reasons the not least is the wider behavior of the masses.

The problem arises when you put a large number of riders in a limited solace, who have little or no concept of bunch riding and on the whole don't want to be kept up by slower riders so they missrepresent their speed.

You then get the small element which hate the 'racer' element who see the ride as a opportunity to set a personal goal time. These people seem to always find a way to accidentally hold up the faster riders whom they think are not participating properly in a community event.

Best thing to do is avoid it completely.

I agree with your statements, I found that riders instead of waiting for each other to pass (be held up) push faster riders wider onto the wrong side of the road. Obliviously faster/surging riders become frustrated.
My wife said to me this morning that she felt it was too risky to ride in these events anymore.There were only actually a few incidents but many near misses.

May I congratulate the police on doing a great job in difficult circumstances

[macca33]

Then, when the ride is cancelled in the future, the people who ruined it will be the most vocal critics of the organisers, coppers, etc, etc.... Sensible people cannot win when the clowns are about.

[boss]

I stopped doing this ride for a number of reasons the not least is the wider behavior of the masses.

The problem arises when you put a large number of riders in a limited solace, who have little or no concept of bunch riding and on the whole don't want to be kept up by slower riders so they missrepresent their speed.

You then get the small element which hate the 'racer' element who see the ride as a opportunity to set a personal goal time. These people seem to always find a way to accidentally hold up the faster riders whom they think are not participating properly in a community event.

Best thing to do is avoid it completely.

I agree with your statements, I found that riders instead of waiting for each other to pass (be held up) push faster riders wider onto the wrong side of the road. Obliviously faster/surging riders become frustrated.
My wife said to me this morning that she felt it was too risky to ride in these events anymore.There were only actually a few incidents but many near misses.

May I congratulate the police on doing a great job in difficult circumstances

After reading both your posts several times, I have no idea what either of you just said.

[fixedlegs2012]

I cant see the ride being cancelled or the ATB would have been years and years ago. Many accidents occur every year there. Dozens of injuries.

As far as I've heard only two reported incidents involving medical assistance. Thats pretty good for 6000 riders.

You have to expect on a organised ride that you are riding with a mix of riders. So ride accordingly.

Don't take risks if you don't want to.

[you cannot be sirrus]

I saw three riders being put into ambulances, Snake Gully, KOM descent and Williamstown. Three of my mates were injured, only minor. One simply fell off, the other two were in a bunch when the lead riders chain stay snapped. They managed to swap wheels, helmets and tyres between the group to get most of the group mobile, two went to Tanunda in a sag wagon, where one needed treatment for a broken nose.

[Jesmol]

I thought it was mainly good from what I saw, Started from Kersbrook where some poor bugger had a clipstack 2m from the startline. Other than that a few mechs on the side of the road. Saw many more motorists doing stupid things (overtaking on blind corners etc) , however it would have been nice if many riders were much more courteous (hint just because you can ride two abreast, doesn't mean you should)

[Trev Campbell]

I'll admit that I was one of the people who on occasion had to overtake by crossing the white line to the other side of the road. But I'm not a racer and was not out to set a best time or whatever. Fair enough there are quite a few idoits out there. But people are attacking the result not the cause. The cause of nearly all these problems is riders failure to KEEP LEFT !!!!!, I'm no mountain goat but lost track of the amount of times I got stuck behind a group of riders riding 4 and 5 wide really slowly up a hill. Sorry but just a bit of common curtesy wouldn't go astray. There were 2 riders ahead of me at one stage, one in middle of the lane and on out neear the white line. A lady passed the guy near the line on the wrong side of the road and just said as she went pas 'keep left' the bloke then abused her !!!!

[boss]

(hint just because you can ride two abreast, doesn't mean you should)

Yeah I noticed that on RLC a few weekends ago. Big, big packs of riders (3-4 abreast) holding up cars when they could easily disperse and let the car pass.

And this was heading up hills maybe 20-25kmph max speed. So it would have been very annoying waiting behind a pack of riders for several kilometers.

[Daccordi Rider]

Rider courtesy in these rides is often abysmal, no keeping left. But then try to ride up Norton Summit on a Sunday morning, just the same with slow dudes 4 wide across the road or simply riding up the middle oblivious to all around them. And don't even get me started on people riding 2 abreast up the freeway bike path, earphones in.

[boss]

And don't even get me started on people riding 2 abreast up the freeway bike path, earphones in.

hate those jerks! drives me insane.

[Ross]

I've been to 2 TDUs and haven't ridden the Bupa Challenge because of the reports of sketchy riding. I have done other similar 'participation rides' and experienced similar sketchy/dangerous riding.

I have also attended another participation event that was safe; that was the Amy's Gran Fondo in Lorne (Great Ocean Rd). When submitting your entry you are asked to nominate an approximate speed you think you will average for the ride and then put into one of I think 4 categories, so you are then riding with people of similar speed and hopefully ability. It's not a perfect solution because you still get some riders who get their ambitions mixed up with their abilities and can only hold their nominated speed for a couple of kms before blowing up and becoming a slow moving road hazard. But you don't get hundreds of riders like that, only a couple. Why can't Bupa Challenge (and other similar rides) have thse different speed categories? Until they do, I won't be entering.

[MichaelB]

I've been to 2 TDUs and haven't ridden the Bupa Challenge because of the reports of sketchy riding. I have done other similar 'participation rides' and experienced similar sketchy/dangerous riding.

Exactly the reason (have experienced it multiple times) that I no longer ride these type of 'events'. The ride is dangerous because of the actions of a few, and I'd rather ride by myself.

I have also attended another participation event that was safe; that was the Amy's Gran Fondo in Lorne (Great Ocean Rd). When submitting your entry you are asked to nominate an approximate speed you think you will average for the ride and then put into one of I think 4 categories, so you are then riding with people of similar speed and hopefully ability. It's not a perfect solution because you still get some riders who get their ambitions mixed up with their abilities and can only hold their nominated speed for a couple of kms before blowing up and becoming a slow moving road hazard. But you don't get hundreds of riders like that, only a couple. Why can't Bupa Challenge (and other similar rides) have thse different speed categories? Until they do, I won't be entering.

They sort of do ask that people do this, but everyone ignores it. Even in Amy's ride they do this, but again, people ignore it because they either don't know or don't care.

[jcjordan]

Regardless of the fact that many do miss grade themselves at that Amy Gillette Grand Fondo it is still far safer then rides like the Bupa.

Firstly it's fully closed roads which give everyone more room to maneuver and no fear of oncoming traffic.

More importantly it is treated like a race. The caliber of rider skill and knowledge in pack riding is far greater. Plus you don't get the plotters whose aim is just to finish and expected everyone else to have the same view.

[boss]

FWIW Ride Like Crazy wasn't bad at all. Stick close-ish to the front and you don't have to deal with too many idiots until you get to Gorge Road, where you start catching people who only did the Woodside -> Unley leg of the journey. And even then, I think I only had one person who was unknowingly hogging the road.

[MichaelB]

FWIW Ride Like Crazy wasn't bad at all. Stick close-ish to the front and you don't have to deal with too many idiots until you get to Gorge Road, where you start catching people who only did the Woodside -> Unley leg of the journey. And even then, I think I only had one person who was unknowingly hogging the road.

Wasn't my experience on the 2012 ride.

Saw numerous stupidity examples prior to Gorge Rd, and then saw riders all over Gorge Rd (including over the centreline) and Police passing on mpotorbikes not doing anything about it.

That was the last straw for me.

I wrote them a nice email expalining the issues and the response was very much like a "meh".