This sums up the event pretty well for me. (quiet day at work today
).
Thanks to everyone involved
Likes:
• The sportograf guy after the echidna gap yelling alez alez alez!
• The pump track finish of each lap
• Polite and friendly people that pass. The huge majority.
• Stopping half way up the climb, leaning the bike on the barricade and watching the riders go past.
• having a shower at 6pm on the sunday night. oh yeah!
• Dickson noodle house, beef laksa (what's a laksa?
)
• chatting to the other soloists and telling them to keep smiling and having fun riding 6 laps with your wingman and chatting to any and everyone
• yelling 'skids are for kids' at all the riders locking it up for corners
• abusing the one major dickhead that passed me, I was calling him a fuckhead and enjoying it cause I know it is true
• annoying the 2nd major dickhead by chasing him down and tyre rubbing him up the trail for the next 500 meters and asking if he really needed to be such a cock when he pushed past me and watching him do his hardest to pull away from me. This must be what a dive bombing magpie feels like
.
• chatting to the roving marshalls, especially the one with two hooters
• teddy bears on track
• the wheelie contest / honk if you're horny camp.
• riding with one gear
• a happy and smiling group in the pits
• soloing solo
• pizza and beer for energy and comfort
• how many silly wheeled bikes that were there. perfect track for it too.
• actually enjoying 90% of the start climb, although I'd love to see an alternative way of going up that mountain.
• watching my wingman blast ahead on anything fun or technical
• cleaning that really sucky section of the night lap after the downhill
• the peoples champion jason english trying to track down who the barfer was
• camping sunday night. the whole place to yourself.
• Seeing a big smile back from anyone working at the event when giving them a thank you
• cruisy rides round the crit track monday morning
• watching a certain rider put away his tent
.
Dislikes
• no hour glass format. it wasnt the concept we didn't like, it was the track that was chosen in 2008 that was bad
• no water signage up? I know I wasn't the only one walking round looking for the bright blue flags
• ratio of toilet to people. 2500 entrants + support crews + families + kids = lots of 1's and 2's
• how quiet people were on track. you'd pull behind a conga line and none would say anything
• the start. it was ugly being in a group of 170+ soloists, can't imagine how bad it would have been for the teams
• hearing that people were rude or abusive to volunteers.