Missing the point
Many of the posts here that defend AROC seemed to have missed the point. No one is blaming AROC for the weather and I am sure everyone agrees that the Angry Doctor and Irate Intern events could not have gone ahead last weekend given the decimation of the tracks. The majority of people also accept that they will not get a refund given that the T&C stated that no refund would be provided if the race was cancelled and could not be re-scheduled. No one is complaining simply because they didn’t get to do the race or because have been deprived of the pleasure of riding Mogo’s trails.
The main criticisms are about the way AROC managed the events and the way they have responded since on their website. All of AROC’s actions and responses to date point to:
1. A failure to properly assess and prepare for easily foreseeable risks.
2. A failure to have an appropriate contingency plan in place for the occurrence of adverse weather conditions that were forecast a week in advance and are not uncommon at any time of year on the south coast.
3. An attempt to change the T&C in the hope that no one would notice, presumably to lower the level their obligations to their customers.
4. A complete lack of common sense and disregard for the safety of all involved (and a complete lack of forethought about what riders actually want), as demonstrated in their attempts to cobble together an alternative event on the day. If the alternative 20km loop race had actually started and someone had been injured/killed by a falling tree then they would really be in very deep s#@t.
Anyone who actually competed in the final 8km debacle has real grounds for complaint, particularly anyone who was injured. There was no planning or risk assessment undertaken for that event. It also beared no resemblance to what you signed up for. It would therefore be very easy to argue that the indemnity form you signed was not valid. The indemnity form that you signed was for the Angry Doctor/Irate Intern/Nasty Nurse, not the alternative powerline event. Running a makeshift event with no risk assessment and planning and including two sections along side a 100km/hr highway without police permission and without traffic controls and signage must border on criminal negligence? Even the act of encouraging people to stay and ride in such conditions is dubious.
The response provided on their website demonstrates a complete lack of awareness of the potential consequences of their decisions. They seem to be trying to justify their actions claiming that everything was beyond their control and just a run of bad luck. Only the weather was beyond their control. Everything else - including risk and contingency planning, communication and decision-making - was all well within their control and part of their responsibility as ‘professional’ event organisers.
Their offer of a 10% discount and priority entry for next years race is no compensation. To actually benefit from this refund, you have to pay AROC more money! You must be kidding.
Yes, I knew the forecast for the weekend but chose to drive down anyway on the off chance that it wouldn’t be as bad as predicted. In doing this, however, I expected that AROC would make sensible, professional decisions about event cancellation if the forecast wind storm eventuated.
Then there is the poor communication. When I awoke to atrocious conditions on Sunday morning I had to make several phone calls to event operations managers to get an update on race status. When someone eventually answered the phone I was told that the start had been “postponed” but the event would “still be going ahead that day” and that an announcement would be made at 9am. Like many of the competitors who waited on the windy Mogo oval for AROC’s 9am announcement, I was optimistically acting on two assumptions:
1. That AROC had already looked at the course and decided that the race was still going ahead, perhaps in a slightly modified or shorted format. [At this stage we hadn’t been told about the extent of damage to the course. If we had, it would have been clear that any race rescheduled that day would bear no resemblance to what we all signed up and paid for and we probably wouldn’t have hung around.]
2. That if I made the decision to pull out of the race myself, before the 9am announcement, then there would be absolutely no way I could expect any form of refund. If, however it was AROC who made the decision to cancel, then at least there may be some grounds to expect some form of refund, even if only token.
I therefore waited for the 9am announcement. When they then announced that we would now need to wait around until 10.30 on the off chance that there may be a 20km loop course ready for us to ride at 12.30pm, I handed in my timing chip. Given what finally eventuated (the ill conceived and dangerous 8km powerline debacle) I clearly made the right choice.
Flabbergasted!