2010 Angry Doctor

[alchemist]

Oh come on... that's a bit harsh !

I thought I was gentle.

 

[Marky069]

hey AROC
can i just have my $14 sent to me?
i won't be back and why should i pay another $140 (+ XXX if you decide to increase the cost again - which would make sense after this years shit fight)

WTF? > yeah, i'll give you another $126 dollars [$140 - my AMAZING 10% discount] in the off chance i may race. you would have to be a total idiot to pay another $140 again before knowing that weekends weather. if you are that idiot go give the money to charity instead

bet the T & C's will remain as no refunds. me, i'll stick with the event companies that will man/women up and reschedule accordingly

.

Amen to that!

I'd be happy if they rescheduled for 4 months, 6 months time, even If it were only a rout that is 40km long and we do two laps. Gives us something for our money, and proves that AROC are something a little more than common thieves. If others can do it, why can't they??????????

Simple answer: can't be botherd, moneys banked and they'll sell out next year regardless, so why get off ur ar*e and do some work

 

[dain2772]

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.

There was no way a contingency plan could have been put in place for what took place on Saturday night. As a few people have said, these trails are quite likely unrideable for up to 6 months from now. This was the worst wind storm batemans bay had received in 87 years, so I don't think that it can be considered common at any time of the year on the south coast.

I have been thinking about the early (ie before the weekend) cancellation some people think could have been a possibility. My feeling is that you can call a race early because of wet weather because you know that trails will still be waterlogged, but not because of the wind. If the massive winds hadn't eventuated and they had called it on Friday, there would be huge complaints. And there are plenty of instances of strong winds being forecast and not eventuating.

 

[MalBradley]

No, you've missed the point. Most of us here don't care for all the whining

.

Just because you get shafted and don't take it with a smile appears to make you a whinging whiner.
Fortunately I was born a Pom - it gives me an excuse - whinging's in the blood!

 

[jean5614]

No, you've missed the point. Most of us here don't care for all the whining.

Well don't read the posts, because if you have been, then you would realise that most people have a legitimate case.

 

[jean5614]

.

Just because you get shafted and don't take it with a smile appears to make you a whinging whiner.
Fortunately I was born a Pom - it gives me an excuse - whinging's in the blood!

Yes but Aussies have taken it to levels to which even poms could not aspire. Even carping on about whiners.

 

[Rambler]

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!

Well said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! +2

 

[kerno]

Injured Rider

I was driving back to melbourne on the Monday and heard on the local radio that there had been a rider injured at Mogo on the Sunday during a "mountain biking event" and was now in hospital. Anyone have any idea if this true?

 

[kerno]

Bermagui Trails

On another matter...

After waiting around until 9 for the announcement, my mate and I decided that it just wasn't worth it. So we ditched it and headed for the trails that we'd heard of in Bermagui. We stayed in Narooma and on the drive up noticed that the wind / storm damage only really started after Moruya, so thought that maybe heading south would be the answer to getting on some riding as we'd both travlled a long way to be at this event - me from Melbourne, mate from The Entrance.

Have to say that we weren't disappointed.

It may only be 6.5k's long, but it's all smooth and fun. We had the place to ourselves. It was a cracker of a day down there and a fanastic place to ride. Just near town and views of the ocean.

The people there that have created that trail obvioulsy care for MTBing. Full credit to them for providing a great place to go and have some fun.

We would never have riden there if the event hadn't been cancelled. So for us, a little positive out of the whole mess. And if you get the chance, i suggest having a crack yourself.

 

[RichJS]

I didn't read back through dozens of pages of this thread, so just tell me - has someone done a "2010 Angry Customers" joke yet?

 

[BureauMan]

I thought I'd got over my venting....but there is just one more thing.

Not sure whether anyone else experienced this. The guy on the PA system at the oval on Saturday morning kept saying, at least on several occasions, how there were big delays going north on the Princess Highway, power lines down, truck rolled over, trees down etc. I'm sure these things were all true at some time but the advise was to delay going home to the north, even to the point of staying an extra night. This was out of the question for us and as soon as an alternative race was postponed again at 9am, we decided we'd head home. But due to the advice, we delayed leaving till just after 11am. Anyway, we left, expecting extensive delays and detours, only to have a clear and trouble free run all the way back to Sydney. Wtf? They suggested postponing the trip to the next day ffs. What was that all about?

Final gripe.

 

[Fatts]

I was driving back to melbourne on the Monday and heard on the local radio that there had been a rider injured at Mogo on the Sunday during a "mountain biking event" and was now in hospital. Anyone have any idea if this true?

Hey Kerno.
I visited my mate in St. George hospital yesterday, layed up with a dislocated hip which they have in traction at the moment via a rod through his knee and sand bag weight. He's having an op today to plate the rear of his pelvis where the femur broke through. He's in good spirits and hasn't suffered a great deal of pain through out the ordeal and strangely enough has hardly a scratch on him considering he came off at about 60kph.

The story goes some one lost it on a water bar and he braked heavily to avoid him and went over the bars at speed. He asked how the other guy was but the paramedics were only interested about him but he has the impression that there were three other riders injured with someone else doing a collar bone. I said it before but worth repeating, he has nothing but praise and thanks for the quick response and professional first aid he received from the kind riders who stopped and helped, paramedics and air ambulace to hospital. It took only 3h15min from crash to emergency in Sydney, apparently the flight was a bit bumpy and wild!

He said to say thanks for the best wishes and hopes the other casualties are ok and is planning to be right for the Fling (to which I said "Yeah, right!)

Fats

 

[normdouglas]

I thought I'd got over my venting....but there is just one more thing.

Not sure whether anyone else experienced this. The guy on the PA system at the oval on Saturday morning kept saying, at least on several occasions, how there were big delays going north on the Princess Highway, power lines down, truck rolled over, trees down etc. I'm sure these things were all true at some time but the advise was to delay going home to the north, even to the point of staying an extra night. This was out of the question for us and as soon as an alternative race was postponed again at 9am, we decided we'd head home. But due to the advice, we delayed leaving till just after 11am. Anyway, we left, expecting extensive delays and detours, only to have a clear and trouble free run all the way back to Sydney. Wtf? They suggested postponing the trip to the next day ffs. What was that all about?

Final gripe.

So the announcer made a mistake... big deal! Get over it people, it's just money. It's not like it's friggen world peace or people lives.
There are people right now in Pakistan who not only have no home, but barely any land to stand on.

A race promoter maybe got a few things wrong... you are all adults, make your own decisions... who cares if you had to spend a couple of hundred bucks... you had spent it anyway. It's not like you spent the money on life saving medicine and then didn't get it.

Take a deep breath, tell someone you love them, and plan your next big event.

Mods... please close this thread, it no longer serves any purpose.

 

[BureauMan]

So the announcer made a mistake... big deal! Get over it people, it's just money. It's not like it's friggen world peace or people lives.
There are people right now in Pakistan who not only have no home, but barely any land to stand on.

A race promoter maybe got a few things wrong... you are all adults, make your own decisions... who cares if you had to spend a couple of hundred bucks... you had spent it anyway. It's not like you spent the money on life saving medicine and then didn't get it.

Take a deep breath, tell someone you love them, and plan your next big event.

Mods... please close this thread, it no longer serves any purpose.

Mate if you'd read my previous post, some pages back, you would have seen that I was/am over it. My take was that it was time to move on.

My last post was just another aspect to the weekends debacle that I'd forgotten and I was interested if others had had the same experience.

As for comparing this with the natural disaster in Pakistan, to me that's just a ridiculously obvious and dare I say stupid thing to say. Mate it wouldn't be worth worrying about anything if you compare it to the plight of people in third word countries all around the world. I've travelled extensively over many years in third world countries, I do have some idea. But the two issues are mutually exclusive, not talking about the weekends race is not going to do anything for people struggling overseas.

And of course, at the end of the day, if you're really over this discussion, you can just piss of and go elsewhere.

 

[Jandrew]

I thought I'd got over my venting....but there is just one more thing.

Not sure whether anyone else experienced this. The guy on the PA system at the oval on Saturday morning kept saying, at least on several occasions, how there were big delays going north on the Princess Highway, power lines down, truck rolled over, trees down etc. I'm sure these things were all true at some time but the advise was to delay going home to the north, even to the point of staying an extra night. This was out of the question for us and as soon as an alternative race was postponed again at 9am, we decided we'd head home. But due to the advice, we delayed leaving till just after 11am. Anyway, we left, expecting extensive delays and detours, only to have a clear and trouble free run all the way back to Sydney. Wtf? They suggested postponing the trip to the next day ffs. What was that all about?

Final gripe.

I personally thought the constant announcments were great, but then again I had somewhere to stay if I had too (no extra cost) and we stayed until after the race they put on.
We headed back (after a long search for fuel as the servos were shut until power came back on) up the Princes HWY in the afternoon and had no issues.. There was evidence of all the trees that had fallen and been cleared though.

I am going to run with the assumption they had old information, considering we had no mobile phone coverage from 8am they may also have had a hard time getting info. Or had been given incorrect info. I did go up and ask them a couple of questions throughout the day as I could not always hear the announcments and they were very friendly.

 

[BureauMan]

Hey Kerno.
I visited my mate in St. George hospital yesterday, layed up with a dislocated hip which they have in traction at the moment via a rod through his knee and sand bag weight. He's having an op today to plate the rear of his pelvis where the femur broke through. He's in good spirits and hasn't suffered a great deal of pain through out the ordeal and strangely enough has hardly a scratch on him considering he came off at about 60kph.

The story goes some one lost it on a water bar and he braked heavily to avoid him and went over the bars at speed. He asked how the other guy was but the paramedics were only interested about him but he has the impression that there were three other riders injured with someone else doing a collar bone. I said it before but worth repeating, he has nothing but praise and thanks for the quick response and professional first aid he received from the kind riders who stopped and helped, paramedics and air ambulace to hospital. It took only 3h15min from crash to emergency in Sydney, apparently the flight was a bit bumpy and wild!

He said to say thanks for the best wishes and hopes the other casualties are ok and is planning to be right for the Fling (to which I said "Yeah, right!)

Fats

I guess the rest of us really don't have much to complain about.

All the best to your friend.

 

[jean5614]

So the announcer made a mistake... big deal! Get over it people, it's just money. It's not like it's friggen world peace or people lives.
There are people right now in Pakistan who not only have no home, but barely any land to stand on.

A race promoter maybe got a few things wrong... you are all adults, make your own decisions... who cares if you had to spend a couple of hundred bucks... you had spent it anyway. It's not like you spent the money on life saving medicine and then didn't get it.

Take a deep breath, tell someone you love them, and plan your next big event.

Mods... please close this thread, it no longer serves any purpose.

It's just money? Get a life mate, some people don't have that much and tell me who has it now? I don't think people are worried about whether it was bad luck about the weather, but they are concerned about getting something back for something they didn't receive. Even taking out expenses a return could have been made for goodwill. If you don't want to hear that there were upset people there they don't open the thread, it's not rocket science.

 

[Batemans Bay Cycles]

for any one wanting info on where the trails are/were you are more than welcome to drop in/call the shop, we have been out checking the trails and the amount of damage caused by the wind was intense.

Most people had a pretty good idea what it would be like when they woke up and saw what had happened.
we had our trailer at the event centre and it had been moved by the wind, we also had our tent frames trashed, so kind of a bummer there.
the power line track was a bit of a mess, but it was the only road with out trees( less trees on it than the highway).
some of us decided to have a look at the trails at maulbrooks rd and it was pretty bad, a 10 min drive took nearly an hour.
we have done the event for a few years and ridden the trails for alot longer and its so sad to see them like that.
even if we had our whole club go and start clearing it would still take months of work.

I would like to add, and this is coming from me(scott- the mech), not anyone else, that i am super appreciative to every one who stayed around and offered to help, all the people that helped clear trees on dunns creek road, even to those people who didnt ride, thanks for just coming to such a cool event and just being there, its the best buzz just having such an amazing group of people around.

I spent days working and raking and clearing to help just because i enjoy the sport, i only got to ride a small section of track before the weekend which was fine for me, (i dont like pedalling very far) so i was spewin when the rain came and then followed by the wind, i didnt sleep friday or sat night.... so i can only imagine how the AROC crew felt...
I enjoy working at these events because the people i get to associate with are so amazing and i have the best time just being there, im still buzzing at the moment.
The MTB population in general is the reason i keep going back, so even all to all the negative nellies out there, i thank you for just being there, even if our shop wasnt there i would still be there to do what ever i could.

I mean, cmon, how often do you get to swing off a chainsaw in the middle of a main road!!! haha
I spent the afternoon on sunday helping them pack up and the amount of thier stuff that had been destroyed was astounding, they lost their tents, stuff was trashed everywhere!!!
Im pretty sure they went through about 25 big garden rakes just to clear the track......!

I accept everyons opinions about the event and i have no beef with anyone, but from my point of view it was still one of the best weekends of the year, getting to meet awesome people(the reason i enjoy MTBing) and i hope to see it happen again, cause if it doesn't im gonna be stuck in the shop!!!! haha
i would like to thank AROC for allowing me and the shop to be part of an amazing scene and i hope you can cut them a little slack because i would like to be able to do it all again next year

Cheers, Scott.

 

[davzab]

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!

Well said ++

ps. to all those that whinge about the thread/people here having their say.. its a forum, its what happens.. don't like it, don't open it..

 

[Slowman]

Well said ++

ps. to all those that whinge about the thread/people here having their say.. its a forum, its what happens.. don't like it, don't open it..

As ridiculous as your whinging...don't want to be criticized, don't post!

Don't want to risk your money, in the event of a natural disaster or other contingency, don't enter MTB events, go on surf tours, nature tours and so on.