I don't normally weigh into forum discussions such as this but after spending the last 12 months as part of the team planning this event and the whole week of the event busting my balls to put it on I thought I might pipe up and set a few things straight:
-This event is now owned by Ironman Group but the team behind it is essentially unchanged for the past 2-3 years
-This event relies on a significant amount of funding from Tourism NSW and Local Council support to make it financially viable
-To this end it needs to fill a certain brief for each stage - mainly that it needs to showcase a certain tourism-worthy aspect of the region - hence for this year it was Stage 1 Vineyards, Stage 2 Mt Sugarloaf, Stage 3 Watagans and Stage 4 Newcastle and beaches
-Yes Stage 1 was challenging - you try to find some decent trails near the vineyards that dont get raped by the moto crowd - we spent the Saturday before the race up there with a team of 5 guys sorting out the trails - they looked mint - then on Sunday they were ruined - we know this as we went back on Monday to mark it and saw the damage - we are looking for other trails in the area that we can use - yes there are some at Kurri but there is another charity event that uses these and we do not want to steal entries from their event - plus we need a hill toward the start to help spread riders before any singletrack, and ideally a loop course because it is an arse to have to set up seperate start and finish locations - got a better idea? We are all ears (just in case you were wondering why we lost Rabbit Hole it is because this went through private property and should not have been ridden outside of the event - the people that own the property got sick of being told to "get f'd" by groups of MTB riders as they illegally went through despite being told by the Event not to)
-Stage 2 was awesome - very much a favourite for the majority of the field - about 5-6km of road, maybe about the same of firetrail and the rest singletrack - yes there was a MF of a hill at the start but again this is needed to somewhat spread the field for the singletrack, plus the Mt Sugarloaf icon aspect - this course uses a LOT of private property - mostly owned by Newcastle Development Corp and Hunter Water - I know this because I had to sit through a site induction to be able to access and work in the area to clear and mark the trails - basically everywhere after the Killi Gravity trail is on this land and is technically not to be ridden at other times as it is trespassing (tell the motos and 4WD guys that!) - even the newer trails at Holmesville are technically off limits outside of the event (Hunter Water land) - we get formal permission to use it for the event by providing insurance coverage to indemnify the owners - think this is easy convincing them that all will be good then think again. During the event some MTB goons put a lot of effort in to go through Holmesville and remove a heap of directional arrows before Riders came through - unfortunately for them they wasted their time - it is so worn in now and has it's own arrows that all bar about 3 or 4 riders made the correct course - but see what sort of shit we have to put up with
-Stage 3 - improved this year with a new start alignment through private property that can only be accessed during the event - this meant less congestion in Awaba for all to enjoy - yes it is another big climb but it does link over to an awesome descent - once again finishing through private property that needs to be left alone (starting to get my drift about the PP?) - yes we could include a heap more moto singletrack from the Pines onward but people are broken by then and we just want to give them the best run down using some of Sawmill where we can
-Stage 4 - this one really gets me - you try to design an MTB course that finishes with Glenrock and does not have some shit bits in it - it does need to be a certain distance (40-45k) and again we need to have a bit of a Tourism brief - the start is near Swansea Head so that ticks off some Lake Macquarie Council stuff, but Police dont really want us on roads and Council dont want us on the Fernleigh track, and Riders winge about too much sand, and the general public have things they want to do on Sunday Morning and........list goes on, so we are fortunate we have the help of an awesome local that has created most of the Redhead Whitebridge trails - these are on Crown Land and once again we have to apply for special permission to use the 'old moto trials' for the event - we avoid Fernleigh as much as we can so as not to upset the Cyclists training for the next Olympic qualifications but have to follow the directions of the Police and Council as to where we can go and what roads we need to use to get there - now if I had a dollar for every person that tells me about the 'Busstop trail' I could probably buy a new Yeti
Yes, we know it is there, we have known about it for years, we have asked NPWS every year if we can use it, we have been told every year that it is not a sanctioned trail and we can't use it, we have said every year that we are happy to assist with trail repairs or whatever is needed to get it sanctioned, we have been told every year that it is on their radar for the updated plan of management for the south, we have been told that there is no set timeframe for this to occur - and Police don't want us travelling along Burwood Rd to Scout Camp Rd, or down the Dudley Beach Rd - so where does that leave us for being able to access Glenrock - say hello to the Beach - yes there is some hangover from Cape to Cape, yes it does look great in the drone shots on the video - yes there are a lot of people that hate it - but again I bring you back to the question of how do you link Whitebridge trails to Glenrock and keep all the major stakeholders that could otherwise shut down the event happy - you send riders down an awesome firetrail and across the rock platofrm and a few hundred metres of sand - it's then up to us to manage the locals on the beach and in the carpark - and unfortunately that leaves you with the climb back up to Scout Camp Rd - yes those trails from Banksia Ave ll the way through to Scout Camp Road are illegal to ride a bike on at all times except for the event as they are designated horse trails, but you see that is where we get to argue with NPWS to get permission because the Police wont let us go any other way and if you just let us use Busstop this wouldn't be an issue and ...you get the picture!
-Yes Glenrock was a bit shortened this year because we knew the loopy singletrack would sap a bit of energy from the back half of the field and we wanted to get most of the field to the best bits of Grock, not where they were burning off
So I hope that this gives you a bit of insight into some of the decisions that are made that affect the course - most of the times when keyboard warriors suggest that we are missing the best trails or that they know a better section of singletrack that links here to there we have already looked into it, asked the question of the landowner and been told no. NPWS are a great example - formed and sanctioned trails only - doesn't matter if it is flogged to death by motos every weekend - if they give us permission it is like they are condoning it's use.
We are not stupid - we dont try to make courses that people cant or dont enjoy to ride - we have to provide a course that is somewhat challenging for a current national champion but not too stupidly hard for a newcomer to the sport - that ain't easy and sometimes we dont get it right - sometimes we do but then someone comes along and f**ks it up just before the event - it takes a huge amount of time and effort that a bunch of us put in because we love the sport and we love showing other people what we have in the area - don't forget that by organising this for others we dont actually get to participate in the event itself! Sometimes we get someone come up to us at the event and say thank you for the awesome work we do and how much of a good time they had -
sadly more often we just read about people bitching because they had to walk 500m along a beach on a perfectly sunny 20 degree Sunday morning and how if we had only sent them down that other trail their life would have been perfect