TMX Says: When men were boys
By TMX Archives on 9th Mar 16
After the masses of social media fallout from the opening round of the BEC last weekend the ACU have stepped up and made it mandatory for all officials manning check points at future events to offer riders a huge hug when clocking in*
It would seem that the opening round of the British Enduro Championship split opinion somewhat.
There were those who rose to the challenge, took the event for what it was and did their best to stay on time and go fast through the special tests then there were those who gave it all up as a bad job, went home and moaned about it on social media.
I can see both sides of it.
When you sign up for a British championship event you expect the best of the best and when an event doesn't deliver exactly that then you have every right to feel let down and complain about it – if you're that way inclined.
On the flipside an enduro – especially a British championship one – should offer up a stiff challenge.
There should be a tight check or two and the going should be reasonably technical.
That's exactly what Helmsley offered and the fact that riders in all classes stayed clean on time makes me think that the organisers got the time allowance pretty much bang on.
Of course, there were other issues too such as the constantly disappearing track tape on the special tests although it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where that kept going as riders searched for ‘new' lines in their search for faster test times – most of it ended up tightly wound around rear hubs.
For those riders who wanted to play ball and follow the rules then it really wouldn't have been that difficult to figure out which way the track went... Yes, a team of marshals could have kept on replacing it – that's if the track marker tape factory in China could keep up with demand – but from what I can gather the majority of the men in hi-vis were already busy in the woods helping keep the trails as clear as possible.
But from what I can gather, traffic out on the course wasn't flowing freely and several riders have stated that marshals halted their progress which led to them picking up time penalties.
That's not particularly fair and since riders would be expected to follow instructions from officials at all times if their progress had been impeded then they should expect to get that time back through official channels later on.
Whatever, I would imagine that the ACU will have their hands full with this debacle for a wee while yet but I do hope they get to the bottom of it real soon – preferably before the next round of the series which is also being run by the same promoter as round one.
I'm sure lessons have been learned though and we'll see a much better third round of the series – fingers crossed.
And it deserves to be too as the going at Graythwaite is absolutely awesome – real old-school enduro stuff that should really sort the men out from the boys.
Hopefully, a Bank Holiday weekend away in the Lake District with its excess of reasonably priced accommodation should be a much more positive experience for everyone.
But nobody mention the M6 traffic, okay?
* All ‘facts' contained inside this sentence are made up and purely for entertainment purposes only.
