Organising a large mountain bike race these days is hard enough, what with the weather, finding venues, marshals, infrastructure and title sponsors… But it seems that the latest trendy thing – the Corona Virus – has been the final straw for the organisers of the 2020 Mountain Mayhem event.
Thanks to today’s announcement from His Boris, it seems that large sporting gatherings MIGHT be closed down at some indeterminate point in the future to slow or contain Covid-19. This is enough uncertainty for Mountain Mayhem’s insurer to refuse to offer cancellation insurance for the event. And without that, the pre-ordering of the vast amount of barriers, loos, course tape and the venue itself can’t take place.
And so, while it had been looking like the 2020 Mountain Mayhem might have struggled to find a title sponsor this year (last year’s event ran fine without one), this is a definitive ‘no’ from the insurer which means that the event will definitely have to be put back until next year. Assuming we’ve not had the zombie apocalypse by then.
Here’s the official word from the 2020 Mountain Mayhem:
Following the government announcement about the possibility of the cancellation of large public events in order to help stop the spread of Coronavirus, organisers of 2020 Mountain Mayhem 24hr MTB endurance event, due to be held at Marston Lodge on 19th, 20th and 21st June have cancelled the event.
Jill Greenfield, owner and organiser of Mountain Mayhem said “We always take out our insurance policy just before we start ordering all our equipment, as obviously that is a huge expense for us. I checked with our insurer this morning and we were told that it is no longer possible to get any cancellation insurance from any company. We cannot put ourselves, our sponsors, the traders, our suppliers or of course our riders in that position, so we have taken the decision now to cancel Mayhem 2020 and postpone until 2021.
“We hope that everyone will understand our position and the decision we had no choice but to make. We will of course give full refunds to all who have paid to date.”
For more information contact info@mountain-mayhem.com and for rider refunds contact info@frsystems.co.uk
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Boooooo!!!
Was going to do my first solo attempt this year for my 40th.
Best plan a weekend away now, as booked off work and everything…..
Any word yet on the Dyfi Enduro?
Or, was it just poorly supported, CIVID9 is a poor excuse, is it in a hotspot, reported cases, lame excuse and nothing to back it up.
@gavalar – you don’t think being denied cancellation insurance is a good enough reason? I can’t imagine what it would be like to take the financial risk of setting up an event knowing that you’d be unprotected.
@AlexSimon couldn’t agree more, better to lose one event that lose the organiser to a huge financial loss of an uninsured failed event.
And you know know much people will whinge if the event is cancelled last minute, moaning ‘you know this was a risk why did you take my money’ and moan doubly when the company goes bust and you don’t get a refund.
It seems that the insurance companies are thinking about their profits and refusing cancellation insurance, which just shows where their true motives lie. However another publication posted an article which was taken down shortly after this announcement was made, that said the event was struggling getting sponsors for the event. So I can see why they made the decision to pull the event now, if this is the case. It is going to be even more difficult to attract sponsors, for an event that may have to be cancelled and left out of pocket.
You’d think that while it’s a big group of people in one place, it is in a field, so the chances of transmission are pretty low. Apart from the porta loos mainly. But you’d catch far worse from them than coronavirus!
@Martin B, It is quite understandable that the insurance company was thinking about their finances, why shouldn’t they?