Manx 100 Cancelled Due to Route Sabotage

The Manx 100 was set to go ahead last weekend. The event, scheduled for Sunday 25 July is a single lap mountain bike ultra-marathon that takes place o …

By identitizombie

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https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/manx-100-cancelled-due-to-route-sabotage/

What a monumental cock end.

Sadly could be a forum member

You’d have to have a serious grievance to move every arrow on such a long course! Ludicrous behaviour.

“mountain biker in black lycra grabbing an arrow off a post and throwing it over a hedge” worth checking Stava to try and identify this tool? I hope they end up in court for loss and damages.

If its on open public paths i can understand ( if not condone) I had a bad experience with the “rat race” in edinburgh and I bet I am not the only one. We were out for a ride, had a chain gang come past us on the canal towpath forcing us to crash. Had a marshall try to block us on the same tow path. Just people behaving like utter arses on open public paths because they were racing. Chain gang along a canal towpath is not on

Two sides to every story and all that.

Dickheadedness aside, in 2021 can the default assumption not be that everyone has a bike computer or smartphone, and that determines the ‘official’ course?

Physical arrows being a secondary aid with the understanding of the possibility of tampering?

Must admit I did wonder about GPS. Done a couple of sportives and whilst they have arrows they also gave a GPS of the route to stick in the bike computer. But don’t know how long it would take to complete the Manx 100, so not sure if battery life would be an issue.

Edit: oh so 100km, seems obvious when you think about it 🙂

I had a bad experience with the “rat race” in edinburgh and I bet I am not the only one. We were out for a ride, had a chain gang come past us on the canal towpath forcing us to crash. Had a marshall try to block us on the same tow path.

Unfortunately that type of event is full of entitled Audi driving IT consultants. I’d have DQed them but I only ran a grassroots race.

I imagine the marshal got an earful

As for sportives too many ride them as races, walking in the lakes last weekend there was one, 99% fine, just one Strava knob screaming past shouting “rider” unnecessary as we were already in single file on one side and every other rider got past with a polite thanks.

I’m the crestfallen organiser of this event. The riders do get a GPS but when we start visiting the singletrack the plethora of trails means in the plantations means that it is easy to be on the wrong track when you think you are on the correct one.

As well as removing the arrows the *womble also pointed riders onto private lanes, private tracks and open moorland as well as down downhill / enduro tracks….

We will be back bigger and stronger for 2021. And of course, after the last three years of biblical weather, last Sunday was beautiful, warm with no wind and dusty…

gutted.

as others have said some strava detective work will probably yield results. (unless hes on here)

Someone really keen to not lose their KOM?

I’m the crestfallen organiser of this event. The riders do get a GPS but when we start visiting the singletrack the plethora of trails means in the plantations means that it is easy to be on the wrong track when you think you are on the correct one.

I didn’t intend my comment in a mean way. I’ve never been to the IOM, and dont know the terrain, nor am I familiar with Manx access issues, but similar sounding (50k+ single lap events) I have done in England have relied on GPX and arrows together, there are certain areas where arrows were insufficent alone (whether they were tampered with, or just poorly placed) and having a GPX, or being in sight of riders in front was necessary.

Of course, in England, these are very officially “not a race” due to laws about racing on public rights of way.

IOM doesn’t have too many local riders.

Round them up and interrogate them.

You must have a suitable contact you can call?

Next year use biodegradable spray paint and put multiple arrows at critical points.

Dickheadedness aside, in 2021 can the default assumption not be that everyone has a bike computer or smartphone, and that determines the ‘official’ course?

Please don’t…as much as technology is here, not everyone enjoys riding their bikes with their head down staring at an arrow on a computer to tell them where they should be going…marker arrows are perfectly adequate.

Of course, in England, these are very officially “not a race” due to laws about racing on public rights of way.

At least one organiser in England runs a “race” race which goes over a brideway

We all know that MTB/gravel sportives publish times as part of the event proposition

You can race across rights of way and race on footpaths with appropriate council closures in place but not on bridleways at all. Go figure.

As a local rider who knows the organisers I saw how much time and effort they had put into marking the course.

I’d studied the GPX links that they had sent out and had a look at the course but in some cases a GPS just isn’t accurate enough – forks in the track – one way is the correct track and the other is the downhill jump line with gap jumps across fire roads…

One example I saw of tampering was in the next to last plantation you are heading down a fire road. On monday night and arrow pointed left into a cut through. On sunday the arrow was lying over a fence 15 foot away.

On sunday a group headed out and did the 100 and another did the 50 just to stick 2 fingers up at whoever had done it. They might have stopped the event but they didn’t stop us riding !

Wildlife cameras can be had pretty cheap, next time might be worth putting a few in choice locations to help identify anyone sabotaging.

Few people have any notion of the time and money that has to be invested to make an event happen. Basically whoever did this will have cost the organiser thousands.
We never gave out a GPX file as we had landowners’ permission for much of the route but I was endlessly asked….. It never occurred to me that someone could use such a file to screw up my event. I’m not judging as the legal position is different on the Island.
It’s more than likely that someone decided they didn’t want a mass participation event during Covid; not that I regard that as a valid reason. But you can never fathom the depths of some folks self centred views. I had arrows removed for ten straight years.

In England and Wales you can apply to run a test of speed on any Public Right of Way but one, you can’t apply to run a test of speed for bicycles on a Bridleway [Rally Cars are fine though]. If you break the law in making an event a test of speed by posting times for a single course or handing out prizes based on performance your event insurance is invalid and the riders personal insurance may be invalidated too. That’s what stopped bikes being included in The Man Against Horse event at Llanwrtyd. The event sponsor William Hill were informed of the legal position by their Lawyers. This is an old chestnut that comes up every few years with a new influx of organisers.

“Next year use biodegradable spray paint and put multiple arrows at critical points.”

Absolutely do NOT do this!

A couple of years ago some idiot did this on a course round the back of Walna Scar road – you could see it for miles off and it stayed put for months – totally inappropriate!