PurpleFender

My ride was overwhelmingly positive! I was just responding to the OP's concerns and offering up suggestions that could remedy the problems he put forth. I don't care if there are 20,000 people there on tandem recumbent trikes doing 9mph all across the road. The more the merrier. I just think that people need to obey the rules and we'll all have a good time. That, and slower riders keep right.

nacbikeguy

Wow three pages.
Well thanks again for the feedback and yeah i was venting and it was negative. That being said. I personally know some of the cat ones that made some comments that pretty much agreed with what I was saying. I wanted to also point out that depsite the eliteism that exists within the racing community believe it or not most of us are quite happy to see anyone ride a bike take part in events especially when you involve your family. So if anyone thinks this was directed at people who simply like the ride then I was not clear. Again thanks for the feedback.

Paniolo

I know this thread was directed at slower riders that start in front of the racers. But Roadplays post shows why another large group of riders skip the official start. Living and riding in DFW I know many of those riders ... they start a mile or so down the road after the racers go by. They are fast club riders on high end bikes, they ride year round in group rides and can hold Cat 4/5 paces. Most are looking to finish 100 miles between 11am and noon. They don't want to be in pace lines with people whose skills are unknown and want to minimize exposure to the many casual riders at HHH. The last thing they want is a stupid crash causing injury or thousands in equipment damage. They do want to ride fast, get valid comparisons to prior years and current goals, ride 100 miles with no stop signs and spend time with friends they trust pace lining with at 25mph. To re-emphasize they make a point to not impact the racers, by waiting until they pass by before rolling out.

Don't bother yelling at me about this, I didn't even ride HHH this year. But I know lots of riders with this outlook, as well as lots of others who value the energy of starting with 14,000 new friends. Far be it for me to tell any of them what they should do, I just go out and ride.

StephenH

I would like to point out that the complaints have mostly been about slow riders starting early, not fast riders. If faster riders start ahead of you, you'll never know it.

I would like to share some information I found in the HH100 official newspaper that was distributed up there, though.

In the article titled "And they're off" on page 14 of that newspaper, it says "Hell's Gate Scorchers" is people who expect to finish in under 5 hours. "Hell's Gate Keepers" are 5 hours to under 9 hours. "Hell's Gate Hopefuls" is 9 hours or more. Of course, the problem is that this information wasn't posted on the map or signs that show you where these areas are, so you had to guess which place to be. Also, I'm not sure what time they're talking about. My chip-timer time was just under 9 hours, but from firing of the cannon was about 9:20, so I can interpret that either way. And also, I just barely made it through Hell's Gate at that speed, so there can't be many people that make Hell's Gate and don't finish in 9 hours.

It mentions in the article that your start location was on the bib number, but that number came from asking riders where they wanted to start, if I remember right. Maybe they did ask for a time and adjust accordingly. But I thought they only asked for a time on the chip timer thingy.

That article also mentions that "we try to hold each group up until the previous group has crossed the start line". That may have been the theory, but I'm not aware that it happened like that- in fact, it seemed they had trouble getting the marker poles out of the way due to people going by. But that's why everyone got to taptap down to the start line instead of waiting 5 minutes and then riding.

nacbikeguy

Paniolio and Stephen,
I never implied that slow riders are the problem and as Stephen pointed out fast riders will never be a problem since we would rarely catch them and if we did it would be so far into the race that they'd be a welcomed boon at most. that being said. I will once again simply say that if you cannot obey the rules of the ride then my point is don't do this ride and respect the others that do. Stephen gave some very good insight, and of course the HHH coordinators are highly pissed that every year the same bunch of people do exactly what the staff ask them not to. pani mentioned that the riders he knows don't like other riders and don't trust them so they then choose to endanger everyone else because they feel entitled to make this ride all about them. Well I am not yelling but I'd like you to tell them that as a rider I hope they get a disqualification for being this selfish and that since they think it's their ride and F-k everyone else, that I can only imagine what kind of horrible club ride it would be to even be around them. I've seen riders like this and most of the time THEY not everyone else are the problem. See it isn't a job it's for fun and because you can afford a three thousand dollar bike does not make you more entitled than myself who works his ass off for a mid level bike and trains all year only to have some jack-ass get right in the way at a very crucial aspect of the race. See i want to race, that's why i pay for my entry fees and begin where i am supposed to and don't inhibit the people who spend time money and sweat and time to enjoy the ride. So Paniolio please let some of those 'wonderful' riders that simply think they are better than everyone else that I won't wish them harm but they are gigantic a-holes for doing things that really piss off a ton of people and of course the staff who work very hard to ensure even the safety if the jack-asses that do whatever they want. You should tell them to thank the staff for putting up with their ignorant behaviour.

lotek 

nacbikeguy,

Reread Paniolio's post he said that specific group who you're blasting waited until the racers
passed, they're not in front of you unless you missed the start (for the racers).

nacbikeguy

Lotek,
I read it and i feel it does not need to be changed. Those folks have no idea what category has passed them or if there was a break or even if they are infact going to inhibit other riders. my point everyone seems to miss is this:
If you want to be a part of HHH then be a part of it. Don't 'do the century' outside of the parameters of the ride itself. If they want a private ride then come up to WF some other weekend when they can do whatever it is they want. Negative, impolite or whatever people feel I am being, the fact remains that riders who simply do whatever they want and to hell with the rules need not do the ride imho. Telling me they do this or that or they are super fast is irrelevant again imho. It has already caused accidents and of course damaged peoples bikes bodies etc.. Whatever I say is lost in excuses and 'exceptions'. Well eventually the organizers will simply get to the point where they are exasperated and not just the people who obey the rules and they'll drop the race. Based on some of the posts here this is exactly what some of the riders want. I would also like to point out that when people cheat the rules they confuse officals to the point where they believe some group that started way early and wherever it is they think they need to start are the actual riders who finished first until they can get a chip to resolve the issue (of course the riders responsible could care less or are oblivious to the confusion that they cause), and believe me it has happened before. So I do not care what kind of extra special conditions people *think* they are doing me a favour by implementing, all i ask is just do the ride like the organizers ASK you to do OR DON'T DO IT. Now I ask everyone that has taken part of this thread WHY this is so unbelievable and wrong or unecessary? What IF the racers blew through a group of riders and refused to give them any room and caused them to have an accident? Well if the responses i got were from racers then the response I would expect is"hey it's our race and they got in the way." That's pretty lame and no rational rider would see this as being remotely logical. So whatever man I tried to simply say just follow the rules. If some of the people don't want 14,000 riders then get in the front I used to do it as a ride for time and all I had to do was get there early and not wait till the last minute. We would catch people who got dropped and passed them politely as we could it was never a problem to be around less experienced riders. I guess I'm done trying to explain myself over and over from this point on I'll just repeat the same thing DO THE RIDE LIKE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO. This seems to be impossible for people to understand.

OneArmedScissor

going a lot faster? Most of the riders I experienced were on bike clothes and on multi thousand dollar bikes but still riding just as fast and reckless as the critical mass riders on their cruiser bikes and brakeless 2 wheeled skateboards.

Next year I'm definitely doing the race. I'm just not that comfortable with passing cyclists on the right during a distance ride when they fail to yield on the left.

Trek760

I kinda have to agree with nacbikeguy here...

I would guess that next year folks might want to think twice about jumping the start or face permanent ejection from the event... Just a thought.

longbeachgary

Wow, a ride with 12,000 Texans in hundred degree heat...how'd I miss that?

lotek 

I don't disagree with the sentiment that people should respect the ride rules and
not jump the start. That said, human nature being what it is this is going to continue as long
as the race and the ride are run on the same day. Maybe the solution is to run the sanctioned UCI
race either the day before or after the HHH ride.

Trek760

That would cause an immense burden on both the local population and the organization putting on the event. If people would adhere to the rule, this would not be an issue.

chevy42083

But it WOULD allow for back to back 100mile days

nacbikeguy

HHH would be an open three day stage for all levels of riders. Not just 1-2.

I LOVE stage races, and man what a bad-ass race if we had a TT on Sunday.!!!!