-
The 46 could be promoted a bit more and become the less-of-a-smashfest option but still with the attraction of being on closed roads. Might at least reduce the numbers doing the full 100 while maintaining/increasing the total number of participants spread across the two events. If so, at least up it to 50 miles though so it still sounds like a challenge.
jvhp-
I think that this was the first year that the 46 has been run isn't it? I'd agree that a bit more publicity around it would be good, and maybe cutting the numbers on the 100 and pushing slower riders to the 46 would help.
Upping it to a 50 would be a nice touch too, kind of like the Marathon/Half Marathon split.
The biggest problems that I ran into were mostly, I think, due to everyone having bunched up more than at the start, after to the incident at Pyrford.
-
I do agree they should push the 46 more, having just done it myself this weekend, I was really surprised at the split off point that i was the only one in the vicinity to turn left for 46, everyone in sight went right.
During the part of the route reserved only for the 46 I saw no more than 5 or 6 cyclists and maybe 30-40 spectators (all probably wondering why the roads were closed for such a thin herd).
Joining back into the pack of 100 returning to London the roads were no-where near at capacity (but were full of people desperately trying to get their Sub 5 hr 100. )
MrDrem
mdle
This is my reading of it too. There are always a few deaths from natural causes at Glastonbury each year, admittedly there are more people but they are all essentially just sitting in a field.
The crashes I find a little more worrying. There seem to be 2 events running concurrently, there is the "smash it round chasing a pb" ride and the "I never dreamed I'd be able to do something like this" ride, and the two don't mix very well. Currently the organisers rely on entrants telling them which they are by giving an expected time and use that to place them in the appropriate start wave. It seems to me that the start waves around 7 - 7.30 have too great a mix, which puts wobbly riders fighting tired limbs and inexperienced chain-gangs on the same bit of road.