Dragon ride stats

[huw williams]

Just on the phone to the organiser and here are some interesting stats.

DNS
700 yes SEVEN HUNDRED didn't turn up (largely due to the weather I suspect)

Entry
1600 riders did start so bearing in mind how many people were on course, imagine how 700 more would have looked!

Food
Same amount of food as last year where they had to give almost a third of it away after the event - this year they ran out at two feed stations - clearly the much harder course meant people were eating more and stocking their pockets for later in the ride

Water
Enough for 1500 bottles at each station but still ran out - many riders were clearly relying on the feed stations and in some case were riding with only ONE SMALL BOTTLE on board!!!
There's a lesson there for us all in future - apparently both the Cape Argus (South Africa) and Etape (France) both ran out of water in their events last year.

Next year 'bank' of food and water will be in place somewhere in the centr of the course which will service all the feedstations when they begin to run dry

Hospital visits
Weren't too frequent thankfully:

1 broken collar bone
1 broken elbow
A few cuts and bruises
1 case of low blood pressure (rider collapsed but recovered in hospital)
4 cases of ingested washing up liquid diagnosed as not serious "We'll be farting bubbles for a month" said one rider.

Marshalls
Are paid for the event! So if anyone wants to earn a bit of cash next year, take your partners down and redeem the entry fees

UCI
Chief Sportive comissair was present and was largely impressed but had a few suggestions to improve start/finish area and a few other minor details - could well be granted Golden Bike status by 2009

Next Year
Same corse - entry level to increase to 2500

[Mike I]

[quote]4 cases of ingested washing up liquid