Well this past week end we took part in the Eastlink Cycle Challenge to commemorate the opening of the Eastlink freeway between Frankston and Ringwood. Well I must say I was very disappointed in the overall organization of this event.
There were 6000 riders in the challenge and as you can imagine and appreciate no easy task to organize. However apart from the chaos at the start the organizers never even contemplated the potential of the danger that was clearly very visible. They sent us on our way from the start but it was very confusing as we stayed on the one part of the freeway and were told that we need to be careful as the race riders (Pros) would be coming back in the same direction on the same road.
Well they were not wrong…… 6000 riders on a three lane freeway and then 20km into the ride we all had to cram into one and a half lanes as the front riders are returning on the same road. Pretty much a very frightening experience well the opposite part of the freeway remained closed. To add to this toilettes and water stands were erected on the same road when we turned causing more chaos when riders wanted to stop.
Then to top it all off coming back through the halfway mark on on out to Ringwood we hit all the fun riders …. like 20 thousand of them all out for a Sunday stroll. Kids on small tricycles and so forth ? it was an absolute shambles. One cannot understand how more people were not injured.
Anyway we still had a nice ride on a new road which was enjoyable.
June 19th, 2008 at 20:51
Boet come back to a first world country where they can organise 36000 cyclist no problem
June 24th, 2008 at 04:22
Yip I agree, we have a whole lot of fun with thousands more on a lovely coastal road with lekker views, not a 3 lane freeway.