Gethin & Rheola welsh races cancelled
Uplift problems cited...
2:50pm, Apr 15th 2010
Uplfit problems blamed, but the real reason lies a bit deeper I feel:
It is with regret that we are having to cancel the events at Gethin on 29th/30th May & Rheola on 18th/19th September. Many of you may be aware of the difficulties with transport at Rheola in recent weeks and without a guaranteed uplift service we cannot run the events at those venues.
It may be that by next year or even later in the year that a good, solid solution is found but if a transport provider pulls out at the last minute and the event has to be cancelled then all your money would be lost and that is certainly not a road I wish to go down.
We will however be transferring entrants from both onto uplift weekends at Moelfre for the same dates and offering timed runs on both Saturday and Sunday with our new timing system. In addition we will be implementing new uplift procedures and looking for new bike protection methods to keep you all happy. We should also have a bike stall, catering, toilets and first aid over the weekend.
Those booked on will be contacted directly and offered a full refund if they wish.
There will be a limit of 100 places on these events for the weekend. There will be some prizes available on the weekend and those lucky ones will be drawn out of a hat – As it’s not a race we can’t offer prizes to fastest recorded time of the day.
If you have not yet booked on and like the sound of them then follow the same link for the Juice Lubes / O’Neal Welsh Series and follow the booking procedure.
I would like to thank Juice Lubes, Fli Distribution and all those involved for understanding the position we have found ourselves in.
Kind Regards,
Mike Marsden
Event Organiser
Mike gives a clue there. He's automatically transferring people to Moelfre, but also limiting places at Moelfre to 100. What does that tell you? That hardly anyone had entered these races. Combine that with an uncertain uplift situation and it makes perfect sense that he's felt he has no option but to pull the events. Sad, but inevitable.
He's not wrong though, there is an uplift problem. The last two weekends at Rheola have seen THREE coach companies come and go, and they won't be coming back. There's only so many companies out there, and word will spread between them I'm sure.
Uplift aside though, the simple fact is that we have more races and organisers than ever before this year, and the calendar is over-full. In the middle of a recession. Some events are bound to get dropped--a lot of us saw this coming a while ago--though I didn't think it would be the welsh series that would struggle. I for one assumed that riders would be excited to be racing on these classic tracks once again. Hopefully it can be sorted for 2011!
What I'd say for now is that anyone who is thinking of doing a race this year, and hasn't yet actually ENTERED and PAID for that race, go and do so now. Too many events are currently massively undersubscribed, and organisers will have little choice but to start pulling their events if riders aren't happy to commit to them now. Raid your piggy banks, and don't rely on entering late due to low numbers - low numbers = no races!
The calendar has been duly updated.
