I just road the bike course a few days back and unless there are substantive improvements to the riding surface, it is hard to understand how the race organizers can possibly feel good about participant safety. The descent on North Groton Road and Halls Brook Road are precarious enough (so much so that organizers implemented a speed zone on a portion of the descent in past years), but the winter has taken it’s toll and this section of the course is badly damaged by pot holes and long, wheel grabbing ruts. There are sections of the descent where it is inconceivable that two riders could ride side-by-side.
Does anybody know if there are plans for those sections of the course to be paved by race day? Otherwise, count me out.
“There are sections of the descent where it is inconceivable that two riders could ride side-by-side.” - your not supposed to ride side by side. Perhaps its a new method to enforce the rules.
I did it last year, and actually rode the course a few weeks ago. Yeah there are some pot holes here and there, but I honestly don’t think it’s any worse than last year.
You can’t expect buttery smooth roads, it’s New England after all. It’s really not that difficult to avoid a few obstacles.
I’m always appreciative of a RD that overtly cares about competitor safety. Having signs, orange cones and/or volunteers that are yelling ‘slow down, rough road ahead’ (or the like) is easily something the RD can do. I’d imagine it’s difficult enough to clear a long course for such a race- and there will always be a few rough or tight spots. But if they warn the competitors and make the obtacles visible- that works for me.
hey- we all ride on regular roads every week with obstacles. Sure- it’s nice to be able to bury your head and just pedal when in a race, but by this point in your training, if you haven’t managed to ride over some rough roads- you probably have bigger issues.
I don’t expect the roads in a race to be perfect- but if there are dangerous areas… just warn us and we’re cool.
You should have seen it in 2010 when it was a torrential downpour and the potholes/cracks were under 1" of water while rain that felt like BBs pelted your face as you rode past the lady with the radar gun yelling at you to slow down.
I thought the current course was temporary so that they could make it a big one loop course that extended farther to the NW? At least, that was the story back in 2010. Personally, I thought the original two loop course that went down through Bristol was great. KJ claimed they moved to the current course because the last bikers were catching up to the lead runners and it was a safety issue, but there is no way the current course is safer than the old one since now the lead bikers are catching the last bikers on that screaming, poorly surfaced descent, so you have terrified BOP’ers riding 15 mph being passed by pros going 40.
I’m pretty sure they moved to the new course as the locals were annoyed by the traffic through Bristol on race day.
The old course sucked too, how many ejected water bottles did you see in the first 2 miles-plenty. The last two years the course is actually a little better-they had paved West Shore Rd a couple of years ago. The hairy section is the descent for sure, but with careful decisions and some average bike handling it is fine. I say no thanks because since WTC bought the race it has increased in price and decreased in value-how many K-Swiss cheap t-shirts does one person need. Oh, but you can miss the “free fries” coupon in the SWAG bag
I agree that 2010 was horrendous for the downpour, but frankly I like the two climbs up the Moosezilla and the somewhat technical descent complete with a few rough pavement patches. If anything the race has character. While WTC may prefer to sell out all their races, I think there is value in some races in the series to stand out of level of difficulty over the rest of the events. It’s not like Wildflower or St. Croix lasted all these years because they are easy courses. Over time, I think races that are difficult can become marquis events, but before they get there, the races may not sell out of some years. To tell you the truth the Tzone/finish line set up for Mooseman is probably close to maxed out anyway with the current set up.
I agree…i thought it was a great course. I was tempted to do it again this year. I’m sure I’ll be back there as a good friend of mine lives close by and we meet up 2-3 times a year for races.
