DH Race

[suman paul]

Just a thought regarding upcoming DH Race.

In last couple of races what I've observed and you also might agree with that fact - there is a lack of audience ! We only had the participating riders, organisers & volunteers, photographers and very very few countable number of family members. We need more audience to watch the race, cheer the riders or just create some presence. Why we are not getting more audience ! Are we publishing the event program in the newspapers ? Facebook - yes I know, its very active medium, but remember facebook is hit by only known folks not beyond that since most people are not aware of the cycling community in city.

I can think of couple of options.

1. Lets publish the event program in all newspapers preferably multiple times.

2. Lets make a common poster which can be circulated by all the group members electronically in their respective work places which is a tremendous source of crowd pulling - we can tell everybody to take an A4 print out of the poster and pin it up on their work place's common notice board.

3. All the parents in this group can circulate the same poster to their kid's schools and request the school to put it up on the notice board.

4. Whoever are staying in apartments or multi dwelling campuses, they also can put up the poster on the notice boards which I've heard in most of the cases are very active and responsive.

I can help out making the poster if I get the event data or anybody can do it easily and circulate by this week or may be by early next week so that we will have some time to hammer it for couple of times before the race.


thank you & regards

suman

+91 9886300685

[Opendro]

My suggestion: just remove the qualifier round which are usually done a week or days before the race. More riders will turn up and thus more head count. I myself almost missed last year's race as I managed to borrow an MTB just in the nick of the qualifier test.

[Yateesh Kumar]

If you have a poster, I can surely get it circulated in few orgs atleast...
Am sure bbc as a group have people working for many companies where we can attract crowd

Cheers
Yathi

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[RT]

On the subject of publicising the DH, here's one big concern which I have had for a while now.

Turahalli is actually a reserve forest which is ecologically sensitive and under increasing threat from all sorts of people (from drunken rowdies to film crews to picnickers and yes, sometimes even well-intentioned bikers). I know how radically it has already changed (deteriorated) since 2009 when I first went there and it breaks my heart.

While getting publicity is all very well in theory, managing a large number of people (no matter how well-intentioned) in such a sensitive area is not easy and not something which IMO we are equipped to do particularly when we SIMULTANEOUSLY need to focus on all the safety aspects of a downhill race. If we are the ones pulling people there, we need to be the ones controlling the crowd too. And, in the end, we can't police them as its a public space. Only polite requests are possible. Believe me, even with the 'small' crowd we had last year, it was difficult to ensure safety for the riders, let alone keep the place clean. 

Personally, until the day we have a dedicated, protected downhill track with clear guidelines on its maintenance and the enforcement of the same, I am perfectly happy to not have droves of people landing up.

Opendro, I completely disagree with you. Firstly, it was not a qualifier, it was an enforced track familiarisation. The intent behind it was to ensure that everyone knew what they were getting themselves into so that no random clown would see a youtube video, land up thinking it was all shits and giggles and then end up maiming himself or herself because they had no clue. It is possible to give people time and attention in the days prior to a race. It is frankly impossible to do so on race day and nobody should expect it either. In the end, the track familiarisation worked well and everyone who ended up racing on race day actually knew the pitfalls of what they were up to AND wore safety gear (there are quite a few dented helmets which attest to the efficacy of it). We wanted to minimise potential accidents (and any possible ensuing fallout) and I think the track familiarisation went a long way towards achieving that. Increasing numbers by compromising on safety is just a bad idea, particularly in a sport defined by risk.

Anyhoo, these are just my views. Feel free to figure out which direction y'all would like to take this in. 

Cheers,

Rahul

[M I T R]

I think what Rahul says here makes a lot of sense.

Gathering people and encouraging them to come to the forest zone will only harm the peace and solitude of the region.

 

Cheers

M I T R

[Mayank Rungta]

+1

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[suman paul]

Ok I get your point - I was not aware of the venue - fine lets be sensitive to the place and keep the publicising agenda for the events where more the merrier !  

thank you & regards

suman  

+91      9886300685