Lake District Mountain Trial Cancelled
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
Unfortunately the Lake District Mountain Trial has had to be canceled. This is only the second time in over 50 years that the event has not gone ahead (2001 was canceled due to foot and mouth). This time weather has got the better of the trial organisers. After yet another wet summer the logistics of holding the event along with concerns over competitor safety has meant that the committee have taken the drastic and brave step of canceling the event.
A shame that such an event has to be canceled, and you cannot help but feel bad that a lot of the reason is due to the amount of gas guzzling polluting cars descending on a small part of unspoiled Lakeland terrain. I know they quoted safety as a concern but specified river crossing points could have negated the concern over the river and the time at the end waiting? Well a nice 2 mile trot back to the cars would have kept the competitors warm.
It begs the question that for an event that can move around and does move around year on year, should this have been thought of before? Should there be a back up location? Basically should there have been a plan B? Or was this plan B? Had plan A already been foiled?
The committee had already caused controversy this year over their waterproof requirements on the checklist. Many people saying that they had to go buy extra “waterproof” gear. This is of concern as a potential race organiser as it implies that they didn’t have this kit before. This then means that they have broken the request of other race organisers mainly because they felt they knew better. Maybe they do and waterproof is virtually always overkill but if the organiser states they want you to wear a pink tutu with frills then if you want to race in their race you get that tutu on and get mincing.