The Roundup – First Installment from Your MobMaster
(What used to be known as a Rally, but being Aussies (and having to be different), we now lovingly refer to as a Roundup)
What fun I had being the MobMaster (used to be known as Rallymaster) for our very first IBA TAR24 Roundup – Scholars, Winos and Poets.
Firstly, I want to thank all of the Ringers (used to be known as Riders) and Pillion Ringers (used to be known as Pillion Riders and crazy people who wanted to suffer for 24 hours – still known as crazy people who want to suffer for 24 hours) who participated in the Roundup. It was a big ask to spend most of the day on Saturday training on how to route successfully, (= brain fry) and then ride a 24 Hour run. Every single one of you, including those that ended up with a DNF, did a mighty job. It was a great effort for all concerned.
I also want to thank all of the Drovers who helped with the training on the day – John Inkson (Enterprise) and Peter Hogan (Ox34), and those that helped leading up to the Roundup, with their ideas and their input on the Roundup itself, Michael Crapp (Crappy), Martin Little (Kiwi Martin) and Ian McPhee (Tabledrain). Martin and Crappy also planned a route and rode it, for two reasons – Crappy - to see whether his plan was rideable and just because he loves to ride, and Martin - who only ever wanted to ride part of his route, for practice towards his IBR foray next year in the USA. Ian, of course, is in Zambia, South Africa, so his input was more about how to carry out the training component and the Roundup itself.
Most of all, I want to thank my assistant MobMaster, Bill Beaton (Tiger Bill), whose assistance in this Roundup was invaluable. He helped collate my messy data, and put together the Roundup Booklet and all the other bits and pieces of paperwork that all of the Ringers got in their Roundup packs. He coped with my numerous amounts of changes to the Roundup, and took everything in his stride, with only a few eye rolls and “bloody hells” along the way. I absolutely could not have done this without him.
I also want to thank Cuddles (my darling Lord and master), for putting up with my other than delightful moods when I was planning the Roundup – “Could I suggest darling…..” “No you may not!” (you get the drill) and allowing me the freedom to run with my ideas. He, of course, was otherwise engaged in keeping himself alive and recuperating after his horrific accident, but he helped with constructive criticism when I let him get a word in.
When I offered to create this Roundup I had months and months of time leading up to it, and planned on spending lots of my spare time (haha) working on a Roundup that was both fun and challenging at the same time. Like all good plans, it went pear shaped, much like what often happens on an actual Roundup.
Most of the spare time I had was taken up with dealing with the sale of our business, which was in the initial stages. All the weekends I had planned to work on the Roundup, I was spending collating data for the prospective buyer, counting stock and doing the myriad of things that are required in the sale of a quite complex business.
And then there was Lord Cuddles’ little mishap with terra firma at Barrington Tops. At that point, when things were at their most dire, I almost threw in the towel and cancelled the whole thing, but like all good ralliers do, I decided to carry on through thick or thin, and was lucky enough to have great support and assistance from those around me, which helped bring it all together. So thankyou.
When I was planning this Roundup, I wanted to create something a little different. Something that would show the Ringers that there was more than one way to skin a cat.
Most Ralliers get the data that is given to them and work out the highest point route they can create, based on the high point bonuses laying on the map. I wanted to throw a spanner in the works by adding lots of combos (extra points for combinations of bonuses) that could change the whole way that you planned your route.
Was it better to plan it around the high points or around the Combos and then the addition of higher point bonuses? It was a tricky conundrum, and one which even tested the likes of our seasoned Drovers.
They, of course, had a few weeks to play around with the bonus information, and just when they thought they had it worked out, I changed all the point structures and told them to work it out again – that was just a few days before the actual Roundup. They had their own little competition, to see who could come up with the highest scoring route – nothing like pressure.
Crappy was the winner there. That man not only has the knack to be able to ride like the devil, but to be able to very quickly see where the best points are on a map, whether they are just high pointers or combos, and put together a rideable and doable route. He really should think about entering the Iron Butt Rally in the USA, because I think he would have a good chance of winning the damned thing.
On to the Roundup itself.
It was great to meet up with everyone on the Friday night, before all the madness started. Ron (Grey Gentry) outdid himself with some donations to the festivities of some extremely palatable reds, and the camaraderie within the group was plain to see right from the get go.
Saturday morning rolled around with an 8:30am sharp start to the proceedings. Were there a few stragglers? Yes. Did we begin without them? Yes.
Best to begin as we intended to go on. One thing you learn as a rallier Is that timing is important. Not being on time for a bonus can cost you lots of points, (as many of our Ringers were soon to find out), and not being on time for a training session can start you off on the back foot. When you are late, it makes your mind unsettled from the start, and you don’t take in information as well (something else our Ringers were soon to find out).
First Tip – always be on time for a meeting with your MobMaster. Treat it the same way as you would a bonus or a Checkpoint.
The formalities started with prizes being handed out to Naughty Bart and Simon, who had been very good at guessing the name and theme of the Roundup leading up to the actual event.
Then training began in earnest.
I have to admit that even though I told all of our Ringers to become familiar with the use of Base Camp before they came to the training, I had not done that myself. I’m a Mapsource kind of girl. I know the thing back to front. Base Camp, however, is a different kettle of fish. I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with how to use the programme in that training session, so I sat back and watched everyone else work their way through it. It was a lot of information to take in with only limited time to do it. Some of the Ringers handled the training well, others struggled with it.
To those who struggled with base camp and the routing training, my advice is to spend a lot of time at home playing with the program. It’s what I intend to do, because as much as I love Mapsource, and still believe it is a better programme than Base Camp, it is no longer supported and will eventually become redundant.
A lot of our Ringers looked like their brains were in overload, but to their credit, they battled through it and came up with some kind of a riding plan.
Standing behind them, looking at the shapes of the routes they had planned, I could see that some of them had pretty good routes laid out. They had estimated how much riding they wanted to actually do and worked their plan around that, also based on the bonus points on offer. Some planned to ride 1000kms, some 1200kms, some 1500kms or more. This is the start point of planning your route. How much time do I have for the ride, based on the checkpoint window, how much time will I take for picking up bonuses, fuel and sleeping, how many hours are left and how much distance can I comfortably ride in that time?
The points on offer for sleeping were pretty high. I made them high so that people wouldn’t try to outride the sleep bonus. It just wasn’t worth it. So Ringers could decide to take a 4 hour sleep bonus or up to a 6 hour sleep bonus, and they would earn a massive amount of points for just doing that. For some, it ended up just a little bit less than half the points of their total ride.
One of the most important things to manage on a Roundup is rest. So very important.
The other thing that is important when doing a Roundup is reading comprehension. Reading the bonus booklet is imperative to gathering the most points available, and later keeping the points you have earned at the scoring table. I know it sounds almost “elementary my Dear Watson”, and those of you who are sitting on the sidelines are probably wondering how people could ever get it mucked up so badly, because it’s so simple right? Wrong. There is so much information to take in, plus a mix of anxiety and excitement with it, that it is very easy to make a mistake. Later, at the scoring table, we saw a few.
There were a couple of little changes to the bonuses announced at the training. Important changes. These changes were explained in great detail. Alas, some Ringers just didn’t get them right and would pay the price at the scoring table.
Lyn the Pillion made a plea to all Ringers before leaving that if any of them saw her standing on the side of the road somewhere during the Roundup looking distressed, that they were to pick her up and bring her home. She wanted to know if there were extra bonus points available for any Ringers who took pity on her and did that.
Anyone who has ridden two up in a Roundup will understand how much it can test a relationship. Lyn the Pillion and Fatman were veterans in Roundup riding, and knew what the next 24 hours were going to bring. Gotta love that commitment.
So on to the actual Roundup itself. The Ringers had to be “standing beside their bikes at precisely 14:45 or receive a 30 minute start penalty. Beside your bike means exactly that. The bikes were all grouped pretty closely together and so the Ringers started wandering around talking with each other. It was a pretty close call for a couple of Ringers, who almost didn’t make it back beside their bikes by the designated time. Phew.
Lord Cuddles, who was our official starter, explained the starting procedure, which would begin at precisely 15:00.
Not 5 minutes after the explanation I was being asked by one Ringer was there any particular order that the Ringers needed to leave in. I practiced a stony “Lisa Landry” look, and said he had better go and speak with Lord Cuddles, who was much more obliging than I was in once again explaining the procedure.
15:00 rolled around, and the Ringers were off!
The first large point bonus was a timed bonus, on the main street of Taree - ABAC. It opened at 15:15 and closed at 15:45. There were clear instructions given at the training session on exactly what the Ringers had to do at that bonus. The bonus book said that they had to take a picture of the abacus, but an addition to that was that they also now needed to have a Manning Valley Sticker, which was handed to them at the training session, signed and time stamped by Drover, John Inkson, who would be waiting at the abacus for them.
In addition to that, the bonus had a second part.
The Ringers had to ride out to the Old Bar Tavern, (co-ordinates were given), find World Endurance Champion, Alex Cudlin, have a photograph taken with him, and get him to sign an Old Bar Tavern Coaster. Alex was meeting with some of his sponsors there, so the ringers also had to name one of Alex’s sponsors. For this extra effort the bonus points were doubled. But here’s the kicker. You only got the 3000 points now on offer if you completed both parts of the bonus. The abacus and the tavern. Only do one part and you scored no points at all. Zip.
Now also, not too far away from our Roundup start location, was another 800 point bonus which was available at all hours. It was a little bit tricky in that there were two plaques that needed to be found and located, but easy enough to find when you are fresh; maybe not so easy at the end of a Roundup, when you are fatigued and possibly running out of time.
The large point timed bonus was in a southerly direction from the start, meaning a right turn at the traffic lights. The other bonus was located in a northerly direction, meaning a left turn at the traffic lights.
It was interesting to watch what the ringers did when they took off from the start.
Every single ringer turned right – meaning that they were all heading to the first large point timed bonus, which was less than 5 minutes away. It also meant that they would all get there well before the bonus opened, and would all be milling around the bonus together, waiting for it to open and trying to get their shots.
Every single ringer that is, except one.
We watched as everyone peeled right, and then Crappy casually turned left. The Drovers that were standing there all smiled and said “That’s experience for you”.
Crappy headed up to the 800 point bonus and found the two plaques that he had to photograph. Let’s face it. He had 15 minutes before the first timed bonus even opened and had 30 minutes after that to get that bonus. Plenty of time.
So basically, 5 minutes from the start, and while everyone else was waiting for the timed bonus to open, Crappy was ahead of the field by 800 points.
Every other ringer headed to ABAC to get the photograph of the Abacus.
I have to admit that the timing of this bonus was a stroke of genius on the part of Enterprise, who suggested that having a 15 minute gap from the start of the Roundup to the opening of the bonus might separate the men from the boys as it were. He was going to do the honours at the bonus, allowing him to see firsthand what unfolded.
As suspected, most of the newbies and some of the more experienced Ringers jumped off their bikes and rushed over to the bonus in a state of high anxiety and adrenalin.
The Roundup had begun! This was it! Their very first bonus!
Ringers rushed up to Enterprise, wanting him to sign and time stamp their Manning Valley sticker.
It was 15:07.
The timed bonus was from 15:15 to 15:45.
You see the problem right?
Lyn the Pillion and Fatman arrived at around 15:05, along with most of the other riders, and in true competitor style, realising that the bonus didn’t open until 15:15, started to fuss around their bike, pushing buttons, checking on things, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, waiting for the time to tick away, while lots of their competitors rushed Enterprise for their sticker, not realising that they were about to blow 3000 points.
Kiwi Martin also arrived early to the bonus and stood back against a shop window right near the bonus, just watching the other Ringers get their photo and the “all important” time stamped sticker.
As the ringers asked Enterprise if he would please sign their sticker (they were all very courteous), he loudly announced, “I would be delighted to sign your sticker, if you really want me to. The time is 15:07. As the shark feeding frenzy of the first bonus began, Enterprise changed this to, “and the time is 15:07, 15:08, 15:09 …… you get the picture).
I got a Bahahaha text from Enterprise, because his little trap had caught some unsuspecting Ringers.
As I explained, there are no tricks in the Roundup, but some of the bonuses are tricky.
One astute rider, Simon, who had rushed in too early to grab his time stamp, was getting back on his bike and noticed other riders just standing around at the bonus, appearing to be waiting for something, so he decided to re-read his bonus booklet and realised his first mistake. He sheepishly made his way back to the bonus and had his sticker restamped at the correct time. Simon was smart. Be like Simon.
First lesson learned. Read your bonus booklet and make sure you have satisfied all the requirements of the bonus before you leave the location.
I’m not sure how many ringers were caught in Enterprise’s little ruse, or how many realised after they had left the location that they had royally stuffed up, and returned to have the time stamp redone, but there were a few ringers kicking themselves at the scoring table as they watched 3000 hard earned points just disappear into thin air. It hurts. It really does. It’s a hard learned lesson really.
To be continued
(What used to be known as a Rally, but being Aussies (and having to be different), we now lovingly refer to as a Roundup)
What fun I had being the MobMaster (used to be known as Rallymaster) for our very first IBA TAR24 Roundup – Scholars, Winos and Poets.
Firstly, I want to thank all of the Ringers (used to be known as Riders) and Pillion Ringers (used to be known as Pillion Riders and crazy people who wanted to suffer for 24 hours – still known as crazy people who want to suffer for 24 hours) who participated in the Roundup. It was a big ask to spend most of the day on Saturday training on how to route successfully, (= brain fry) and then ride a 24 Hour run. Every single one of you, including those that ended up with a DNF, did a mighty job. It was a great effort for all concerned.
I also want to thank all of the Drovers who helped with the training on the day – John Inkson (Enterprise) and Peter Hogan (Ox34), and those that helped leading up to the Roundup, with their ideas and their input on the Roundup itself, Michael Crapp (Crappy), Martin Little (Kiwi Martin) and Ian McPhee (Tabledrain). Martin and Crappy also planned a route and rode it, for two reasons – Crappy - to see whether his plan was rideable and just because he loves to ride, and Martin - who only ever wanted to ride part of his route, for practice towards his IBR foray next year in the USA. Ian, of course, is in Zambia, South Africa, so his input was more about how to carry out the training component and the Roundup itself.
Most of all, I want to thank my assistant MobMaster, Bill Beaton (Tiger Bill), whose assistance in this Roundup was invaluable. He helped collate my messy data, and put together the Roundup Booklet and all the other bits and pieces of paperwork that all of the Ringers got in their Roundup packs. He coped with my numerous amounts of changes to the Roundup, and took everything in his stride, with only a few eye rolls and “bloody hells” along the way. I absolutely could not have done this without him.
I also want to thank Cuddles (my darling Lord and master), for putting up with my other than delightful moods when I was planning the Roundup – “Could I suggest darling…..” “No you may not!” (you get the drill) and allowing me the freedom to run with my ideas. He, of course, was otherwise engaged in keeping himself alive and recuperating after his horrific accident, but he helped with constructive criticism when I let him get a word in.
When I offered to create this Roundup I had months and months of time leading up to it, and planned on spending lots of my spare time (haha) working on a Roundup that was both fun and challenging at the same time. Like all good plans, it went pear shaped, much like what often happens on an actual Roundup.
Most of the spare time I had was taken up with dealing with the sale of our business, which was in the initial stages. All the weekends I had planned to work on the Roundup, I was spending collating data for the prospective buyer, counting stock and doing the myriad of things that are required in the sale of a quite complex business.
And then there was Lord Cuddles’ little mishap with terra firma at Barrington Tops. At that point, when things were at their most dire, I almost threw in the towel and cancelled the whole thing, but like all good ralliers do, I decided to carry on through thick or thin, and was lucky enough to have great support and assistance from those around me, which helped bring it all together. So thankyou.
When I was planning this Roundup, I wanted to create something a little different. Something that would show the Ringers that there was more than one way to skin a cat.
Most Ralliers get the data that is given to them and work out the highest point route they can create, based on the high point bonuses laying on the map. I wanted to throw a spanner in the works by adding lots of combos (extra points for combinations of bonuses) that could change the whole way that you planned your route.
Was it better to plan it around the high points or around the Combos and then the addition of higher point bonuses? It was a tricky conundrum, and one which even tested the likes of our seasoned Drovers.
They, of course, had a few weeks to play around with the bonus information, and just when they thought they had it worked out, I changed all the point structures and told them to work it out again – that was just a few days before the actual Roundup. They had their own little competition, to see who could come up with the highest scoring route – nothing like pressure.
Crappy was the winner there. That man not only has the knack to be able to ride like the devil, but to be able to very quickly see where the best points are on a map, whether they are just high pointers or combos, and put together a rideable and doable route. He really should think about entering the Iron Butt Rally in the USA, because I think he would have a good chance of winning the damned thing.
On to the Roundup itself.
It was great to meet up with everyone on the Friday night, before all the madness started. Ron (Grey Gentry) outdid himself with some donations to the festivities of some extremely palatable reds, and the camaraderie within the group was plain to see right from the get go.
Saturday morning rolled around with an 8:30am sharp start to the proceedings. Were there a few stragglers? Yes. Did we begin without them? Yes.
Best to begin as we intended to go on. One thing you learn as a rallier Is that timing is important. Not being on time for a bonus can cost you lots of points, (as many of our Ringers were soon to find out), and not being on time for a training session can start you off on the back foot. When you are late, it makes your mind unsettled from the start, and you don’t take in information as well (something else our Ringers were soon to find out).
First Tip – always be on time for a meeting with your MobMaster. Treat it the same way as you would a bonus or a Checkpoint.
The formalities started with prizes being handed out to Naughty Bart and Simon, who had been very good at guessing the name and theme of the Roundup leading up to the actual event.
Then training began in earnest.
I have to admit that even though I told all of our Ringers to become familiar with the use of Base Camp before they came to the training, I had not done that myself. I’m a Mapsource kind of girl. I know the thing back to front. Base Camp, however, is a different kettle of fish. I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with how to use the programme in that training session, so I sat back and watched everyone else work their way through it. It was a lot of information to take in with only limited time to do it. Some of the Ringers handled the training well, others struggled with it.
To those who struggled with base camp and the routing training, my advice is to spend a lot of time at home playing with the program. It’s what I intend to do, because as much as I love Mapsource, and still believe it is a better programme than Base Camp, it is no longer supported and will eventually become redundant.
A lot of our Ringers looked like their brains were in overload, but to their credit, they battled through it and came up with some kind of a riding plan.
Standing behind them, looking at the shapes of the routes they had planned, I could see that some of them had pretty good routes laid out. They had estimated how much riding they wanted to actually do and worked their plan around that, also based on the bonus points on offer. Some planned to ride 1000kms, some 1200kms, some 1500kms or more. This is the start point of planning your route. How much time do I have for the ride, based on the checkpoint window, how much time will I take for picking up bonuses, fuel and sleeping, how many hours are left and how much distance can I comfortably ride in that time?
The points on offer for sleeping were pretty high. I made them high so that people wouldn’t try to outride the sleep bonus. It just wasn’t worth it. So Ringers could decide to take a 4 hour sleep bonus or up to a 6 hour sleep bonus, and they would earn a massive amount of points for just doing that. For some, it ended up just a little bit less than half the points of their total ride.
One of the most important things to manage on a Roundup is rest. So very important.
The other thing that is important when doing a Roundup is reading comprehension. Reading the bonus booklet is imperative to gathering the most points available, and later keeping the points you have earned at the scoring table. I know it sounds almost “elementary my Dear Watson”, and those of you who are sitting on the sidelines are probably wondering how people could ever get it mucked up so badly, because it’s so simple right? Wrong. There is so much information to take in, plus a mix of anxiety and excitement with it, that it is very easy to make a mistake. Later, at the scoring table, we saw a few.
There were a couple of little changes to the bonuses announced at the training. Important changes. These changes were explained in great detail. Alas, some Ringers just didn’t get them right and would pay the price at the scoring table.
Lyn the Pillion made a plea to all Ringers before leaving that if any of them saw her standing on the side of the road somewhere during the Roundup looking distressed, that they were to pick her up and bring her home. She wanted to know if there were extra bonus points available for any Ringers who took pity on her and did that.
Anyone who has ridden two up in a Roundup will understand how much it can test a relationship. Lyn the Pillion and Fatman were veterans in Roundup riding, and knew what the next 24 hours were going to bring. Gotta love that commitment.
So on to the actual Roundup itself. The Ringers had to be “standing beside their bikes at precisely 14:45 or receive a 30 minute start penalty. Beside your bike means exactly that. The bikes were all grouped pretty closely together and so the Ringers started wandering around talking with each other. It was a pretty close call for a couple of Ringers, who almost didn’t make it back beside their bikes by the designated time. Phew.
Lord Cuddles, who was our official starter, explained the starting procedure, which would begin at precisely 15:00.
Not 5 minutes after the explanation I was being asked by one Ringer was there any particular order that the Ringers needed to leave in. I practiced a stony “Lisa Landry” look, and said he had better go and speak with Lord Cuddles, who was much more obliging than I was in once again explaining the procedure.
15:00 rolled around, and the Ringers were off!
The first large point bonus was a timed bonus, on the main street of Taree - ABAC. It opened at 15:15 and closed at 15:45. There were clear instructions given at the training session on exactly what the Ringers had to do at that bonus. The bonus book said that they had to take a picture of the abacus, but an addition to that was that they also now needed to have a Manning Valley Sticker, which was handed to them at the training session, signed and time stamped by Drover, John Inkson, who would be waiting at the abacus for them.
In addition to that, the bonus had a second part.
The Ringers had to ride out to the Old Bar Tavern, (co-ordinates were given), find World Endurance Champion, Alex Cudlin, have a photograph taken with him, and get him to sign an Old Bar Tavern Coaster. Alex was meeting with some of his sponsors there, so the ringers also had to name one of Alex’s sponsors. For this extra effort the bonus points were doubled. But here’s the kicker. You only got the 3000 points now on offer if you completed both parts of the bonus. The abacus and the tavern. Only do one part and you scored no points at all. Zip.
Now also, not too far away from our Roundup start location, was another 800 point bonus which was available at all hours. It was a little bit tricky in that there were two plaques that needed to be found and located, but easy enough to find when you are fresh; maybe not so easy at the end of a Roundup, when you are fatigued and possibly running out of time.
The large point timed bonus was in a southerly direction from the start, meaning a right turn at the traffic lights. The other bonus was located in a northerly direction, meaning a left turn at the traffic lights.
It was interesting to watch what the ringers did when they took off from the start.
Every single ringer turned right – meaning that they were all heading to the first large point timed bonus, which was less than 5 minutes away. It also meant that they would all get there well before the bonus opened, and would all be milling around the bonus together, waiting for it to open and trying to get their shots.
Every single ringer that is, except one.
We watched as everyone peeled right, and then Crappy casually turned left. The Drovers that were standing there all smiled and said “That’s experience for you”.
Crappy headed up to the 800 point bonus and found the two plaques that he had to photograph. Let’s face it. He had 15 minutes before the first timed bonus even opened and had 30 minutes after that to get that bonus. Plenty of time.
So basically, 5 minutes from the start, and while everyone else was waiting for the timed bonus to open, Crappy was ahead of the field by 800 points.
Every other ringer headed to ABAC to get the photograph of the Abacus.
I have to admit that the timing of this bonus was a stroke of genius on the part of Enterprise, who suggested that having a 15 minute gap from the start of the Roundup to the opening of the bonus might separate the men from the boys as it were. He was going to do the honours at the bonus, allowing him to see firsthand what unfolded.
As suspected, most of the newbies and some of the more experienced Ringers jumped off their bikes and rushed over to the bonus in a state of high anxiety and adrenalin.
The Roundup had begun! This was it! Their very first bonus!
Ringers rushed up to Enterprise, wanting him to sign and time stamp their Manning Valley sticker.
It was 15:07.
The timed bonus was from 15:15 to 15:45.
You see the problem right?
Lyn the Pillion and Fatman arrived at around 15:05, along with most of the other riders, and in true competitor style, realising that the bonus didn’t open until 15:15, started to fuss around their bike, pushing buttons, checking on things, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, waiting for the time to tick away, while lots of their competitors rushed Enterprise for their sticker, not realising that they were about to blow 3000 points.
Kiwi Martin also arrived early to the bonus and stood back against a shop window right near the bonus, just watching the other Ringers get their photo and the “all important” time stamped sticker.
As the ringers asked Enterprise if he would please sign their sticker (they were all very courteous), he loudly announced, “I would be delighted to sign your sticker, if you really want me to. The time is 15:07. As the shark feeding frenzy of the first bonus began, Enterprise changed this to, “and the time is 15:07, 15:08, 15:09 …… you get the picture).
I got a Bahahaha text from Enterprise, because his little trap had caught some unsuspecting Ringers.
As I explained, there are no tricks in the Roundup, but some of the bonuses are tricky.
One astute rider, Simon, who had rushed in too early to grab his time stamp, was getting back on his bike and noticed other riders just standing around at the bonus, appearing to be waiting for something, so he decided to re-read his bonus booklet and realised his first mistake. He sheepishly made his way back to the bonus and had his sticker restamped at the correct time. Simon was smart. Be like Simon.
First lesson learned. Read your bonus booklet and make sure you have satisfied all the requirements of the bonus before you leave the location.
I’m not sure how many ringers were caught in Enterprise’s little ruse, or how many realised after they had left the location that they had royally stuffed up, and returned to have the time stamp redone, but there were a few ringers kicking themselves at the scoring table as they watched 3000 hard earned points just disappear into thin air. It hurts. It really does. It’s a hard learned lesson really.
To be continued
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