rastarALT

@LDG: Taping is hard work and takes a long time, days usually. I am also not a pro racer so we don't catch all the of cheater lines during initial taping. It's usually racers themselves who will bring potential cheater lines to our attention and we go out and put up some additional tape. I do think changing the course in a big way, like what happened with MVDP in the Olympics, could be dangerous. He also, as I understand, missed the rider briefing after practice where they went over the change. Kind of similar to Richie missing the gate/flag clarification. With that said taping corners a little longer and closing cheater lines that have been burned in DURING PRACTICE seems pretty reasonable to me. Racers should expect the course to change during practice, between getting hammered by hundreds of riders, weather conditions and the nature of what I am talking about. Insanity? I'm not so sure. This is what I am getting at with my racing culture point. We tape the course and the obvious cheater lines but it's impossible to get all of them when all 400 racers are trying to cut at every opportunity. Bigger steps can be made to change "The Spirit of Enduro" to keep people on the trail. It could also mean less dumpsters full of used course tape at the end of each race, a sight that always disappoints after a weekend of racing.

@justgoride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w0iTNOZHRw&ab_channel=UncleMuffin%262Nephews

Is it really that hard to stay on the course? The organizers clarified the flag/tape issue that morning, so either Richie wasn't paying attention or he deliberately cut the course. I think Enduro has a racing culture problem with cheater lines, frenchie lines, course cutting or whatever you want to call it. Every race I've worked is like a battle of "catching" cheater lines through practice so they're taped for race day. I'd like to see a push from race organizers and racers, amateur and pro, to change the culture so people just stay on the course.

Watch the women first