But - question for riders:
On Saturday practice. when you first arrived at the top, typically how many people were waiting to go (or any)?
Was anyone holding riders back, enforcing gaps, or were they just checking your plate and letting you launch?
What do you figure was the average gap between starts?
For Sunday practice, again: when first arriving at the top, what was the lineup like (we didn't have the cube van, so I'm curious the difference it made at the top)
In a perfect world, there should always have been at least a small lineup, meaning we're feeding people up the hill fast enough.
And for the race, I tried to get you up the hill so that the first rider off the bus had between 15-22 minutes delay, with the last rider from that bus about a max of 40 minutes. (exceptions apply of course, for riders that missed their bus, or jump on early). Is that timing about what you experinced? (bigger delay for the pros, because of the larger gap, so them, I'm not concerned about.)
Last question: did a lot of people hike up JR?
When a shuttle dropped off, there would generally be a short line of riders waiting to drop in. Once that group of riders entered the trail, there was no one waiting up top until the next shuttle arrived. We dropped in at the back of the group a couple of times on Saturday, stopped to session some sections, and had the trail to ourselves for a good 20 minutes or so.
The shuttle situation was a big improvement over last year, but could still stand to be improved further. You had two bus/trailer setups, with one setup paired with a shortbus and cube van. If you paired the other bus/trailer with a shortbus and cubevan you'd be good for the number of riders you had over the weekend. We arrived about 9am Saturday and rode until the last shuttle and got 5 laps. I wouldn't have wanted any more, but it would have been nice to have had the time to fix flats/mechanicals etc and not have had to leave friends "saving places" in line.
Hopefully the above is taken for the constructive comment it's intended. I think you guys did a fantastic job this weekend and, as always at this event, there was a great atmosphere throughout. Thanks.
PS: I don't know if other races do this, but being able to leave warm clothing with the crew at the top to be bought down after racing finished was awesome. Everyone should do this in future!