They had 4000 competitors and it took 2hours to get started?
So - about 10x the number of riders of the 2009 LEL; where it took a similar amount of time to register, AFAIA.
I'm pretty sure riders complained about that (maybe not 4000, admittedly).
I'm always up for a bit of sportive-bashing, but to be fair:
LEL09:
- registration disaster as Chris mentions,
- start times not policed, so some riders 'gained' 40 minutes or more (but technically no q-jumping, cos AUKs are never rude!)
PBP:
- 20minute queues for food at some controls
- massive q-jumping at the start, which annoyed people who arrived 2hrs before start [not me, I arrived an hour after the start]
So I suspect all big events are prone to problems. Although some of the issues under discussion are brought on themselves by
sportifs (or is that
sportivists ?)