Emails received around 5/29 regarding the 2003 Death Ride registration process

You should include writers' names in your Death Ride (and other, if any)
e-mail comment distributions for the same reasons that newspapers
uniformly require (and publish) names on "Letters to the Editor" -- it
helps prevent fraudulent and libelous letters, and helps ensure
accountability. As it is, your readers/recipients have no way of knowing
if the comments are genuine or represent actual perceived reality (as
opposed to someone who "just doesn't get it" or who is just trying to
create problems and controversy). Being familiar with the Death Ride and
this year's registration process, I can tell you that virtually all of
the negative comments you published represent gross distortions or
misunderstandings of the actual registration process and rules (and the
reasoning behind them).

CN

The DR people may be interested in contacting the people from Ride the Rockies (www.ridetherockies.com). While it is a ride that is very difficult to get into due to high demand, there is little complaint about the system being unfair. Ride the Rockies uses a group lottery system. There are 2500 slots. You enter as a group. If your group contains say, 9 people, and you get picked, you get 9 slots. They continue to pick entries until 2500 slots are filled. In this manner, either your whole group gets in, or none of you get in. Very elegant.   John

Other commitments forced me to drop doing the ride this year and they gave me a refund without any trouble at all - said they'd give my slot to the next rider on the waiting list. I think they're doing the fairest thing possible - giving no-show slots to people on a waiting list. If the no-shows were permitted to designate who gets their slot, it'd be unfair to those on the waiting list.

My wife and I signed up for the deathride and were both initially
rejected. I then received an e-mail on 4/29 with a spot available. There
was no way to tell wether the spot was for me or my wife (Both of out
entries were submitted under the same e-mail address). On 5/3,I
responded that I would like the position. They responded and said they
would have active.com bill my credit card and I would receive final
confirmation in a week or two. After not recievng any confirmation or
charge to my credit card, I called Jim D. @ deathride on 5/24/03. He
said they were still waiting ion active.com but assured me I had the
spot. I asked him to make sure the spot was for me and not my wife since
the e-mail offering me the position only indicated my e-mail address and
not my name. He looked it up and said that it was for me and that Paula
would not be contacted as she was #792 on the waiting list. Today is
5/29/03 and I have yet to ecieve a confirmation or a charge to my credit
card.

The lottery process seemed a little sketchy from the get-go to me. We
received one rejection e-mail for both of our entries. I would have
thought with 2 entries that we would receive two rejection e-mails. As
far as I know, entries can not be exchanged which means Paula will not
be able to participate unless she shows up early and gets on the
stand-by list for no-shows.

After finally being accepted in the first withdraw I found out that I had a schedule conflict and would not be able to ride this year. I ended up exchanging e-mails with Jim DeGraffenreid [info@deathride.com]. I was requesting to transfer my eligibility to a friend of mine but I was told that it was against the rules just like it states on the web site.

I think they were feeling bad about the mixup early on and gave me a complete refund, no processing charge. I did spend a considerable amount of time trying to register during the original registration. It was quite frustrating. Particularly when you have a full-time job and you have to take time away from your work in the middle of the day to register.

Anyway, at least in my case, they stuck with the rules.

I have heard there absolutely will be no exchanges for the 2003 Death Ride. The most one can hope for is to show up in the morning and claim one of the "no shows". Typically this has been about 5%, however, with the new exchange rule in place the percentage may be higher this year.

I am so disappointed with the entry process that I really have no
burning desire to go anymore. I could easily take my chances for a
spot the day of the ride, but forgetaboutit.

However, the Death Ride folks are giving me/Lance Armstrong Foundation free
exhibit space. I'll be raising awareness about cancer and collecting cell
phones for recycling as explained in the paragraph below. Might I prevail
upon you to include the paragraph in one of your broadcast emails about the
Ride? It's a special way for people to connect with Lance during the Tour,
and it's for a very good cause.

PS: I really appreciate the service you provide vis-a-vis the Death Ride and
all the ride info posted on your website. Thanks so much.

Bring your used cell phone to the Death Ride!
Death Ride participant, Cheryl Longinotti, completed four passes in 2002 to
raise funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and its mission to improve
the world for those facing cancer. This year she will be among the Expo
exhibitors collecting used cell phones before and during the Ride. Phones
will be repaired or refurbished, then recycled for reuse in an emerging
economy. A portion of the proceeds go directly to the Lance Armstrong
Foundation and phones and their toxic contents are kept out of landfills.
Visit www.fundraisingwithlance.org and bring your used phones to the Death
Ride!

however, i must mention, i rode the davis double and ran into two guys who
got into the death ride and weren't going to ride it. they offered their passes
to my husband and i, but there was a catch...one, i would have to pay them 90
dollars for the entry fee, plus, they did say there was a 30 dollar transfer
fee (?), but then, what really irked me, was that they said we would need to
take their hotel room. it turns out that some of the smaller inns and hotels in
and around markleeville offered a year ago that if people made reservations,
they would make sure they would get in the following year. this sucks!!! i
declined their offer as i had made reservations at kirkwood, did the lottery
process and did not get in.

my thinking is this, NO LONGER SUPPORT THE DEATH RIDE!!! it's not worth it.
it's simply not fair and the expense to ride it is quite high. it used to cost
45-50 dollars to ride. now it's 90-100 plus depending on merchandise you want
to buy. i think it's a racket.

my husband and i went up to markleeville this past weekend to train for the
eastern sierra double. we rode four passes self-supported. we called it our own
little death ride. we would have done all five but started too late in the
morning. we have done the death ride twice to completion and are now happy NOT
to support it any longer. it's easy to do on your own and it's free. you can
always purchase a jersey if you want off the death ride website. the more people
who don't support the death ride, perhaps they will not get the numbers they
are looking for down the road.

hope this helps. i would call the alpine chamber of commerce to actually find
out if there is such a thing as a "transfer" this year.

good luck.

Do I know of exceptions? You bet! The attached emails from the HP
DeathRide mailing list show that as long as you work for HP, you can
bypass the lottery and still be assured of entry, and they've even made
up their own transfer program with ACCC support. If you dig a little
deeper, you'll find that HP isn't being treated as a sponsor. They mark
"other" on their secret ACCC registration request forms. They got
guaranteed entry for everyone who wanted it, and entered the lottery
too!

I suppose a lot of these people are your customers, but it should still
make you sick. Did you notice that there are only 1500 people on the
official waiting list? It looks to me like entries were way down for the
second round. I think that there were hundreds or thousands of multiple
entries last year, and the new no-transfer policy has eliminated them.
Where I work, 4 out of 4 entrants got in.

You may be interested to know that there is also a secret procedure for
tandem entries (a call to the Alpine County Chamber of Commerce should
reveal details), and at least circumstantial evidence that anyone who
scores a hotel room in Alpine County is still guaranteed entry.

Entering Arnie Baker's Near Death Experience training camp also gets you
guaranteed registration through AACC.

[Note from Mike at Chain Reaction- I didn't include his attachments here, since they were possibly private internal emails from people at either the DeathRide or HP]