That put a thought into my head. If an event were organised by a company with limited liability, say Torino-Nice Rally Ltd, then that would be the entity liable if something went wrong, would it not? There'd be no further liability on the director/owner of that company, since that's what limited liability means, so beyond the assets owned by the company (effectively none) there'd be nothing for anyone to gain by suing it.
Correct, so they'd sue me instead. Anyone involved with the event could get sued to see where the liability ends up - clubs, affiliated groups etc, and an easy defense may be ''do one, we just added a logo to the site in return for giving away a bike" but in my case the emails I send may be fair evidence that I'm related to it : )
There's a duty of care in anything like this, what I'm not clear on is what that duty consists of in it's entirety but it seems common sense and a little thought covers most of it. Do I send people along a knife-edge ridge carrying a bike? No. Does the event put pressure on anyone to ride outside of thier normal comfort zone? Nope. Can you drive a car along the route to demonstrate that it's not technically demanding for cycling? Yes, more so if Italian and driving a Fiat Panda. Do we tell people clearly that it gets cold at 2000m and the weather might be bad? Duh .. yes.
Do we ride down anything called 'the death road'? Er .. let me call you back, something's come up.
If said company had appropriately wording articles of association, then maybe. Moreso if it was an organisation people (i.e. participants) could join. But there would be a named 'route planner' and 'event organiser' and (as happens in fell running) 'they' may look at what is considered best practice/national guidelines for similar events, or published by the relevant national body. At which point BC would say "they did WHAT!" or similar...
True. A club affiliated to CUK (ex CTC) would cover it if it applied with the above but mainly for UK (or UK-originating eg London-Paris) events. It may still be an option if they cover Italy and France. Even more so if part of the club regs are max 200 members per year for ex, gives a method of limiting numbers. Estimating drop-out rate is tricky tho and I don't want to charge a joining fee to test a rider's intent - though it could raise some useful funds it'll also add expectations.
I'm sure the likes of BC, CTC (or whatever they're now called) would probably not want bikepackers standing under their umbrella ... certainly not without us changing our mucky, depraved ways.
Nah, it's all touring innit?
; )
