Michelle Kerr said she had to wait for more than an hour at a road closure at Trunkey Road when was returning home from picking grapes with her husband at Three Views Vineyard and Winery. 

The couple left the vineyard shortly after 12.30pm, however, they did not reach their Freemantle Road home until after 3pm. 

“Usually we would have the two kids in the car, thank God we didn’t bring them with us, it would have been a nightmare,” Mrs Kerr said.

Before they left the vineyard, manager Ruth Anderson contacted the B2B committee to inquire about the road closures. 

The group was told they would be able to take a detour around the Trunkey Road closure after 12.30pm, but when they arrived they were informed they could not get through until 1.30pm. 

Mrs Kerr noted the line of waiting cars continued to grow until the road opened around 1.50pm.

“It was a bit funny, people were taking photos to send to people, because they couldn’t believe they were stuck in the middle of nowhere.”

She said when the road opened the cars had to follow the bikes back to Bathurst at a rather slow pace and join in with traffic waiting at road closures in Perthville. 

Mrs Kerr said while they could have made their way to Blayney and then back to Bathurst on the highway, it would probably have taken just as long. 

She said the confusion and delays did not help boost community enthusiasm for the cycling event and questioned whether the road closures could have been managed better. 

She suggested the use of a safety vehicle, so that cars could drive through the closures at a slow pace when there were no cyclists around. 

“There were times when we didn’t see a cyclist for 20 minutes,” she said. 

B2B committee member Rob Barlow said the 10 road closures were generally well received by the public and noted he had received very few complaints on the day.