£73 to do the Tour of Wessex - why?

kenbaxter

Monty Dog wrote:

I see what's happening with Sportives as with Triathlon about 15 years ago - a whole lot of people piled-in to try and make some money but found that it takes a lot of effort, little reward and that price is no indication of quality. If triathlon's a predictor of the future, where a 1-hour race event can cost as much as £40-50, then it doesn't look too good for events with small fields making entries increasingly expensive. Sadly, what you can't change for a UK event is the attitude of some car drivers on the course and the unpredictable weather.

Agree with Monty Dog on this and I seriously hope it doesn't got the same way. Best triathlon I did was in in Cleveland - prop you bike in the hedge, no fancy goody bags, no daft announcers and no one making a pot of money on it. Frankly all the commercialism of triathlon killed my interest in it, not to mention my bank account.towards 100 quid not uncommon now.

As such 75 quid for an organised 3 day event is still good value - 25 quid for each sportive. Biut if any organisers reading this we (I) don;t want loads of crap for my money, just a good course, couple of bananas and that'll do nicely.

vermooten

Yes indeed. Food ran out in last year's ToW which is pretty unforgivable given the cost to the entrants.

Another point againt the ToW is that the organisers hate the riders. They see us a £ signs on two wheels. Probably explains why then don't reply to emails.

firsthippy

I've noticed a lack of response from emails. I asked about accommodation - which is on the scarce and expensive side and still not reply. Are they more concerned with the pro riders or the festival aspect or what?

On that, anyone know of any CHEAP places to stay, other than in a tent? £10 per person, per night is daft for a campsite too! :S

rusty nuts

This guy seems to be taking on an awful lot to organise so no wonder he doesn't have time to respond to your e-mails.

Tour of Wessex Road Race
Tour of Wessex Sportive
Wessex MTB Enduro
Wessex Cycle Festival
Tour of Exmoor
Tour of the Black Mountains
Tour of Dartmoor

Ambition or greed?

firsthippy

One guy is organising it all? Isn't delegation is the sign of good manglement?

Pendragon

Hi Vermooten

I just wanted to confirm with you that we respond to all emails, however we have had some issues with spam filters at our end not sending out emails by return, perhaps you could email me direct and I will then forward your request to the appropriate person in our organisation to deal with it. nicholas.bourne@pendragon-sports.com

Secondly, I think you must have mistaken the Tour of Wessex with another event you took part in, we certainly did not run out of food at any point in 2007 or 2008, if you had seen the amount left over at the end of 2008 you would know this to be the case.

Thirdly I am a rider myself and do as many sportive events as I can, so we always try to provide the best for those of you that are kind enough to support our events.....we certainly do not hate riders, we try to encourage more particiaption not only in our events but in others as well.

I would also like to add that given the cost of transponder timing systems, medals, certificates, sports drinks, the variety of food on offer at feed stations, sweep vehicles, red cross medical treatment, vehicle hire, National Escort Group Moto Support, venue hire, free on road tubes and tyres etc that £73 for three stages or £26 for a single stage is not excesssive. I would challenge you to organise one yourself and truly look at the costs. I beleive the majority of organisers do the utmost to give everybody the best ride they can for the lowest price possible.

For those of you that are looking for accomodation we have appointed an accomodation manager Incentevents to make it easier for you to find the correct accomodation for your budget. Details are on our website or go to http://www.incentevents.co.uk/event&eventID=28 please contact them and they have a list of all the B&B self catering etc, they will also be on hand at the event HQ to help on the day of the event. alternatively you can use www.visitsouthsomerset.com/index.jsp?articleid=10397 if you want to organise it yourself.

You will no doubt also have noticed that we organise a number of other events; each one has its own character and style. While we envisage the Tour of Wessex will continue to grow into a large European style event we will keep the other events more purist in regard to the British Style. Less of of the frills just good hard riding.

If you are taking part and you have any suggestions that you would like to see implemented at the Tour of Wessex please let us know and we will see what we can do.

topcattim

Pendragon wrote:

Hi Vermooten

I just wanted to confirm with you that we respond to all emails, however we have had some issues with spam filters at our end not sending out emails by return, perhaps you could email me direct and I will then forward your request to the appropriate person in our organisation to deal with it. nicholas.bourne@pendragon-sports.com.

I too had emailed the organisers and received no reply. I'm glad to have this email address and will try it instead!

firsthippy

I was wrong. I emailed incentevents and didn't receive a response, not Pendragon!
Sorry for the confusion.

Could you please sort out your form links on the accomodation page?! I
I have found accom. myself now but it was the broken links here that caused me to email in the first place:
http://www.tourofwessex.com/sportiveacc ... dfood.html
(click the PDF icons)

hippy

topcattim

topcattim wrote:

Pendragon wrote:

Hi Vermooten

I just wanted to confirm with you that we respond to all emails, however we have had some issues with spam filters at our end not sending out emails by return, perhaps you could email me direct and I will then forward your request to the appropriate person in our organisation to deal with it. nicholas.bourne@pendragon-sports.com.

I too had emailed the organisers and received no reply. I'm glad to have this email address and will try it instead!

and I've now had a reply from them. To give them their due, they do appear to have replied on the same day that I sent my original message (28 Dec) but apparently their software was giving them jip and the email never arrived at this end.

Special K

where is Wessex ?




Not a real county. Imagine if the French and Belgians laced their events with olde worlde romantic names just to confuse us. If they did I might think they were being a little silly.

Pendragon

Wessex was one of the 7 Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that preceded the Kingdom of England. It was named after the West Saxons and was situated in the south and southwest of England. It existed as a kingdom from the 6th century until the emergence of the English state in the 9th century, and as an earldom between 1016 and 1066. "Wessex" has not had any official existence since that time, but it has remained a familiar term since Thomas Hardy revived it for his West Country novels and poetry. The earldom was revived in 1999 for His Royal Highness The Prince Edward.

I think Tour of Wessex just sounds better than Tour of Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset and Devon

bahzob

Special K wrote:

where is Wessex ?


Not a real county. Imagine if the French and Belgians laced their events with olde worlde romantic names just to confuse us. If they did I might think they were being a little silly.

Er, isnt one of the most famous sportives named after a rodent? Received some quizzical looks from some French (non cycling) friends when told them I was doing the marmotte, they wernt sure if it was a new dance craze or I was contemplating acts of bestiality

andy_wrx

I guess your friends know you best !

ricadus

clanton

bahzob wrote:

Special K wrote:

where is Wessex ?


Not a real county. Imagine if the French and Belgians laced their events with olde worlde romantic names just to confuse us. If they did I might think they were being a little silly.

Er, isnt one of the most famous sportives named after a rodent? Received some quizzical looks from some French (non cycling) friends when told them I was doing the marmotte, they wernt sure if it was a new dance craze or I was contemplating acts of bestiality

Lol - I've recently been given a stuffed Marmotte by a friend who was skiing in France.
Quite keen to cable tie it to my bike for the event!

robbarker

As an aside, the ride I'm most loking forward to this year is the Bryan Chapman Memorial Audax - Chepstow to Anglesey and back. It costs the princely sum of £12.50, which includes overnight (if you're very quick, 4 hours for most of us!) accomodation in a Youth Hostel.

As is the case on most audax rides, the beard count will be very low and probably zero.

vermooten

I'll be doing the Bryan Chapman next year - and it's scenic or bust.

Ken Night

Don't do the Scenic

By the time you've entered the umpteenth pretty Welsh market town, you'll realise there is beauty spot at the top of the local hill and you're going there.

Meanwhile the BC memorial route takes in the best of these, skirting all the rest.

As a result, you'll hate yourself (and the Memorial riders)

BTW, you don't have to do a SR Series to qualify for LEL, AFAIK