Sportive etiquette (well sort of)?

redddraggon

I spend most of my time (when not commuting) on my bike on the Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge route and surrounding areas - I've not entered the actual sportive as I don't know what I'm doing that weekend, but there's a good chance nothing is happening and I'll end up on the bike.

Will all the foreigners look down at me/look at me funny because I haven't entered and I'm on "their" course? I wouldn't be doing the exact same route, but some of the lanes/roads are common to my loops and the sportives.

Brian B

I am in the challenge and will give you a wave if I see you Red. I see lots of other cyclists when doing sportives and they dont seem to mind and I dont look down to them.

skavanagh.bikeradar

If you eat cake at the food stops there might be a riot. Otherwise nobody will bat an eyelid.

andy_wrx

I blundered onto the route of the Spud Riley in the Peak District last year.

Going past Lamaload Reservoir it's very narrow and there was a car grinding along behind me that I tried two or three times to wave past but he wouldn't go.
Eventually he pulled alongside and it turned-out to be one of the organisers, encouraging me through the passenger window that I was nearly home and and only a couple more climbs to go.
I thought it too complicated to explain I wasn't doing his ride so just grinned at him.

Then down to Bollington it's very steep and I went blasting down, passed a couple of riders who perhaps didn't know the road and were being a bit more sensible, then realised I was going straight on but the route turned-off halfway down the hill.
Lots of shoults behind me as I passed the turn, but when I dared look round at the bottom fortunately no-one had followed me, or they'd have has a steep ride back up !

kenbaxter

Don't see a problem with straying on to a route but there are some who join in at the start, ride the route, eat the cakes and are too stingy to pay. At Abergavenny last year one of the "won't be named" high placed riders basically had a fellow club member to draft for most of the course. You can see it on the videos! Basically don;t see the point in that one!

I'm not sure if the entry fee covers indemnity insurance but if it does hen these guys are putting the race and ones like it at risk if they cause an accident and don't have cover.

shockedsoshocked

andy_wrx wrote:

I blundered onto the route of the Spud Riley in the Peak District last year.

Going past Lamaload Reservoir it's very narrow and there was a car grinding along behind me that I tried two or three times to wave past but he wouldn't go.
Eventually he pulled alongside and it turned-out to be one of the organisers, encouraging me through the passenger window that I was nearly home and and only a couple more climbs to go.
I thought it too complicated to explain I wasn't doing his ride so just grinned at him.

Then down to Bollington it's very steep and I went blasting down, passed a couple of riders who perhaps didn't know the road and were being a bit more sensible, then realised I was going straight on but the route turned-off halfway down the hill.
Lots of shoults behind me as I passed the turn, but when I dared look round at the bottom fortunately no-one had followed me, or they'd have has a steep ride back up !

I keep joining local road races by accident when i'm out training. Although I haven't actually encountered the peleton yet, when I go past the Marshalls theres usually lots of excitement and hand waving and more often than not a photo taken. They must be thinking "christ, this lads flying"

redddraggon

Well I don't do the exact route of the DLMC, and wouldn't intend doing so on the day without actually entering. I'm not a cheeky git, so wouldn't go anywhere near the foodstops.

If it's raining on the day I'll probably give going out a miss, still got another 6 days left in the week to go out on and leave the roads to the visitors.

dennisn

redddraggon wrote:

I spend most of my time (when not commuting) on my bike on the Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge route and surrounding areas - I've not entered the actual sportive as I don't know what I'm doing that weekend, but there's a good chance nothing is happening and I'll end up on the bike.

Will all the foreigners look down at me/look at me funny because I haven't entered and I'm on "their" course? I wouldn't be doing the exact same route, but some of the lanes/roads are common to my loops and the sportives.

Can't you enter on the day of the ride if you want to??? In any case the roads are public
and you out riding shouldn't present any problem. Here in the states we do pretty much the same thing and you can always find a, so called, "supported ride(tour)" happening in the area on any given weekend if you want to. Usually, if you pay the entry fee, you will be given a number or a wrist band and this allows you access to the food stops. No band, no food. It's usually for charity and people trying to "bandit" the food are pretty
much not tolerated.

Dennis Noward

oldwelshman

Due to work comitments I have only entered a couple of rides, but may go to a couple on the day. I do not mind paying on the day if possible but if I cannot then I will still ride route but not worry about the time or placing and would certainly not use the feed stations.
At the end of the day they are public roads so you have every right to ride on them at any time, even if a road race is going on. It is pretty much the same as joining a club run when on route.
Just need to have a bit of common sense really.

Tom Butcher

I was out riding last year and a couple of blokes tried to wave me onto the slip road for the A38 - I swerved round them - turned out they were marshalling a time trial.

redddraggon

dennisn wrote:

Can't you enter on the day of the ride if you want to???

Unfortunately I don't really live close enough to the start to make it worth entering (I don't have a car) - by the time I factor the journey there and back by bike it'll be probably be too much of a challenge then.

Anonymous

Yeah, If anyone decided to do a particular event on the day and just started with the rest but never payed entry and kept away from the feedstations etc you would think 'no problem'....'public roads'..thats fair enough, no one can legally stop you...but to me its just a bit selfish, if you fancied the route then why not just enter?, and if you want to do the route then why not on another day?, the organisers have a sh*t lot of rules and regulations to adhere to with the local authorities and if 'many' just decided to turn up and ride the route then instead of having say 1000 riders we may end up having 1400?..this amount of riders clogging up the roads could jeapordise future editions of the event. To me it just shows a bit class and understanding keeping away from a event.

Nowt to do with the original question...the fella whos locals roads are part of the DLMC has nowt to bother about...really nice of him to ask on the forum though, thats what I mean - a bit class If he wanders onto parts of the route then so be it...its his local roads and hes not in anyway trying to do the entire route....

ColinJ

dennisn wrote:

Can't you enter on the day of the ride if you want to??? In any case the roads are public and you out riding shouldn't present any problem. Here in the states we do pretty much the same thing and you can always find a, so called, "supported ride(tour)" happening in the area on any given weekend if you want to. Usually, if you pay the entry fee, you will be given a number or a wrist band and this allows you access to the food stops. No band, no food. It's usually for charity and people trying to "bandit" the food are pretty much not tolerated.

The problem is the nature of the roads Dennis. In the USA most of your roads are probably much wider and the gradients more 'sensible'. Have a look at the VisitCumbria Hardknott Pass web page and imagine several thousand cyclists competing with Sunday tourist traffic on those hills - it would produce chaos. For that reason, official numbers are strictly controlled. Obviously - those are public roads so unofficial riders can't be prevented from just turning up, but the future of the event would be threatened if too many people did that.