numpties on the L2B

Harry B

Where do they all come from. We started out yesterday at 6.30 hoping to miss most of them but nope, they were still there crawling up the slightest incline and stopping in the middle on the road for no apparent reason.

Prior to yesterday I had a crash free record since going clipless but ended up in a hedge early on when someone in front stopped whilst we were going up a fairly small hill and then when we got to Ditchling Beacon I was out of the saddle carefully crawling up it when some complete tosser in front in the middle of the road decided to walk his bike to the right hand side of the road without looking behind him. Result, me in hedge again damage to right forearm and saddle twisted round. Oh sure he said sorry but why didn't he just look where he was going????

As I lay in the bath later picking gravel out of my arm I wondered why don't they allow road bikes only up until 7am and then any bike after that. I know this may be unfair to genuine MTB riders but all the twats I saw yesterday were on old MTB's which probably came out of the shed on Saturday for the first time in years. I saw some really shitty bikes which clearly hadn't had any maintenance done to them for years.

That moron I meet on Ditchling must have left bloody early to get there at the same time as us, either that or he started have way to Brighton :evil: :evil: :evil:

Yes I know that it's a fun ride and that you have to expect some idiots to be around but they should be given some instruction about how to ride. I'm sure that they don't drive their cars in the same way so why should they go brain dead as soon as they get on a bike??

PostieJohn

Top ranting, H.

I found it worse this year than last.
While waiting for Wifey, a group of 'terribly posh people' congragated next to me.

"Oh gosh, on one of the hills i fell off and took out the 3 bikes next too me. It was so funny, like, because I have no spatial awareness".

Some woman, on my outside, decided she was going to the rest stop, at the top of a hill.
She turned in, hitting my rear fork (explain that to me), anyway this set off a domino effect sending some other poor woman to the tarmac underneath the wheels of a big coloured guy from a cycling club.

Harry B

PostieJohn wrote:

Top ranting, H.

I found it worse this year than last.
While waiting for Wifey, a group of 'terribly posh people' congragated next to me.

"Oh gosh, on one of the hills i fell off and took out the 3 bikes next too me. It was so funny, like, because I have no spatial awareness".

Some woman, on my outside, decided she was going to the rest stop, at the top of a hill.
She turned in, hitting my rear fork (explain that to me), anyway this set off a domino effect sending some other poor woman to the tarmac underneath the wheels of a big coloured guy from a cycling club.

Definately seemed worse this year. Last year we started at around 8 and there seemed to be less morons. Starting earlier I expected it to be better but no is was worse :evil: And as I mentioned that fecking idiot on Ditchling must have left at about 4am to get there so early.

I'll do it again because its a good day out but next year I'm going for a 6am and try to get there ealry enough to be among the first couple of groups

overmars

I agree Harry. There must have been people who started around 4am.

Generally, with this event, I give myself plenty of space. I'll try to identify the good bike handlers (not that difficult). And rely on my trusty spider sense to warn me of danger! 8)

I'll do it next year too! See ya at 6am!

Jez mon

How about doing the capital to coast ride. Not sure if it's the same route, but it was plenty hilly and scenic, but vitally only had a few idiots.

I did it the first year i got into road riding and it was good fun. Though I wouldn't do it now as its a waste of a weekend if your a racer!

TBF though if your setting off at 6 you shouldn't encounter any mtbers by the time you get to dichling!!

Stewie Griffin

27000 people take part in the L2B :shock: . I guess it has more than its fair share of "oh I have a bike in the garage, lets do it" cyclists. Why do only 3000 people do the London to Southend ride? A few of us at work are contemplating doing that. Is it because Brighton is "nicer" than Southend?

I got a text yesterday afternoon from a friend in my office whose friends did L2B this weekend on a tandem in 7 hours. I like to think I would have been half way home again .

I asked why they were doing the L2B ride as opposed to any of the others, they have a friend in Brighton was her reply. Had they ridden a tandem before? No, they were a couple but broke up a few months ago and agreed to go as they had raised sponsorship from friends and it was for a good cause.

ricadus

Battle And Back audax? :twisted:

Richard_D

BE careful what you wish. I had a 6:00 start nearer 6:20 before I got through the start line but saw or heard of as many incidents caused by road bikes as I did by MTBs.

I saw great people and numbties of both Roadie and MTB persuasion

It is the rider not the bike that makes the numptie. Before the end I had overtaken people on TT and triathlon bikes and been overtaken by people on clapped out noisey MTBs.

One road racer cut inside a woman on an MTB going around a roundabout clipped her wheel sending her flying and then just cycled off. You at least got an apology. I lost as much time on the run to roadies cutting me up as I did to MTB slowing down in front of me.

Why L2B rather than L2S?
I can come up with a number of reasons
For most Britons which resort would you rather finish in Brighton or Southend?
Depending on how and where you routed the Southend run the Brighton run goes through more countryside than the Southend one.
It is the one most of the country have heard about.
I havent checked the route for the Southend run but it looks like a valley run with no significant bumps to climb. Ditchling is a major reason for doing the L2B even if you walk up it.

spen666

Richard_D wrote:

...Why L2B rather than L2S?
I can come up with a number of reasons
For most Britons which resort would you rather finish in Brighton or Southend?
Depending on how and where you routed the Southend run the Brighton run goes through more countryside than the Southend one.
....

Clearly you've not ridden the L2S ride

It couldn't be much more rural than it is

Stewie Griffin

Given that most on here who completed the L2B seem to complain that its more of a numpty parade than anything else (albeit for a very good cause). I also dont recall Brighton (nor Southend for that matter) being called a resort since Queen Victoria spent her Summers there, if I want to go anywhere due to it being a resort its going to involve an aeroplane, not my bike. No significant bumps to climb? Only 3000 people (less chance of having an off due to a numpty)?

Sounds like my cup of tea. I take it you have done it Spen666? We arent doing it for the challenge as such, its just that there are several of us in the office and we have not yet managed to organise any sort of ride together.

howiejmidlands

Dear Mr Harry B

You were lucky, becasue the numpty day out was worse with the 9am starts.

Totally agree it is all in a good cause, and my team of workmates had people who do not normally ride, but had done some training. And i would say the quality of bike handling skills on sportives is 8 or 9 out of 10 yesterday it was 3 to 4 out of 10. On the last big hill, i was also out of the saddle, and someone in front of me, pedalling like mad on a triple on a mountain bike, stopped dead, foot down, and i was into the back of them, clipped in nowhere to go. I was miffed.
There was also a bad crash near o the descent to the M25, a lady had a bad head injury, and it took ages to get around this. In all i was 9 hours in the saddle, and had only 5 hours of ride time, the rest was stops.
It took 1 hour to complete the 3 miles out of London!

One funny moment was on of of the descents where it was one way, us on the left, cars on the right, i had 2 police bikes alongside me as i was head down doing 50mph, they had a look at me, looked at their speedo, and looked back. Thumbs up and off they went!

Weather was fine but i think there is too many people, 27000 is too much.

spen666

Stewie Griffin wrote:

Given that most on here who completed the L2B seem to complain that its more of a numpty parade than anything else (albeit for a very good cause). I also dont recall Brighton (nor Southend for that matter) being called a resort since Queen Victoria spent her Summers there, if I want to go anywhere due to it being a resort its going to involve an aeroplane, not my bike. No significant bumps to climb? Only 3000 people (less chance of having an off due to a numpty)?

Sounds like my cup of tea. I take it you have done it Spen666? We arent doing it for the challenge as such, its just that there are several of us in the office and we have not yet managed to organise any sort of ride together.

Done it several times.times before and am doing it this year.

My son does it with me- he did it first when he was 11 ( sorry mr Organiser I said 14).

Biggest climbs are in 1st 10 miles, into chigwell from Woodford and then Grange hill to top of Hainault. After that its relatively easy- gently undulating rather than anything else

With 3000 doing it, its much more civilised than L2B sounds

AND you can get train back with your bike if you don't ride back

Harry B

howiejmidlands wrote:

Dear Mr Harry B

You were lucky, becasue the numpty day out was worse with the 9am starts.

Totally agree it is all in a good cause, and my team of workmates had people who do not normally ride, but had done some training. And i would say the quality of bike handling skills on sportives is 8 or 9 out of 10 yesterday it was 3 to 4 out of 10. On the last big hill, i was also out of the saddle, and someone in front of me, pedalling like mad on a triple on a mountain bike, stopped dead, foot down, and i was into the back of them, clipped in nowhere to go. I was miffed.
There was also a bad crash near o the descent to the M25, a lady had a bad head injury, and it took ages to get around this. In all i was 9 hours in the saddle, and had only 5 hours of ride time, the rest was stops.
It took 1 hour to complete the 3 miles out of London!

One funny moment was on of of the descents where it was one way, us on the left, cars on the right, i had 2 police bikes alongside me as i was head down doing 50mph, they had a look at me, looked at their speedo, and looked back. Thumbs up and off they went!

Weather was fine but i think there is too many people, 27000 is too much.

9 hours :shock: I know its for a good cause and millions is raised but that can't have been too much fun As for the 50mph was that coming down from the Beacon into Brighton? I saw an horrendous crash there last year so bottled it a bit this year and kept to just over 40mph

howiejmidlands

Harry the final drop into Brighton the police were slowing everyone down, becasue the speed camera was being set off so often. My quick drop was before not far from the bottom of the Ditching Beacon, it was head down and 50x13 spinning.

scott mcavennie

I wondered why don't they allow road bikes only up until 7am and then any bike after that

That is ridiculous. Have you seen the state of some of the road bikes that were doing it yesterday? The first crash I saw was caused by a road cyclist pushing and shouting his way through traffic while people were squeezing around walkers (yes walkers who were shockingly riding road and mountain bikes).

I would suggest that if you want to ride London to Brighton, you do it on a day when people in fancy dress and who are sponsored to ride it are not doing it - go and do it in your own time, then maybe you won't feel the need to come on here bleating on about how some poeple ruined your enjoyment of what is essentiallu a very easy ride.

It was the first time I had done it yesterday. I put slicks on my mountain bike, started at 6.30, tried to set a half decent time and managed not to get infuriated by people holding me up, because you know what? There were 27000 people doing it, some of whom were dressed as Bananman, and I didn't honestly expect it to be a road race.

But maybe I have a little common sense.

Harry B

scott mcavennie wrote:

I wondered why don't they allow road bikes only up until 7am and then any bike after that

That is ridiculous. Have you seen the state of some of the road bikes that were doing it yesterday? The first crash I saw was caused by a road cyclist pushing and shouting his way through traffic while people were squeezing around walkers (yes walkers who were shockingly riding road and mountain bikes).

I would suggest that if you want to ride London to Brighton, you do it on a day when people in fancy dress and who are sponsored to ride it are not doing it - go and do it in your own time, then maybe you won't feel the need to come on here bleating on about how some poeple ruined your enjoyment of what is essentiallu a very easy ride.

It was the first time I had done it yesterday. I put slicks on my mountain bike, started at 6.30, tried to set a half decent time and managed not to get infuriated by people holding me up, because you know what? There were 27000 people doing it, some of whom were dressed as Bananman, and I didn't honestly expect it to be a road race.

But maybe I have a little common sense.

Calm down dear

I was also sponsored yesterday as I was last year. I like to L2B, it's what got me into cycling in the first place and last year I was also on a MTB. But I'd done a bit of training beforehand and gotten my bike checked over at the LBS. I also don't expect it to be a road race.

That said I saw some MTB's yesterday that were verging on dangerous due to a complete lack of any maintenance and whilst I agree that there are also some numpties on road bikes I would hazard a guess that the percentage was tiny compared with the overall numpty count.

I've no complaint about having to wait for people who are clearly going to need time to get down there. What I do complain about is people with an absolute absence of any road sense and awareness that there are 26,999 other riders on the route and who cause others, including me, to end up on the deck battered and bruised.

scott mcavennie

I'm totally calm, thanks dear.

I'm not the one storming onto the internet demanding that the bike ride is shut to non road bikes before 7am while littering my post with this: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I saw plenty of road bikes in the same condition as you have described.

Rather than discriminating people because of their choice of bike, would it not be better if a question was asked on the form regarding how people see the event for them?

A) A fun day out with friends and a bit of a challenge

A time trial.

Those answering B could go before say 8.30 and the others could leave afterwards.

Then, if you saw poeple not taking it seriously enough and riding prior to 8.30, you could take their number and report it to the marshalls who would then eject them?

Could be a nice compromise.

Richard_D

And similarly you should be able to eject late starts that are acting recklessly to get a good time. I saw several boy racers ignoring police and marshall calls to move over , slow down etc.

Considering the Log Jam at both ends and along the route maybe something needs to be done about the organisation of event. An elite start with an elevated fee and or invitation only. A timed slot that was a timed slot 06:00 meant 06:00 not 6:20 as it was for me. The organisers should look at how the London Marathon, Great North Run etc. sort out these sort of issues. I know it is not like for like but...

I thoroughly enjoyed the run and met lots of people of like mind. I did not like Harry's taring of MTB despite the fact I was not riding an MTB. As I found the inconsideration of riders spread across all types of bike about equal.

PostieJohn

Alas anything that's done, will start to move the ride from 'ride' to 'event', and it plainly isn't an event.

For the record though I do feel a lot of accidents, (I believe just short of 400) are caused by 'ferrari's racing learners', bit of a conudrum really.

Harry B

How about if the racers start from Brighton and the rest start from London :shock: :?

spen666

PostieJohn wrote:

Alas anything that's done, will start to move the event from 'ride' to 'event', and it plainly isn't an event.

....

:?: :?: :?: :?: :?:

Clever Pun

if you started at 6.30 you should have passed all thenumpties by the time you got to ditchling no?

I started at 8 and was passing quite a few 6ams by that time obviously they were super slow

Harry B

We actuallu got to leave at around 6.50 and yes we passed plenty of 6am starters including lots of numpties but despite not stopping at all there was still a few numpties around and that f*&%@ who took me out on the beacon. I think that some of them must start part way along the course cos there was no way he could have left at 6 and got to the beacon at the same time as us

flattythehurdler

I got beaten in the London marathon by someone dressed as a banana. I won't have banana man slagged off on here. He is a quality athlete who should be representing the country at the world fancy dress games. He must be training for an ironman.

Clever Pun

howiejmidlands wrote:

Harry the final drop into Brighton the police were slowing everyone down, becasue the speed camera was being set off so often. My quick drop was before not far from the bottom of the Ditching Beacon, it was head down and 50x13 spinning.

there had also been an accident, when I went past there was was someone strapped on to a board being loaded into an ambulance

as we were starting the descent into brighton we passed a rollerblader and I thought how'd they get down the hill safely then as I was freewheeling at 40 he came hurtling past me crouched right down... very impressive

it was an enjoyable ride as everyone just seemed so happy and it rubbed off

Anyone else see the ridiculous chopper?

il_principe

This is exactly why I will never do the L2B again. Face it, it is a ride that should be left to casual cyclists/newbies etc etc. There are so many people doing it with no road sense and shoddy ill maintained bikes that it is always going to be a nightmare for the keen roadie/MTBer. I did it last year and there were plenty of people on spanking new roadies with flat pedals and no clue. I'm not gonna have a crack at them, pleased to see people giving it a go. May I suggest that if you are a keen cyclist and want to take part on a mass participation ride that weekend - give the Dragon Ride a go, far more challenging and rewarding and barely a numpty in sight. Best of all most people taking part have great road sense and I saw just one person walking up a hill. Leave the L2B for the numpties and do something a bit tougher. Or just do the L2B another weekend, I did it with 2 friends about a month ago, we did L2B and back, very little traffic on the whole and it makes for a good training ride.

schlepcycling

Apologies if this sounds like a stupid question but is the start not staggered by ability?.

I've never done L2B but I have done the Cape Argus in South Africa which has approx 30,000 people of all abilities and each year you are given a start group based on your previous year's results. This results in riders of similar ability setting off at the same time and in the main works very well. If a similar system where used for L2B then all the racers would be in early groups and all the newbies and families would be in later groups which would hopefully lessen the problems with much faster riders having to negotiate their way through slower groups.

toby_g

The start is not staggered by ability

Me and my friend, who are both competent, went with a group from work so set off in the 09:30 group. Big mistake, the first 2 hours we averaged 4 miles an hour, walking with bike for much of the hills even if they were only ~400 metres long or so. Very tedious.

Next year we will seperate the group into 2, one fast group and one casual group. I hope getting into the 06:00 start time will help make the ride smoother.

They should make it ability based. Put your intended time for the route on the form, and you get grouped accordingly.

RussAlf

I was riding the whole of the South Downs Way this weekend and went through the road at ditchling beacon around mid day, ive never seen so many "cyclists" pushing up a "hill". I dont see how the proper cyclists that were stuck in there could have even ridin up there. It was a nightmare to cross the road. I would have hated to have been riding in that, i think it really is a case of letting the average joe have a bit of fun and leave the proper cycling to proper events.

Harry B

I agree, I think the application form should ask questions about how long you cycle, do you enter road races, etc. Okay you'll get some who lie but hopefull not too many and the others could be graded according to experience.

Don't get me wrong I don't want to stop and fun cyclists. I think it's a great event for cycling generally and as I said earlier it was doing the L2B last year that got me into cycling. We just need to make it safer. I understand that the BHF are going to release accident statistics shortly. That should make some interesting reading but of course it won't capture all the minor accidents (like mine ) that happened along the way.

PostieJohn

I'm enjoying reading your come down from your initial rant, but I think your flogging a dead horse.
(I shall now try and clarify my post that Spen666 rightly pointed out doesn't make any sense)

It's NOT a cycling event, it's a charity fun ride.

The fact that people like us choose to use the excellent facilities to push ourselves towards targets, is our look out, not the funsters attempting to kill themselves and anyone else in their path, it's their event.

My enjoyment, last year, lead me to The Southern Sportive in Sept, and I only did this years L2B because Wifey enjoys it.

Although after this year I did vow never to return.