SCR - R?

gtvlusso

Hi All,

Has anyone actually thought about starting an actual commuting race?! A race for people who only commute (no part time mile eaters or racers/tt/tri bods). Just full on commuters in their kit over a predetermined course?

Overall winner + a "heavy weight" catagory for the pannier kids - panniers filled!

Best MTB, Best 700c blah blah!

Thoughts?!

Bristol would be a good start, as it is allegedly the premier cycling city in the UK. Routes would be interesting too - historic and with some towpath/docks/countryside bits - bit of hillage and so on.

If there is a need for this, I may go down the route of organising this via Sustrans, Critical Mass or some such organisation....

Or am I just jacking off?!? :shock:

prj45

gtvlusso wrote:

Bristol

What zone's that in, is that one of those funny ones that stick out the side of another zone, like zone 6a of the metropolitan line?

Anyway, if it's outside of zone 4 I'm not interested.

gtvlusso

You can take the bike out of London, but you cannot take London out of the bike....

Jen J

gtvlusso wrote:

Hi All,

Has anyone actually thought about starting an actual commuting race?! A race for people who only commute (no part time mile eaters or racers/tt/tri bods). Just full on commuters in their kit over a predetermined course?

But won't most commuters (certainly all the ones on here) ride for leisure as well as commuting? Eg - all the RP rides at weekends?

There are alreday Brompton Races, including a world cup.

gtvlusso

Jen J wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

Hi All,

Has anyone actually thought about starting an actual commuting race?! A race for people who only commute (no part time mile eaters or racers/tt/tri bods). Just full on commuters in their kit over a predetermined course?

But won't most commuters (certainly all the ones on here) ride for leisure as well as commuting? Eg - all the RP rides at weekends?

There are alreday Brompton Races, including a world cup.

Err - okay - no one who club races then!

itboffin

Jen has a point most of us on here ride for fun, sport, exercise and commuting.

On a slightly different note I've been planning quite a few routes recently ranging from 20-60 miles long taking in some amazingly beautiful scenery, I was toying with the idea organising a couple of planned social rides, taking in some of the best pubs along the way.

Sort of a sportive pub crawl, I dunno, I have lots of ideas and too much free time

Jen J

But if it's all expect club racers, then that'll probably allow most/all of us?

I'm up for the social aspects, but I won't race, as I'd rather let someone else have the priviledge of coming last... :oops:

Jen J

And I need to find some decent routes, either starting in Wimbledon, or from an easily accessible train station.

Any suggestions?

It's all very well training the mind for laps around RP, but not on *every* 100+ miler... :roll:

itboffin

What I've found out recently is when planning routes have bail out points, for those off days :?

Jen J

itboffin wrote:

What I've found out recently is when planning routes have bail out points, for those off days :?

That's where laps come in handy - RP last Saturday was planned 100 miles. I bailed at 45 due to the wind and cold. (But was still my longest ever ride, so not a complete disaster)

itboffin

That's where laps come in handy - RP last Saturday was planned 100 miles. I bailed at 45 due to the wind and cold. (But was still my longest ever ride, so not a complete disaster)[/quote

Yeh but that many laps of RP would bore me to death, my second bail out today was MPW Yew Tree it was tough to pass by but I figured they would be too happy me turning up covered in mud and sweat.

lost_in_thought

GTV, I think this is a great idea!

Also, Jen, if you want to go 100 miles, do a 50-out-and-50-back type of route, rather than laps of RP - so boring!

gtvlusso

lost_in_thought wrote:

GTV, I think this is a great idea!

Also, Jen, if you want to go 100 miles, do a 50-out-and-50-back type of route, rather than laps of RP - so boring!

Not sure it is a "great" idea, but it may raise awareness of the "ease" of city commuting to the non-believers.....i.e. that you can actually cycle a fair distance with little fitness.

Jen J

lost_in_thought wrote:

Also, Jen, if you want to go 100 miles, do a 50-out-and-50-back type of route, rather than laps of RP - so boring!

That's partly the point - in DI it's 16 laps, so I need to mentally be able to cope with the mind-numbing boredom....

But a mix of 'good' and 'bad' rides will be ideal, so I will regularly do more interesting routes - just need to find some

Jen J

gtvlusso wrote:

Not sure it is a "great" idea, but it may raise awareness of the "ease" of city commuting to the non-believers.....i.e. that you can actually cycle a fair distance with little fitness.

Maybe I misunderstood your original post.

I thought you were suggesting a kind of informal open SCR meet, to include a race. Mainly populated by people from here, but open to anyone.

Are you thinking more along the lines of a 'proper' ogranised official race, with hundreds of entries, not focussed on SCR people?

gtvlusso

Jen J wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

Not sure it is a "great" idea, but it may raise awareness of the "ease" of city commuting to the non-believers.....i.e. that you can actually cycle a fair distance with little fitness.

Maybe I misunderstood your original post.

I thought you were suggesting a kind of informal open SCR meet, to include a race. Mainly populated by people from here, but open to anyone.

Are you thinking more along the lines of a 'proper' ogranised official race, with hundreds of entries, not focussed on SCR people?

yeah - sorry - proper job (as we say in Brizzle). Organised with officials.

Jen J

gtvlusso wrote:

Jen J wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

Not sure it is a "great" idea, but it may raise awareness of the "ease" of city commuting to the non-believers.....i.e. that you can actually cycle a fair distance with little fitness.

Maybe I misunderstood your original post.

I thought you were suggesting a kind of informal open SCR meet, to include a race. Mainly populated by people from here, but open to anyone.

Are you thinking more along the lines of a 'proper' ogranised official race, with hundreds of entries, not focussed on SCR people?

yeah - sorry - proper job (as we say in Brizzle). Organised with officials.

Then great

Would take a lot of organising though - have you got the time? You'd probably need to get a committee sorted and all sorts. Have you any experience of setting up races?

When were you thinking of? How many entries? How far? How publicised? (I guess this site and associated media would be a great start).

If it's about raising awarenes on bike commuting I guess getting reps from cycling to work schemes could help?

To enable more people to take part, maybe have different classes, can still be run at the sam time over the same course - leisure riders and pure commuters? Have a range of course options or just the one distance?

Littigator

Road racing is illegal unless specifically permitted by the British Cycling Federation and can land you in bother with the Police.

That said there is nothing to stop you organising a sportif with times awarded at the end but you are not allowed to award prizes or appoint positions, there was a case this recent season where a big sportif was shutdown for being too much like a race.

If you do want to go the illegal route there is alleycat racing. Some of the Londonfgss riders organise these. They started in the States i think and are a cross between a race and a treasure hunt. I.e. the first people/teams to complete the course having got various forfeits of tasks completed as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleycat_races

Now as a team event that might be well worth thinking about

gtvlusso

Littigator wrote:

Road racing is illegal unless specifically permitted by the British Cycling Federation and can land you in bother with the Police.

That said there is nothing to stop you organising a sportif with times awarded at the end but you are not allowed to award prizes or appoint positions, there was a case this recent season where a big sportif was shutdown for being too much like a race.

If you do want to go the illegal route there is alleycat racing. Some of the Londonfgss riders organise these. They started in the States i think and are a cross between a race and a treasure hunt. I.e. the first people/teams to complete the course having got various forfeits of tasks completed as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleycat_races

Now as a team event that might be well worth thinking about

The police always ruin good stuff....This thread was only to gather thoughts and ideas, but it is looking un-workable. I may speak to Sustrans anyway and see what the score is from their point of view - there is always the urban racing thing - run, bike and canoe through a city!

Jen J

gtvlusso wrote:

This thread was only to gather thoughts and ideas, but it is looking un-workable. I may speak to Sustrans anyway and see what the score is from their point of view - there is always the urban racing thing - run, bike and canoe through a city!

I wouldn't say it's unworkable at all. It's will just take a lot of effort, but if you're willing to put that in, it could be a great event.

My running site is putting on a half marathon in March - none of the organising committee (I had to pull out as had no time ) had direct experience of running an event like this. It's certainly possible.

Continue to gather ideas, look into the process of getting the official approval etc then see if you can commit to the organisation of it. I'm sure plenty of people on here could help out a bit.

It's a great idea.

Littigator

If you want to road race you need to talk to the BCF, they'll have their local people who organise events etc in your area.

You may be able to work with them to organise an event whcih is commuter orientated but it would have to be licensed and all riders would need racing licenses, althought for some of the Surrey League starter races you could buy a day licence for a fiver

I reckon an SCR alleycat would be the thing to do, we could have some hilarious forfeits and finish in a pub somwhere...a cracking day out if you ask me.

We could use the FB page to organise it

Jen J

Didn't realise riders needed licences for a race (why is that?).

A sportive could be ideal then. Especially if the idea is to show that you don't need to be super fit to commute by bike. People could compare their times aginst the fastest and see that they're doing ok. Wouldn't need 'prizes' as such.

lost_in_thought

Littigator wrote:

If you want to road race you need to talk to the BCF, they'll have their local people who organise events etc in your area.

You may be able to work with them to organise an event whcih is commuter orientated but it would have to be licensed and all riders would need racing licenses, althought for some of the Surrey League starter races you could buy a day licence for a fiver

I reckon an SCR alleycat would be the thing to do, we could have some hilarious forfeits and finish in a pub somwhere...a cracking day out if you ask me.

We could use the FB page to organise it

I love the idea of an SCR race but not a race type of thing - we used to organise these in Essex for charidee when I was a young'un - people get into teams and go round a sort of scavenger hunt/race thing where you had to get messages/items from people at checkpoints or do things at locations you had figured out from the clues, then do silly tasks (often in pubs) or find certain things, and the first team back to the pub won.

Really good fun. No idea how it would translate into an SCR thing though!

gtvlusso

Littigator wrote:

If you want to road race you need to talk to the BCF, they'll have their local people who organise events etc in your area.

You may be able to work with them to organise an event whcih is commuter orientated but it would have to be licensed and all riders would need racing licenses, althought for some of the Surrey League starter races you could buy a day licence for a fiver

I reckon an SCR alleycat would be the thing to do, we could have some hilarious forfeits and finish in a pub somwhere...a cracking day out if you ask me.

We could use the FB page to organise it

I think you're onto something here! Run what you brung!

il_principe

Alleycat alleycat alleycat!!

No GPS devices allowed of course.

Liking this idea but has to be kept quiet - as Litts has pointed out this is all rather illegal...

lost_in_thought

Having read the wikipedia article now, that seems like exactly what I'm on about...

Littigator

I think any further planning should be done via FB group to avoid the wrath of any moderators on Bikeradar.

Jen J

Littigator wrote:

I think any further planning should be done via FB group to avoid the wrath of any moderators on Bikeradar.

Was just going to suggest that myself...

attica

Surely FB will also have objections

Please don't get the group closed down, start a new one.

BoardinBob

gtvlusso wrote:

Hi All,

Has anyone actually thought about starting an actual commuting race?! A race for people who only commute (no part time mile eaters or racers/tt/tri bods). Just full on commuters in their kit over a predetermined course?

Overall winner + a "heavy weight" catagory for the pannier kids - panniers filled!

Best MTB, Best 700c blah blah!

Thoughts?!

Bristol would be a good start, as it is allegedly the premier cycling city in the UK. Routes would be interesting too - historic and with some towpath/docks/countryside bits - bit of hillage and so on.

If there is a need for this, I may go down the route of organising this via Sustrans, Critical Mass or some such organisation....

Or am I just jacking off?!? :shock:

Given that you don't bother stopping for red lights, you'd be disqualified pretty quickly...

Littigator

Attica wrote:

Surely FB will also have objections

Please don't get the group closed down, start a new one.

TBH I didn't think FB monitored groups and posts anywhere near the way that Bikeradar do do they?

Anyways, am happy to start a new group if we need to but I didn;t want to spread things to thin if you see what I mean.