riding in a sportive without paying

tramotane

so 4 of us turn up ride round the route go home any problems?

GavH

This was done last week. Generally considered to be at bed bad form and at worst dangerous given that you won't be insured so what happens if you are the one who causes an accident?
Apart from anything else, think of it this way. You organise a BBQ and everyone who comes brings their own beer/food/etc. Theres a lot coming, so you hold it in a park near your home, public ground and all that. Then 4 of 'us' turn up and freeload on the atmosphere if not the beer and food. You wouldn't be too pleased would you?

Unless you're planning on doing the route on a totally different day from the event itself, in which case crack on...

tramotane

GavH wrote:

This was done last week. Generally considered to be at bed bad form and at worst dangerous given that you won't be insured so what happens if you are the one who causes an accident?
Apart from anything else, think of it this way. You organise a BBQ and everyone who comes brings their own beer/food/etc. Theres a lot coming, so you hold it in a park near your home, public ground and all that. Then 4 of 'us' turn up and freeload on the atmosphere if not the beer and food. You wouldn't be too pleased would you?

Unless you're planning on doing the route on a totally different day from the event itself, in which case crack on...

sorry all four of us have 3rd party liability insurance. the roads are not the private property of any organisation /individual and surely the fee you are paying is done for the benefit of the organiser?

pdstsp

Done to death in earlier thread - go and look.

redddraggon

GavH wrote:

.....and at worst dangerous given that you won't be insured so what happens if you are the one who causes an accident?.

Surely the same as what would happen as usual on open public roads.....

gavintc

The class of cyclist is definitely not what it used to be.... Riff raff on bikes -- pah.

Freeloading is easy, just get used to living like a cheat with low moral values.

Booboocp

tramotane wrote:

so 4 of us turn up ride round the route go home any problems?

Bet you're not brave enough to say which ones...

Chubby on a compact

Would you turn up at a Municipal golf course play a round and go home without paying, and before you ask a municipal golf course is a public place.
Would you turn up to the London marathon with your mates and run the route without paying and that is run on public roads.

The Tour of Britain is run on public roads, if you ask nicely they might let you ride with them.

Some cyclists have no shame.

GavH

Bet he found the bike in a public place and helped himself to that as well... :roll:

nasahapley

There have been a rash of threads on this topic recently - so let's have another.

Chubby on a compact wrote:

Would you turn up at a Municipal golf course play a round and go home without paying, and before you ask a municipal golf course is a public place.
Would you turn up to the London marathon with your mates and run the route without paying and that is run on public roads.

The Tour of Britain is run on public roads, if you ask nicely they might let you ride with them.

Some cyclists have no shame.

With respect CoaC, these are terrible analogies. Yes a municipal golf course is a public place, but one which you have to pay to use (or at least book), so entirely unlike a public road then. The London marathon is run on closed roads, and there's rolling road closures for the ToB. So while your opinion is entirely valid, the argument you use to back it up is a bit thin.

I've previously said that I'd accompany a friend on a sportive if he got an entry and I didn't, and I stick by that. However, a group of four turning up to freebie it without having tried to enter does seem a bit much. And it goes without saying that eating food at the stops is a total p**s-take.

juggler

tramotane wrote:

so 4 of us turn up ride round the route go home any problems?

yeh ...sorry too rude first time ... not really a nice thing to do....

why are you turning up .. too late with the entry? If it's just freeloading then not fairplay.

The insurance argument does not hold water.. these are public roads so you have every right to ride your bike.

pedalrog

Somebody will have taken the time and trouble to work out a route and put on feeds etc. To ride without paying is not fair on everybody else: if you must do it then ride on a different day but you will miss the companianship of the ride.
On another note though, the amount that is currently charged for sportives, I'm not surprised some folks won't pay. I fear there will be more of this if fees keep escalating.

pdstsp

Yaaawwwwwnnnnn zzzzzzzzzz

Chubby on a compact

Nasahapley, yes the anologies might be a bit thin, but you understood the point I was trying to make. I for one enjoy riding in sportives that is why I pay to enter them. I didn't realise there were so many tight ar**s in cycling. Every other sport I've participated in I've had to pay to play, even Sunday league football.

andy_wrx

A couple of years ago I was cycling up Wildboarclough, had to stop when crossing the Cat&Fiddle Road as lots of other cyclists were coming down it and turning down towards Lamaload as well.
It occurred to me it was the Spud Riley route and I was getting mixed up with them...

I'd only done 40 miles or so, not 90 like they had, and a few of them were obviously far-gone and knackered, so as I passed them I felt a bit guilty as they said hello and I sensed they were thinking I was on the event and wondering why I was feeling so much fresher than them...

Then to cap it all, a car was behind and I tried to wave it past but it wouldn't go. Eventually it pulled alongside and I saw there was a sign on the roof for the event - it was one of the organisers !
Through the open window he said a cheery 'well done, you're going well, only one more climb now !' and then pulled away.
I didn't have time to explain, he didn't say 'where's your number, get off my event', he was friendly and encouraging, so again I felt a bit guilty...

Going down Blaze Hill, which is a 35mph+ scream-down, I saw the arrows for them to turn-off to the right half-way down, whereas I was going all the way to the bottom.
I had a horrifying idea that one of them might follow me, miss the arrows and come all the way to the bottom, have to climb back up...nobody did fortunately.

So yes, public roads, I was following my route not freeloading on their event, we just happened to cross for a few miles.

But from that, I know there's no way I could turn up to an event and ride the route without paying, I couldn't handle the shame of it...