who issdigusted with the BIKERADAR Sportive yesterday????

danowat

JamesBwmb wrote:

y 3l water per cyclist for event + 4-5 gel bars each + 3 bananas + 1 x round savoury snadwiches + biscuits, peanuts, 3 flapjack, cakes, swiss rolls ??) .

Really?, for a 100 mile ride? :shock:

Its clear that not only does there need to be enough for everyone, and in the case of this BR sportive, it seems that wasn't the case, its also clear that the food stations need to be "policed" in some way to stop people taking arm fulls of stuff and leaving others with none.

Also, I really think that some people need to bring their expectations down on what they expect at the food stations, if the above quotation is anything to go by.

As has been said before in the thread, its a sportive, not an "all you can eat" buffet

spongtastic

John Stevenson wrote:

spongtastic - handing out gels and bars at the start is a great idea and one we'll look into for next year.

We'd ban fat middle aged gimps too, but then I wouldn't be able to ride and I quite fancy actually doing so next year!

How about limiting the amount at the feed stations as well?

It's not the fat or middle aged bit that's annoying it's the gimp part stealing all the goodies that annoys me.

amaferanga

JamesBwmb wrote:

How can you do that `simply got it wrong`??? You know number entered, weather forecast, and how much a cyclist may eat. Do the maths, and add some on for contingency. Better overstocked than under
You can estimate how much a cyclist may eat / drink on a sportive (try 3l water per cyclist for event + 4-5 gel bars each + 3 bananas + 1 x round savoury snadwiches + biscuits, peanuts, 3 flapjack, cakes, swiss rolls ??) .

If there were a couple of hundred cyclists ahead of you on the road with the same expectations as to how much food they should be provided then its no bloody surprise they ran out at the feed stations!

John Stevenson

spongtastic wrote:

How about limiting the amount at the feed stations as well?

It's not the fat or middle aged bit that's annoying it's the gimp part stealing all the goodies that annoys me.

Yes, that's a good point.

knedlicky

I did a ‘half-sportive’ in Germany at the weekend, about 70 miles, 1300 m climbing.

I call it a ‘half-sportive’ because no times were recorded but otherwise it was similar to (or better than) a UK sportive ...
... free parking, signage (over 5 different routes of varying distances!), route cards handed out, marshalls at danger junctions, roaming mechanic in van, roaming security motorcyclist, medics on hand, check points and feed stops about every 16-20 miles with plenty (plenty!) of food and drink, toilets, changing rooms and free unlimited ‘hot’ showers, variety of buyable food (incl grilled sausages) and drink (incl keg beer) at finish, lots of outdoor tables benches and good ambiance (a local rockband playing for an hour or so), certificate if you want, a few prizes (for clubs with the most participants). Also signing on the line allowed (what I'd guess 2/3 of the 500-600 participants did).

Entry fee – 5 Euro (and it would have cost me only 3 Euro if I still had my licence).

Of course you can do your own training ride instead, but it won’t cost you much less than 5 Euro for food and drink, and you have to plan a route or take a map; these events do all that for you and often take you along quiet unknown ways through lovely countryside, and you meet other cyclists.

There are thousands of similar events all over France and Germany, making good training runs both for racers and for those who like to enter the big timed events like the Marmotte, as well as for the more casual cyclist (who typically chooses to ride one of the shorter routes on offer).
When not in racing, or at Marmotte-type events, we alternate weekends between club runs over familiar territory and these rides over less familiar territory. Organised by cycling clubs for cyclists, not by entrepreneurs for profit.

At the prices most charge, UK sportives are a right rip-off.

softlad

John Stevenson wrote:

spongtastic wrote:

How about limiting the amount at the feed stations as well?

It's not the fat or middle aged bit that's annoying it's the gimp part stealing all the goodies that annoys me.

Yes, that's a good point.

it is a good point - and it's also one that has been raised on these forums many times previously, and a criticism that has been levelled at many other events previously.

Which brings me back to my point which you kindly deleted earlier - in as much as BR staff do not seem to take as much interest in these forums as you might expect....

One of the ways to running a successful sportive might have been to spend a bit of time browsing this forum, establishing the types of complaints people were making about other sportives - a better plan may then have emerged as a result...

You have a rich source of information here - every bit as useful as BRAD, ABC or any other research tool you have in the office. You don't engage with it enough in my view.

ridgerider

In terms of food rationing, my experiance was that I was handed multiple gels by the staff, I did not have to grab anything. My assumption was that thy knew how many they had to give out so I just took what I was given.

As a tail end charlie on the 106, the second and third stops only had water left when I got there.

Gazzaputt

I agree on passing out a musette at a feed station. Seen a couple of sportives do this and it worked really well.

Best sportive I go back to every year is the Circuit of Kent run by Sevenoaks Round Table.

Great marshaling, lovely route, great feed stations and the food at the end is great.

Philip Whiteman

£35 for that! Christ, you have got be kidding. The sooner that some one starts reporting these events to Trading Standards the better. There have been quite a number of events willing to take the fees but equally willing in terms of failing to perform the contract. If this was a cock up and I there is no evidence to suggest otherwise, the decent thing would be to give out partial refunds.

With the odd exception such as the Mad March Hare, Cumberland Challenge or Autumn most have been a waste of money. I have now decided to stick with audaxes.




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JamesB

amaferanga wrote:

JamesBwmb wrote:

How can you do that `simply got it wrong`??? You know number entered, weather forecast, and how much a cyclist may eat. Do the maths, and add some on for contingency. Better overstocked than under
You can estimate how much a cyclist may eat / drink on a sportive (try 3l water per cyclist for event + 4-5 gel bars each + 3 bananas + 1 x round savoury snadwiches + biscuits, peanuts, 3 flapjack, cakes, swiss rolls ??) .

If there were a couple of hundred cyclists ahead of you on the road with the same expectations as to how much food they should be provided then its no bloody surprise they ran out at the feed stations!

From my experiences and seeing what others take if they stop at feeds this is actually not an unresaonable estimate I feel for the total taken by each rider at the event feeds. Fill up 2 bottles, take a banana, have a couple enery gels and a cake slice etc at each stop and ir soon adds up, and furthermore is well short of your total energy expended

vorsprung

SBezza wrote:

LOL at the complaints
Why is it that sportive entrants think it is a RIGHT to have everything provided for them.

because that's what the organisers tell them and that's what they pay for

amaferanga

I wondered how long it'd be until the audaxers showed up on this thread

dead sheep

There were some planks that organised an event last year dubbed the Forty-Five Quid Challenge. Now tell me, who were the organisers again?

JamesBwmb wrote:

I have pretty much given up on UK sportives. I have to admit the ones in the north are generally better than those in the south.

Tend to agree , my experiences of north events has shown them to be better stocked and value than southern ones (with a couple of notable exceptions )

Good observation though I must add my support for the events held in Wales. Furthermore, Paul Prince of Cultracing organised an honest no-nonsense event from Birmingham called the Mad March Hare.

daccordimark

Vote wth your wheels. I had thought about entering one of these Sportives but after reading the various costs being bandied about here I'll spend the money on bike stuff instead and join a club to get the social miles in.

The profiteers will soon stop bothering to run events if no one rides.

Philip Whiteman

daccordimark wrote:

Vote wth your wheels. I had thought about entering one of these Sportives but after reading the various costs being bandied about here I'll spend the money on bike stuff instead and join a club to get the social miles in.

The profiteers will soon stop bothering to run events if no one rides.

Think about an audax. They come in at around a quarter or less of the sportive cost and generally deliver what the promise, although what the promise is usually less.








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Neil A

I don’t condone the organisers running out of food and drink as being acceptable but people posting up that they were becoming tired and fatigued through lack of food/drink is slightly baffling. I was lucky enough to have my fill at the feed stations but certainly on the 71 mile route I passed dozens of petrol stations and village stores which I presume stocked sugary drinks and chocolate bars?

what brakes

Neil A wrote:

I don’t condone the organisers running out of food and drink as being acceptable but people posting up that they were becoming tired and fatigued through lack of food/drink is slightly baffling. I was lucky enough to have my fill at the feed stations but certainly on the 71 mile route I passed dozens of petrol stations and village stores which I presume stocked sugary drinks and chocolate bars?

Well im really happy for you. :roll:

I pay my money for the food stops to have have the energy drinks as i take enough gels with me but cant carry enough liquid. and i dont expect to have to make more stops at shops to pay for drinks that i have already paid for! but if you are then thats fine!
But of course you didnt have to worry as you got your fills at the food stops where as i didnt! and i was in the first 20 or so 106 mile riders! there were over 200 to follow me! who also would have got bugger all :evil:

If i decide to do a race then im prepared to supply everything i need as nothing is provided. but i do sportives so i dont have to.

I shall be saying nothing more on this thread
apart from sportives ar designed and sold as having food stops with energy drink, gels etc and so if i buy a sportive ride im also buying the support of the fuel stops! therefore they should be provided with what they are selling... you dont hire a car and find it has no engine and except it do you!!!!????!!!!!

Neil A

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make as I agree it's not good enough but by not stopping to spend a few quid on some water and a Mars bar you're cutting off your nose to spite your face :roll:

markos1963

Blimey £35! To ride on an open road and get some water which you could get by knocking on someones front door.
£35 will get me three years club memebership. I get plenty of support from my club mates, a different place to eat each week, free BC Bronze membership so I can do Go Race, access to all the local club TT's, club social events and the p*ss ripped out of me if I get too big for my boots.
It's not as if 106 miles is all that long a local club is offering to all comers a 200km Audax with food at the end for £4. The Spotive scene in this country needs to get real and remember that not all riders are born again roadies with big wallets. If this sort of thing carries on then the growth in the sport will die off quickly.

petejuk

One of the problems with UK Sportives is that there are those who always think they should be 'getting their money's worth.' To them it means rolling through feed stations like a plague of locusts without a care for those behind. But the organisers need to shoulder most of the blame for this- if their prices were reasonable, then so would people's expectations. It sounds like they don't have this problem abroad.

John Stevenson

markos1963 wrote:

Blimey £35!

The sportive did not cost £35. That was the cost of entry to BikeRadar Live on Saturday (which included Friday night camping if anyone wanted to avail themselves of it, a bike show the equal of ones that charge 12 quid for entry on their own, a gig by Paul Heaton and a heck of a lot more) plus the sportive. Nobody in their right mind would pay 35 quid for a 'regular' sportive not on closed roads and nobody in their right mind would try and charge that. So we didn't.

As for clubs, well some people don't get on with the whole notion. In 25 years of cycling I have found exactly two clubs of which I wanted to be a member, and I founded the first one.

Pokerface

Frankly sir, I think the problem is that you failed to deliver the basic requirements and meet the expectations of the riders. At any price.


Less backpedalling would be good at this point.

John Stevenson

Pokerface wrote:

Frankly sir, I think the problem is that you failed to deliver the basic requirements and meet the expectations of the riders. At any price.


Less backpedalling would be good at this point.

Not backpedalling at all - I have already admitted that we under-delivered on the feed stops and apologised for it. And we'll get it right next year. Just pointing out that people got a lot more for their 35 quid than just the sportive.

cougie

How about banning gels at feeds for next years rides ? They're massively overpriced and so many riders think its fine to throw the used wrappers on the road - its just unacceptable. By all means have food at stations but not wrapped to be thrown all over the countryside.

freehub

amaferanga wrote:

I wondered how long it'd be until the audaxers showed up on this thread

What's wrong with audaxers?

softlad

cougie wrote:

By all means have food at stations but not wrapped to be thrown all over the countryside.

trouble is - if it's not wrapped, it will just rot, go stale, go hard, go soft, or get eaten by flies, or wasps, or passing rodents...

markos1963

John Stevenson wrote:

markos1963 wrote:

Blimey £35!

The sportive did not cost £35. That was the cost of entry to BikeRadar Live on Saturday (which included Friday night camping if anyone wanted to avail themselves of it, a bike show the equal of ones that charge 12 quid for entry on their own, a gig by Paul Heaton and a heck of a lot more) plus the sportive. Nobody in their right mind would pay 35 quid for a 'regular' sportive not on closed roads and nobody in their right mind would try and charge that. So we didn't.

As for clubs, well some people don't get on with the whole notion. In 25 years of cycling I have found exactly two clubs of which I wanted to be a member, and I founded the first one.

Ok fair enough but at the end of the day people are going to remember the lack of food and drink and as you can see its generated a massive debate on here. How many of the people who don't post on here are going to be hacked off at the experience. Several of my ride buddies went and they felt too shattered after the ride to take advantage of other facilities.

guilliano

I thought the problem was that passing rodents were already taking all the food?

And who on earth is Paul Heaton?

John Stevenson

markos1963 wrote:

Ok fair enough but at the end of the day people are going to remember the lack of food and drink and as you can see its generated a massive debate on here. How many of the people who don't post on here are going to be hacked off at the experience. Several of my ride buddies went and they felt too shattered after the ride to take advantage of other facilities.

You're absolutely right, which is why - as I hope I've made clear - we're genuinely sorry for failing to deliver on what we promised here.

Cycling Plus editor Rob Spedding and I were discussing this today and concluded that if we have to drive the supplies to the feed stations ourselves next year to make sure hey are up to snuff, we will.

markos1963

John Stevenson wrote:

markos1963 wrote:

Ok fair enough but at the end of the day people are going to remember the lack of food and drink and as you can see its generated a massive debate on here. How many of the people who don't post on here are going to be hacked off at the experience. Several of my ride buddies went and they felt too shattered after the ride to take advantage of other facilities.

You're absolutely right, which is why - as I hope I've made clear - we're genuinely sorry for failing to deliver on what we promised here.

Cycling Plus editor Rob Spedding and I were discussing this today and concluded that if we have to drive the supplies to the feed stations ourselves next year to make sure hey are up to snuff, we will.

Well I'm pleased that you have accepted the crititism and are going to do something about it, sadly I don't think some of the other organisers around the country are quite so rider focussed.