who issdigusted with the BIKERADAR Sportive yesterday????
Comments
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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.
So could i have entered the sportive without paying entry to the Bikeradar event?0 -
Haven't read the whole thread but I'm going to comment anyway.
Last year's Bike Radar sportive was enjoyed by everyone in my club that did it so I wouldn't let this experience put people off doing one in the future.
I don't see the need for gels and energy bars at feed stations. Water, banana and flapjack is plenty - it's no hardship for people to take a bit of energy powder and a couple of gels if they like that kind of stuff.
Surely the important things are a good route chosen with local knowledge, well signposted, water and some kind of food and ideally some kind of emergency backup for people who get stranded whether through a crash or a mechanical they can't fix. Get these basics right and people will generally be happy.
I don't know how BR organises the sportives but perhaps it might be good to work with a local club who could help choose a route and provide marshalls in return for some of the entry fee for club funds and maybe free entry to the Bike Radar event ?
it's a hard life if you don't weaken.0 -
I think standpipes rather than bottled water would be a worthwhile suggestion for feed stops next year. Far cheaper with less impact in terms of waste and carting it all around in vans
1998 Chas Roberts Compact Racing 531 "The Iron Lady" | 2010 Felt F4 | 2007 Santa Cruz Heckler0 -
Good suggestion. All the sportives I've ever done just had water in large refillable containers with a tap which was fine. I stuck some Hi5 powder in a freezer bag and poured some in before filling with water.
On a hundred miler what else do you need - a couple of bananas and maybe a couple of slices of flapjack.
it's a hard life if you don't weaken.0 -
Tom Butcher wrote:Good suggestion. All the sportives I've ever done just had water in large refillable containers with a tap which was fine. I stuck some Hi5 powder in a freezer bag and poured some in before filling with water.
On a hundred miler what else do you need - a couple of bananas and maybe a couple of slices of flapjack.
I agree and I pretty much do the same as you, but I think one of the problems with some sportives that are advertising that they'll provide gels at the fee stops is that people are then (wrongly IMHO) relying on several of these just to get round, instead of seeing them as something to use as an emergency back-up should they not take in enough food. So I guess the organisers are partly to blame for saying they'll provide the gels and some riders are to blame for grabbing handfuls of them.
And if they were using bottled water on the Bikerdar sportive that's just an insane waste of money.More problems but still living....0 -
What a surprise!
I thought it was really well organised with plenty of food bar the 3rd feed stop, which had almost run out of everything by the time I got there. I also got to say that the route on the whole was fantastic, with really good tarmac and decent support from the motorbikes and superb signage. The chaps and chappettes at the feed stations were amazing, offering you drinks, gels, bananas, cakes as soon as you got off the bike. Really top stuff.
I personally failed in my objective of doing under 6.30 hours. I don't know what it was, the heat probably, which I am not used to (and I am Spanish!!!) that killed me. I was doing some nice 17mph average on the first 70 miles but after that my HR just went crazy and had to walk a long bit of the last climb. Not that it was brutal, I have done harder and longer, it's just that I couldn't take it.
In any case, well done guys, really good value and an excellent event. Shame about no closed roads though
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Commuting / Winter rides - Jamis Renegade Expert
Pootling / Offroad - All-City Macho Man Disc
Fast rides Cannondale SuperSix Ultegra0 -
All the suggestions on this page are good: tap water instead of bottled; bananas, squash and flapkack (except they're not cycling food, sorry) instead of SIS or Zipfit; take some powder with you...but it only makes the money-vultures' lives easier and saves them cash.
Where does that leave the consumer who pays £20 or £35? It kills the price/value ratio.
All the money saving suggestions are good so long as all sportives go back to the £5-8 range (like they ever were anywhere north of the channel).
This is why many people don't pay or don't play.When a cyclist has a disagreement with a car; it's not who's right, it's who's left.0 -
Philip Whiteman wrote: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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Apart from when they're cancelled just because the roads are covered in black ice... :twisted:
From my experience audax riders don't use energy gels, cake is more the order of the day.Steve C0 -
Have the organisers responded in this thread yet? I'm assuming they have, given that this is a bikeradar forum and all that.0
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To be honest, I think the whole sportive thing in the UK bar the Etape Caledonia is a bloody shambles due to not being on closed roads or at least rolling closures. In Spain, Sportives are on closed roads, audaxes aren't. That is why you pay a high entry fee.x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Commuting / Winter rides - Jamis Renegade Expert
Pootling / Offroad - All-City Macho Man Disc
Fast rides Cannondale SuperSix Ultegra0 -
AndyRubio wrote:Have the organisers responded in this thread yet? I'm assuming they have, given that this is a bikeradar forum and all that.
it says something about a thread being past its sell by date, when readers can't be bothered to look back.
I think it is time to move on, on this subject. Point made, and in danger of becoming a droning whinge.....0 -
Not finished yet!
What about this unanswered question posted earlier?:So could i have entered the sportive without paying entry to the Bikeradar event?0 -
Of course you could providing that you do enter any private property hired for the purposes of the event or consume any products provided by the organisers for the direct benefit of the entrants. If you did consume any of the goods provided by the organiser then you would be acting in contravention of the Theft Act 1968. However, the organiser has no powers to forbid you from using the public highway or gaining access to public open spaces. In short, you can follow the route whether Bikeradar like it or not assuming that the route exclusively uses public roads.
With the increasing propensity of organisers charging exorbitant fees to riders, the likelihood of cyclists 'free-riding' events will increase in frequency and to be honest organisers should not be surprised.0 -
Caer caradoc wrote:Of course you could providing that you do enter any private property hired for the purposes of the event or consume any products provided by the organisers for the direct benefit of the entrants. If you did consume any of the goods provided by the organiser then you would be acting in contravention of the Theft Act 1968. However, the organiser has no powers to forbid you from using the public highway or gaining access to public open spaces. In short, you can follow the route whether Bikeradar like it or not assuming that the route exclusively uses public roads.
With the increasing propensity of organisers charging exorbitant fees to riders, the likelihood of cyclists 'free-riding' events will increase in frequency and to be honest organisers should not be surprised.
I think the question relates to the fact that to do the sportive you needed to pay for entry to the Bikeradar event itself. And I think we all know what the answer is anyway.More problems but still living....0 -
this is a really consistent problem at UK sportives. Has never happened to me in the 30 or so I've done in France and Italy.
I recall being shouted down on this forum for making incredulous comments that it had happened again at the Dragon Ride.
Two words: bottom line
Energy drink isn't cheap.
When was the last time you had energy drink at a sportive that was as strong as you'd make it?
The sportive market is a business you know.0 -
softlad wrote:sturmey wrote:Not finished yet!
What about this unanswered question posted earlier?:So could i have entered the sportive without paying entry to the Bikeradar event?
given that the start/finish was within the Brands Hatch confines of the BR event, then my guess is 'no'.....
Similar with the Bike Blenheim which I did last year (first century, 6 hours 42). Yes, you get entrance to the event, but by the time I got back it had all finished and I just wanted to get home. So to say the sportive is "only £15" is disingenuous because you are forced to pay the entrance fee to something you wont see much of.
That and the constant nagging advertising in C+ and on the website was enough to stop me entering.0 -
sc999cs wrote:
From my experience audax riders don't use energy gels, cake is more the order of the day.
I always carry a few spare gels whatever long ride i'm on, you never know.0 -
Who says flapjacks arent cycling food ? Gels are pretty useless on rides like these - theres only what 100 calories in one ?
A flapjack would be much more and you can scoff it whilst refilling the bottles - and theres no temptation for twunts to lob their empty gel wrappers all over the roads too.0 -
cougie wrote:Who says flapjacks arent cycling food ? Gels are pretty useless on rides like these - theres only what 100 calories in one ?
A flapjack would be much more and you can scoff it whilst refilling the bottles - and theres no temptation for twunts to lob their empty gel wrappers all over the roads too.
When I'm knackered, a gel is much more digesible and easily consumed than flapjack. It's also much more quickly absorbed.
There is a certain luddite tendency in some posts which seeks to decry anything that is perceived as 'new fangled'.0 -
In the blurb it said feed stops are included providing food and water. It then added that energy drinks and gels are provided by ZipVit. It did not actually state that they would be included at feed stops or that they would be in plentiful supply, just that ZipVit were providing them0
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Nickwill wrote:cougie wrote:Who says flapjacks arent cycling food ? Gels are pretty useless on rides like these - theres only what 100 calories in one ?
A flapjack would be much more and you can scoff it whilst refilling the bottles - and theres no temptation for twunts to lob their empty gel wrappers all over the roads too.
When I'm knackered, a gel is much more digesible and easily consumed than flapjack. It's also much more quickly absorbed.
There is a certain luddite tendency in some posts which seeks to decry anything that is perceived as 'new fangled'.
I use gels a lot for running marathons - but not so much for cycling. If you dont keep up the eating - then you will get knackered. Even a gel takes 15 - 20 mins to kick in though - so its far from ideal. Better idea is to get a lot of them (or the powder that makes them up) and dissolve in a bottle. Easier to handle and cheaper if you do the powder thing - and no wrappers all over the countryside.0 -
cougie wrote:Nickwill wrote:cougie wrote:Who says flapjacks arent cycling food ? Gels are pretty useless on rides like these - theres only what 100 calories in one ?
A flapjack would be much more and you can scoff it whilst refilling the bottles - and theres no temptation for twunts to lob their empty gel wrappers all over the roads too.
When I'm knackered, a gel is much more digesible and easily consumed than flapjack. It's also much more quickly absorbed.
There is a certain luddite tendency in some posts which seeks to decry anything that is perceived as 'new fangled'.
I use gels a lot for running marathons - but not so much for cycling. If you dont keep up the eating - then you will get knackered. Even a gel takes 15 - 20 mins to kick in though - so its far from ideal. Better idea is to get a lot of them (or the powder that makes them up) and dissolve in a bottle. Easier to handle and cheaper if you do the powder thing - and no wrappers all over the countryside.
http://www.summitpost.org/article/23937 ... -less.html0 -
I presume that the cost of entering was raising funds for a charity ?
Because it sounds like there wasn't much free stuff ---
Of course the problem with Forums is that it lends itself to people complaining instead of bigging up an event.
ANY POSITIVE PEOPLE OUT THERE ?
What was good about the event ?
I think the price at £35 pounds does sort of mean that entrants would be expecting something more than the normal uk cyclosportive. Maybe a Free T-shirt and bottle with some energy goodies at the end. Along with a meal for all the riders. ?? Did that happen?
Real food is always better in my opinion than some energy products that contain dangersous chemicals but then we all have different tastes and ideas, that's the problem that Event organisers have when organising sportive events, but to run out of food is very bad, it should be a no brainer for the organiser to over stock and give the left overs to charity afterwards.
I am going to do this event next year as know doubt the organisers will pull out all the stops to avoid any more negative comments in the future.0 -
POCKETROCKET42 wrote:I am going to do this event next year as know doubt the organisers will pull out all the stops to avoid any more negative comments in the future.
I would love to share your optimism. However, there are a number of sportives that I have attended in the past that received justified and public criticism but the organisers continued to repeat the same mistakes.
This yet another reason I am giving up on the sportive scene. Instead I shall be focussing on proper road racing and/or audaxes.0 -
Gels and sugar-water will give you a temporary spike, but once started, unless you continually top up with more carbs during the ride you will suffer a sugar crash, especially if starting with energy drinks and riding the second half on plain water.
Might be better to have the water first, carrying the energy powder in a sachet for adding to to water from a feed stop, but that might require a prior suspision that the event is not premium quality organisation.0 -
robbiedont wrote:We spoke with the zipvit stand and they said they were contracted to supply one gel and one bar (protein recovery) per person. hardly enough!!
If that is what they are contracted to supply, then the organisers need to ensure riders take no more than that.
Muze bags limited to 1 per person with these in?Want to know the Spen666 behind the posts?
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Musette is an excellent idea. And a good place to print an advert or two...0
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I thought of a musette as well. If you enter BikeRadar sportive next year, could you not get a musette with the entry price and go to a location at registration and get gels, food, drink powder for your ride then. The musette would be matched to your rider number and taken to the feed stop location of your choice along with everyone elses. All the organisers have to do then is provide plenty of water and hand over your musette. Stops greedy gits, you know what you have packed and could even put in your own preference of food if you wanted. The musette is a freebie with the entry fee, you pay for the food and organisation and no-one has to go without.
Sportive Karma.
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