Ignorant Riders - Chiltern Cycle Pedal Push
starockets
Posts: 67
Firstly I would like to thank all those involved in the organising and marshalling of the Chiltern Cycle Pedal Push yesterday. The weather was very very windy and unpleasant for you to be stuck out in it all day.
Secondarily, to a few of the riders who stood moaning and whining to the registration ladies about the long queue.......get your heads out of your bullet holes.
The ride is a small 50 mile charity ride, not a full on Wiggle organised sportive, it only cost you £15 to enter and you expect full on slick operation. Everyone down there I believe were volunteers who gave up a Sunday to raise a bit of cash for charity and to allow us to have a pleasant marshalled group ride out. The start location is a fantastic little place and so much better than where it used to be started from and everyone of those volunteers were as cheery and as helpful as they could be
These people do not need idiots moaning at them because the riders were setting off 15 minutes later that they thought. It is grossly unfair to all involved.
Sorry to rant on a bit but it seems that there is a lot of mumblings about the cost of sportives now and their value for money. If we as participants complain about every small detail we do not find to our liking than these small fun rides that people enjoy so much will disappear from the calender for good.
We must think ourselves lucky that there are people who give up there time for nothing on a weekend so we can enjoy ourselves.
Secondarily, to a few of the riders who stood moaning and whining to the registration ladies about the long queue.......get your heads out of your bullet holes.
The ride is a small 50 mile charity ride, not a full on Wiggle organised sportive, it only cost you £15 to enter and you expect full on slick operation. Everyone down there I believe were volunteers who gave up a Sunday to raise a bit of cash for charity and to allow us to have a pleasant marshalled group ride out. The start location is a fantastic little place and so much better than where it used to be started from and everyone of those volunteers were as cheery and as helpful as they could be
These people do not need idiots moaning at them because the riders were setting off 15 minutes later that they thought. It is grossly unfair to all involved.
Sorry to rant on a bit but it seems that there is a lot of mumblings about the cost of sportives now and their value for money. If we as participants complain about every small detail we do not find to our liking than these small fun rides that people enjoy so much will disappear from the calender for good.
We must think ourselves lucky that there are people who give up there time for nothing on a weekend so we can enjoy ourselves.
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Comments
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sad to hear about the grumblings... as ever yu will always get the pathetic types.
anyways... why not ditch this daft sportive idea and organise a proper road race in aid of charity - age /skill related - if you have the organisation, the volunteers etc etc it would be appreciated to have such an event in the area
road racers never moan
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I was just a participant on the day, not anything to do with the organising. I just got p*ssed when a select few decided to act like divas.0
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Don't you know that the one thing the British love more than queuing is moaning about queuing?
Seriously though, I did a charity ride this weekend where I had pre booked and there was the same thing, a large queue of people waiting to sign up on the day. No one was moaning, but if they had ratcheted the price up for on the day entries I am sure they would have got more people to enter in advance, and thus a smaller queue As it was, the price was the same, no no real incentive for the indecisive to sign up.0 -
anyways... why not ditch this daft sportive idea and organise a proper road race in aid of charity - age /skill related - if you have the organisation, the volunteers etc etc it would be appreciated to have such an event in the area
road racers never moan
Not sure you are going to make money out of a road race with a restricted field of 60 or 80 compared to 'as many as you can safely fit' in a sportive.
Costs of BC levvies, prize money, commissaires petrol etc etc to provide on a road race too. Plus if you put the entry fee of a road race up to £25 you will then see how much road racers can moan
We, Peterborough Cycling Club are promoting 2 road races this weekend with a sponsorship deal for the prize money but once we have paid out for the above costs plus 5 NEG riders and photo finish, the event will not be making much of a profit. We are also promoting a sportive with a £10 entry fee to try and entice all the riders who don't want to pay £25 for a sportive. Hope you can all enter!0 -
This one sounds like a charity event, so people really shouldn't complain...
... but I have to say, bad registration is one thing that really annoys me.
For the Essex Roads we queued about 30 mins to get a number, then they didn't have zip ties to attach the said number ... and the timing didn't work ... so paid money to waste 30 mins for no real reason.
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chipperleenie wrote:Costs of BC levvies, prize money, commissaires petrol etc etc to provide on a road race too. Plus if you put the entry fee of a road race up to £25 you will then see how much road racers can moan
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Take your point... my starting fees for tli and lvrc for 2 hours or so of suffering... well at least a lot cheaper than bc!
The better charity sportives are those when the charity being sponsored are fully on board to assist and organise, but those are probably few on the ground?0 -
Send all the gumph in the post (with helmet stick-on sensors you throw away after) then when participant crosses the electronic start line you know he or she has turned up.
No electonics then have some folk checking the ride numbers before off (groups of twenty) with a a helper filtering riders through a narrowing, this also serves to check numbers for next off.
Put in adequate toilet facilities (often missing) and hay presto no queuing = no moaning and we all have a nice day. 0 -
JGSI wrote:
road racers never moan
Not at the organizers, they save it all for each other. The one I did at the weekend was only 40 miles but there were three lots of handbags that I heard on the road.0 -
Ron Stuart wrote:Send all the gumph in the post (with helmet stick-on sensors you throw away after) then when participant crosses the electronic start line you know he or she has turned up.
No electonics then have some folk checking the ride numbers before off (groups of twenty) with a a helper filtering riders through a narrowing, this also serves to check numbers for next off.
Put in adequate toilet facilities (often missing) and hay presto no queuing = no moaning and we all have a nice day.
If it is a big event people can still queue despite no registration, They just queue in the cold to start riding instead. Most people seem to want to start as early as possible. I'm not sure why this is, I like having a few people in front of me to aim at.0 -
Sportive Challenge wrote:JGSI wrote:
road racers never moan
Not at the organizers, they save it all for each other. The one I did at the weekend was only 40 miles but there were three lots of handbags that I heard on the road.
thanks for the reminder..... was going out without mine for tonite's 'do' 0 -
On the positive side, it is great to here that a sportive organiser has arranged a good event that is not overpriced.
On the substance of the thread, it is saddening to here about the whingers. Perhaps you could have questioned them about their organisational expertise and how they coped when they ran their sportive. I bet that the response would have been blank expressions.
At an audax last year, one entrant from nearby Solihull mispunched the event HQs postcode incorrectly into their satnav. He arrived at the HQ late and then proceeded to F and Blind at the volunteer car park marshals before storming off. His wife then sent a letter of abuse to the organiser. It was totally unacceptable behaviour.0
