To those who cut into the Dragon queue...
9jan11
Posts: 67
...hope you had a nice, warm, dry ride.
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Comments
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I expect they were the same considerate folk who dropped gel wrappers all over the place...0
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Rich.H wrote:I expect they were the same considerate folk who dropped gel wrappers all over the place...
I rode the Dragon Ride yesterday, the first time I've done any sort of cycling event. I was astonished to see the amount of gel/bar wrappers discarded around the long route. I am constantly dismayed by the amount of litter on verges everywhere, no doubt thrown from cars by ignorant tw*ts, but I had thought cyclists might be rather better than this.
If you threw your wrapper(s) away yesterday, please take a minute to answer the following:
1. If you've cycled more than a hundred km with a gel in your back pocket, would it have really been that great a hardship to ride the rest with an empty wrapper in your pocket?
2. Who did you think was going to come round and clear up all those wrappers after the event?
3. Why do you bother to travel all the way to an event held in beautiful scenery if you're intending to strew litter all round the route?0 -
Here here. That was the worst sportive I've been to with regards to litter.
I reckon it must be either
a) idiots who see pro cycling on TV and think they can just chuck things away too
b) idiots who don't want to put a sticky wrapper back in their precious jersey.
c) inconsiderate idiots
The start line was annoying too, although I didn't see many push-ins from the back of the queue...The start is something the Dragon Ride never seems to have got right.0 -
Set off at 9.10 and the amount of litter was horrendous on the first 30 miles stretch!
After each cattle grid there was the half a dozen or so jettisioned water bottles but the wrappers were ridiculous.
I also can not beleive the amount of discarded inner tubes and new inner tube boxes just left by the road side by people who punctured..... almost as shocking as the start line cutter in ers and also the timing failure.....0 -
The litter was just awful.
You are always going to get these idiots at an event this big.
So, do the organisers have a duty to local people and visitors to go around and clean up the route they have used.
Think about a field used for a music festival. There is no way the organisers could just take their money and run with no responsibility taken for the clear up.0 -
9jan11 wrote:The litter was just awful.
So, do the organisers have a duty to local people and visitors to go around and clean up the route they have used.
Think about a field used for a music festival. There is no way the organisers could just take their money and run with no responsibility taken for the clear up.
I suspect that having to clear up nearly 200km of grass verge might bump the entry fees up to an unacceptable level...0 -
entry fees up to an unacceptable level...
think they're there already 0 -
This is a common problem on Sportives. I encountered this on the Whitton this year. They did not help themselves by giving out the gels prior to the start. I come from a sailing background and if you dropped litter in the sea then this would be against the notice of race and see to you being disqualified. You would think that cyclists would know better given the expense of the average bike and car in the car park. These are not the lower socio economic classes riding these events.0
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Gotta hold my hand up and admit to a bit of queue jumping yesterday. Due to the traffic hold-ups we got a bit delayed so some joined the queue to 'reserve' a place. The rest of us joined as we arrived. We checked with the others behind but obviously it effects everyone to a degree. Sorry, it was bad form and I'd have been mildly miffed if it had happened to me
:oops: 0 -
'reserve' a place
I'll remember that when shopping in the supermarket at xmas. I'll stand in the queue when we get there and send the wife around to shop, time she's finished I'll be at the checkout.
Very poor...think of others who have driven on their own for 3 hours to get there, with no 'friends' to join the queue and then had to wait for over an hour to start, while you just stroll in ahead. Tw@t.0 -
9jan11 wrote:'reserve' a place
I'll remember that when shopping in the supermarket at xmas. I'll stand in the queue when we get there and send the wife around to shop, time she's finished I'll be at the checkout.
Very poor...think of others who have driven on their own for 3 hours to get there, with no 'friends' to join the queue and then had to wait for over an hour to start, while you just stroll in ahead. Tw@t.
Jesus dude, lighten up. The guy said he was at fault so no need to call anyone a tw@t.
I stood there for over 1hr 20 mins too yesterday. Get over it0 -
all of those whining around: you either say something at that point (so in the queue)...rather than making a fist in your pocket and start crying later...if you don't have the courage to say something on the spot, then better be and remain quiet.0
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all of those whining around: you either say something at that point (so in the queue)...rather than making a fist in your pocket and start crying later...if you don't have the courage to say something on the spot, then better be and remain quiet.
If someone does it right in front then fine. But the queues yesterday were 4,5,600 yards long. You wouldn't know if people were doing it, but you are still affected. As I was. But I accept your apology and think it good of you to own up.0 -
Mendip rouleur wrote:all of those whining around: you either say something at that point (so in the queue)...rather than making a fist in your pocket and start crying later...if you don't have the courage to say something on the spot, then better be and remain quiet.
If someone does it right in front then fine. But the queues yesterday were 4,5,600 yards long. You wouldn't know if people were doing it, but you are still affected. As I was. But I accept your apology and think it good of you to own up.
I didn't jump the queue, but I didn't say anything either if somebody did (even though I was considering it)...so I rather not cry around...but seeing so many ppl making such a fuss around it...I couldn't resist to add my 2 cents0 -
I put my gels in to a squeezy bottle. No litter and its much easier to feed on the bike.0
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I have taken riders to task twice on sportives for littering. Not sure how much of a difference it makes but if we all do it maybe they will think twice.0
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Dru wrote:Set off at 9.10 and the amount of litter was horrendous on the first 30 miles stretch!
After each cattle grid there was the half a dozen or so jettisioned water bottles but the wrappers were ridiculous.
I also can not beleive the amount of discarded inner tubes and new inner tube boxes just left by the road side by people who punctured..... almost as shocking as the start line cutter in ers and also the timing failure.....
Litter drops-giant nets to throw waste into if you have to..a good policy for event organisers everywhere.Whats the solution? Just pedal faster you baby.
Summer B,man Team Carbon LE#222
Winter Alan Top Cross
All rounder Spec. Allez.0 -
Yes cheers to all those dumping their rubbish in my back yard, and those who jumped red lights.
Not to worry, us locals will take the flak and risk from irate drivers for the next 12 months or so till you all pop back down for the day, dump your sh&te and p*ss off the locals again before buggering off home. Next time I see a thread on this forum complaining about stupid drivers I'll remember the clowns who flew through a roundabout at 25mph in front of several cars holding out their hand to stop the car mid flow. :evil: How stupid can you get !
BTW I did the full route, got up at 5am and turned up early to get in the queue without jumping it or pushing in. My 6am arrival at the parking lot was followed by my waiting patiently for nearly 50 minutes at the start line to get off in the 4th or 5th bunch @ 8.05am. Remember that not all those at the front of the queue were queue bargers and had already been hanging around for over 2 hours!!0 -
Surely if some of your group are in the queue you join them, dont you? Its always happened in any queue Ive been in. Anyway, its an overated event, not a particularly pleasant area, the foodstops are sh*t, they f**cked up the timing and the queuing was horrendous. Not to mention the awful website.Pegoretti
Colnago
Cervelo
Campagnolo0 -
Grifteruk wrote:Yes cheers to all those dumping their rubbish in my back yard, and those who jumped red lights.
Not to worry, us locals will take the flak and risk from irate drivers for the next 12 months or so till you all pop back down for the day, dump your sh&te and p*ss off the locals again before buggering off home. Next time I see a thread on this forum complaining about stupid drivers I'll remember the clowns who flew through a roundabout at 25mph in front of several cars holding out their hand to stop the car mid flow. :evil: How stupid can you get !
BTW I did the full route, got up at 5am and turned up early to get in the queue without jumping it or pushing in. My 6am arrival at the parking lot was followed by my waiting patiently for nearly 50 minutes at the start line to get off in the 4th or 5th bunch @ 8.05am. Remember that not all those at the front of the queue were queue bargers and had already been hanging around for over 2 hours!!
There were lots of problems with this ride and out of 4000 rides there are going to be some idiots who drop litter and ride badly and for that there is no excuse.
Drivers who give cyclists flak will do anyway regardless of yesterdays event.
However to accuse people of dumping sh&te and buggering off home is out of order.
Every B & B and every restaurant for miles around would have been full with cyclists on Saturday night.
The benefits to 'your' local economy would have been huge from this event.0 -
Surely if some of your group are in the queue you join them, dont you?
The bit that narked me was the admission that they had sent people to 'reserve' a place in the queue while they got the parking and bikes sorted.0 -
on-yer-bike wrote:Surely if some of your group are in the queue you join them, dont you?
If you want to ride with clubmates, then you should plan it beforehand, and meet up before you start queuing.0 -
We were there early so got away in the second group.
There were people cutting in but it didnt bother me,as most were individuals joining mates.
Didnt like all the wrappers on the floor though.
Didnt like the 9jan11 "tw@t" comment either but what can you do.0 -
We were there early so got away in the second group.
You probably didn't have a 3 hour drive then, so you have no idea how frustrating it was to get up that early, stand around getting cold for over an hour to be the next group ready to go only for people to wander out of the car park and join said advanced group with hundreds and hundreds of people still queuing behind.
If my 't' comment offended you I'm sorry but if you read all the related threads you'll see a 'c' word used by someone else.0 -
9jan11 wrote:We were there early so got away in the second group.
You probably didn't have a 3 hour drive then, so you have no idea how frustrating it was to get up that early, stand around getting cold for over an hour to be the next group ready to go only for people to wander out of the car park and join said advanced group with hundreds and hundreds of people still queuing behind.
If my 't' comment offended you I'm sorry but if you read all the related threads you'll see a 'c' word used by someone else.
Your all very naughty.0 -
Has there ever been a dragon ride without some kind of issue? :?0
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My fifth and last Dragon.
The queue jumpers were annoying. I was quite a way back from the start and of every group of riders that set off I moved about 1 bike length forward. This went on quite some time. I don't expect to ride up and get straight off but for me the 1 hour and 20 minutes I spent waiting was too long.
I think the biggest gripe for me is the riding behaviour of others, there were a lot of very dangerous people out.
Wifey had a major mechanical at 25 miles which was the end of our day.0 -
Jesus. I have a solution for a number of the issues identified on this thread. Basically, you just turn up (with your mates if preferred) on any of the other 364 days of the year. Advantages are:
1. No parking issues
2. No waiting around at the start
3. Fewer gel wrappers everywhere
4. Save £35 or whatever, which you can spend on a reusable watch to time yourself
5. Less likely to be crashed into by a dentist on a Pinarello
Hope this helps.0 -
The start line for an event this size is ridiculous. Why don't they follow the Fred Whitton method? Just turn up and go anytime after 6am. Or move the event to France and set 4000 riders off at once
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I have done loads of Sportives here, Italy and France and all the comments made above have kept me well away from this one. This sort of c**p would drive me nuts, I'm obviously well off being out of it.
Tour of the Black Mountains was cool though 0
