Due to Difficulties, your Sportive has been CANCELLED.

Philip Whiteman

Why are sportives now being cancelled?

There are an increasing number of sportives being cancelled whereas in previous years this would have been unheard of. It is not a phenomenon limited to new unheard of events. Long established and reputable sportives such as the TransCambrian and Cumberland Challenge amongst others, are the most recent victims.

- is it market saturation?
- is it recession?
-is it increased costs of delivery?
- is it rentrenchment in demand?
- or something else?
- the reputational problems associated to sportives created by some disreputable commercialised operators?

It is sad to see good and long established events disappear from the calendar. I am sure that their reasons are justified.





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nferrar

I guess there's more competition now so entries will be down but as the fixed costs remain then they'll run at a loss. I know I'd rather cancel it and make a small loss than go through all the hassle of running it and make an even bigger loss.

Pigtail

I'm new to cycling - have only done one sportive (the etape caledonia) and absolutely loved it. I'm also booked to do the Bealach Mor.

However I started the year booking these two, but with the intention of doing one a month through the summer. It has just never happened. Real life got in the way, they are too far to travel, keeping up the level of training I did for the EC wouldn't have been possible with family commitments and holidays.

In addition to that there seems a huge amount of sameness about them. How many of them have 100 in the title? Some of the charity ones also have advertising that makes me cringe.

So my attraction to them has waned already. I don't know what I'll do next year - probably the EC again, but maybe try audaxing for anything else.

ugo.santalucia

I guess with Wiggle, Evans and others pumping in an event every other week, there's just too many of them...

In addition, the novelty probably starts to wear off. The 100 miles challenge is always the same, give or take. The good ones will remain, I suppose.

Sportives are getting increasingly competitive, with all the electronic timing nonsense and there are too many of them... I think there is capacity on the market for different events, like "embellished" audaxes (see Paris Roubaix organised by Roubaix Velo club for example) as long as they are well organised (signage + refreshments) with respect to plain and cheap unsigned Audaxes, which are not palatable to all. The timing chip nonsense costs around 7 pounds per rider and causes more grief than good. Not all riders are interested in having accurate timing (which any computer offfers anyway). I think it is possible to organise a good event for 10-15 pounds per rider and make a profit, offering decent food and signage. Steering clear of timing chips and excessive competitiveness means less need for tight marshalling too.

For instance I am having preliminary discussions to organise a Retro Event in Oxfordshire... a mini-Eroica, so to speak

nferrar

Yeah I have to agree about timing chips, I can't understand where the obsession started. If you can afford to enter a sportive you can afford a watch or bike computer that will tell you the time. If you want timing so you can try and 'win' then you're doing the wrong events.

For me an interesting route, decent feedstops, good signage and a broom wagon in case of an unfixable breakdown is all I really want. Pasta parties, timing chips and 'goodie' bags are just unwanted crap that adds to the cost.

malcolmfrost

I think it is possible to organise a good event for 10-15 pounds per rider

The IOW randonnee is a case in point, it is free to enter, all the signs are already up for the Round the Island route, and feed stations are run by local PTAs and you buy the food you want, they make funds for their cause.
I think it would be possible to use some of the signed cycle routes on the mainland with short sections to link with event signage as well. Closer to Audax really.
I think it is horses for courses, some people treat a sportive as a race and focus on times, others as a day out in a different area from normal.

ddraver

I think it is possible to organise a good event for 10-15 pounds per rider

I ve yet to see a single sportive/race/MTB marathon with an entry fee for over EUR20 around the Netherlands/Germany/Belgium (well that's not quite true, there was a 24hr race for 40 which involves supplkying toilets, support, cammping space, water etc etc around the clock for 24hrs, but people were still saying that EUR40 was way too much)

The events are wells signed and supported very well as a reult of the low cost. OK so there is nothing spectacular at the feed stations but I'm quite capable of fuelling myself for a 100km/100m ride so Alli need is a slightly different tasting drink and a bun. I don't particualrly understand why people spend half an hout at each feed station, arent they there to ride?

I think a few UK events need to look at the European Model, not everything can or needs to be an Etape du Tour to attract people

Aapje

ddraver wrote:

I ve yet to see a single sportive/race/MTB marathon with an entry fee for over EUR20 around the Netherlands/Germany/Belgium

The tour version of the Amstel Gold Race is 40 euro + 5 euro just to enter the lottery for an entry.

ddraver

Well shut my mouth - but then that is a "big" event (for Dutch/Belgians) like an Etape du Tour/Maratona, and probably on closed roads no?

ugo.santalucia

ddraver wrote:

Well shut my mouth - but then that is a "big" event (for Dutch/Belgians) like an Etape du Tour/Maratona, and probably on closed roads no?

Most local events in the continent are reasonably priced, around the 10-20 Euros mark... some are huge events and can afford to ask a lot more. That said, for 40 Euros you are riding the same roads as Cancellara and Gilbert, not some roads linking mining towns around the UK capital of teenage suicides.
The main difference is that over here sportives are sterile events, with nothing around them. You arrive, you park your car, you collect your chip, you set off, you ride (often solo) you finish, you get a bag full of leaflets and unwanted crap and you go home... done one, done them all... no wonder the novelty is wearing off

FransJacques

ugo.santalucia wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Well shut my mouth - but then that is a "big" event (for Dutch/Belgians) like an Etape du Tour/Maratona, and probably on closed roads no?

Most local events in the continent are reasonably priced, around the 10-20 Euros mark... some are huge events and can afford to ask a lot more. That said, for 40 Euros you are riding the same roads as Cancellara and Gilbert, not some roads linking mining towns around the UK capital of teenage suicides.
The main difference is that over here sportives are sterile events, with nothing around them. You arrive, you park your car, you collect your chip, you set off, you ride (often solo) you finish, you get a bag full of leaflets and unwanted crap and you go home... done one, done them all... no wonder the novelty is wearing off

Amen to that brother, well said.

What's the best sportive bike for the UK? A time trail bike. Most sportives I enter are 160 km time trials. Plain and simple. I barely see anyone, I don't ride with anyone.

There is a glut in the UK right now: this Sunday alone if you live in West London like I do you can ride the Russel Hill Rumble, the Evans Liphook, or the Blenheim Palace ride. All cost £20-30 and all will leave you feeling like you were one of only 10 or so people who showed up on the day.

It's all a bit depressing and makes one yearn for a continental ride. I think organizers should do more to encourage groups to ride together, but on the other hand they have to appease cops and townies that they won't send grupettos of 20-30 down lanes where 4x4s driven by local NIMBYs will mow them down.

ddraver

There was no mass start at the local sportive I did in leiden, but there were so many people doing it that if you started around the start time there was a group to ride in nearly the whole way round....

Christophe.cdb

Let's be honnest, a sportive in the UK easily costs 25 to 30 GBP, but some of these events hardly get 150 people over 3 distances... and as mentioned by someone in a previous post, you have the feeling you are on the road by yourself

In Belgium, similar type rides with free starts cost from 2 EUR for the local club organisations to 15-20 EUR for the corporate organisations who actually want to make bigger money from it.

I hope a lot of these organisers here come to their senses.... and lower the price and do something about the starting procedures... or else we will see more and more cancellations... which I don't mind to be honnest...

Rather pay 30 GBP once a year for a cyclo where there are people...
than 5 times where you are wondering whether you went of course as you can't see anyone...
And if that means I have to go to Italy or France or Belgium then so be it...

malcolmfrost

I must admit I struggle to see where a sportive entry of £35 or so comes from, compare with a triathlon like Windsor which charged £85 and had to shell out for safety boats, buoys, transition area and overnight security, road closures and a large police presence plus chip timing at swim exit, bike start and finish and run start and finish, and still provide times just after you finish. Oh and prize money as well in each age group for the top 3. And a t-shirt!

derek48

If you look at the thread on here 'Gran Fondo Eddy Merckx' you will get some idea of why some organisers think they can get away with charging £39 for an open road sportive.

rdt

When for just a few quid you can enter well organised rides with good routes like this week's White Peak audax or June's Shropshire Highland Challenge, it's good riddance to the many ludicrously priced soulless sportives that the cycling calendar has become infested with.

Philip Whiteman

rdt wrote:

When for just a few quid you can enter well organised rides with good routes like this week's White Peak audax or June's Shropshire Highland Challenge, it's good riddance to the many ludicrously priced soulless sportives that the cycling calendar has become infested with.

I have always heard excellent accounts about this event but it always clashed with my holidays.

Unlike main stream sportives, I gather that the Challenge is more like an audax but without the controls, etc.

Perhaps one day........

Incidentally, the Kidderminster Killer also passes through this area - an event that I assume responsibility for in 2012.

rdt

Philip Whiteman wrote:

I have always heard excellent accounts about this event but it always clashed with my holidays.

Unlike main stream sportives, I gather that the Challenge is more like an audax but without the controls, etc.

Perhaps one day........

Incidentally, the Kidderminster Killer also passes through this area - an event that I assume responsibility for in 2012.

I don't bother with controls on audaxes - it's all a bit stamp collecting for me - I'm just there for the ride. The Challenge sort of has controls, but they don't serve a huge purpose. So it's audax-like to some extent, but with a varied field of 600 - from club groups to teens on mountain bikes.

Sounds like your ride is roughly the Challenge x 2 in nature. So twice the cake too

briantrumpet

I've only done two (100-mile) sportives, both charity ones, and I can't see me doing any other than charity ones. Both have been well organised, have raised significant amounts for the charities concerned - even of one of them was quite expensive, I'm quite happy that I know where the profit will go. The cheaper of the two didn't bother with any timing - and it was just as enjoyable - about 500 riders ... enough to get little groups once riders have found their pace and place. But the 'reason' for the day for me was the raising money for charity, and the fun of doing that with lots of other people. Either ride I could have done solo, but chose not to.

Other than that, it's maps and solo riding, or riding with friends.

twotyred

ugo.santalucia wrote:

ddraver wrote:

Well shut my mouth - but then that is a "big" event (for Dutch/Belgians) like an Etape du Tour/Maratona, and probably on closed roads no?

Most local events in the continent are reasonably priced, around the 10-20 Euros mark... some are huge events and can afford to ask a lot more. That said, for 40 Euros you are riding the same roads as Cancellara and Gilbert, not some roads linking mining towns around the UK capital of teenage suicides.
The main difference is that over here sportives are sterile events, with nothing around them. You arrive, you park your car, you collect your chip, you set off, you ride (often solo) you finish, you get a bag full of leaflets and unwanted crap and you go home... done one, done them all... no wonder the novelty is wearing off

Spot on Ugo. UK Sportives are increasingly poor VFM taking higher and higher fees and doing nothing to improve. Frankly if the bottom falls out of their market it serves them right. Having now done my first continental sportive (La Marmotte) I've rapidly lost most of my enthusiasm for the UK Sportives. I'd rather do one good containental sportive all year than 10 in the UK.

andy_wrx

Perhaps the bubble has finally burst, finally too many organisers on the bandwagon.

Despite the self-serving reporting in Cycling Weakly and C+ describing sportives as 'epic rides', they are essentially the cycling equivalent of fun-runs, aimed at the relatively large number of people who've discovered cycling in the last few years but haven't joined the traditional club route and got into racing, TT'ing, touring or audaxing.

Some of the events work extremely well, but there are quite a lot of commercial organisers and charities who've reckoned they can make some money out of it and so the number of events has mushroomed to many times the number there were 4 or 5 years ago.

At the same time as people are cutting back a bit and so don't want to spend £25 or £30+ on entry, plus a tank of petrol getting there

Le Commentateur

British sportives are for the most part over-priced events that massage the ego of the entrants with timer systems, T-shirts, vanity photographs and comedy gradients. Perhaps they attract the kind of people who feel they're not getting value for money unless the event has all these elements and a price to match.

FransJacques

Amen to that as well, well said both of the last posts.

I have posted on a couple of occasions some of the most cringe-worthy sportive "hype" where the organizers make reference to "Alpine-like" climbs, or "leg-shattering" (100 meter long) "walls" or "for expert riders only" blah blah blah.

But it must turn on some folks cuz they keep coming.

derek48

Let's not tar them all with the same brush. I've done some great events this year, like the Dartmoor Classic and the Tour of the Black Mountains. Those events which don't offer something special in the way of great scenery and challenging riding will inevitably fold and that's the way it should be. What we will hopefully see is the survival of the fittest who offer good value for money and great routes. We all know who they are.

markos1963

Anything that gets people out on bikes has to be a good thing but I fail to see the attraction of a lot of UK sportives. The prices are crazy compared to the continental ones, I've given up on Uk sportives and will be saving up to do a continental one maybe once a year instead. I can get all I need in this country by going out with my club on a sunday; riders I know, trust and can get support from, various routes, cheap good quality food and a bit of competiveness. All this for a couple of quid.

bompington

This thread certainly seems to back up my opinion that the chief purpose of the modern sportive is to give cycling snobs an opportunity to moan about how popular their once-exclusive sport has become

markos1963

bompington wrote:

This thread certainly seems to back up my opinion that the chief purpose of the modern sportive is to give cycling snobs an opportunity to moan about how popular their once-exclusive sport has become

But is it that popular? Perhaps it's due to my area but I have done several sportives and spent most of the time riding alone due to the poor numbers

Gooner69

There are certainly loads of new events appearing every week.
Just look how many people are now "connected" to an event all of a sudden and you will see that whilst more are being held. Numbers attending each event appear to be falling, i.e same people + more events = fewer on the road.
Hopefully this will let people see that there isnt an easy profit to be made and they will look elswhere. I say this because recently lots seem to be being cancelled to to low attendance

Hopefully leaving the genuine cyclists/clubs/organisers to get on with holding events that are worth riding.

This is inevitable i guess, but it does still amaze me how some larger events are still attracting thousands of riders despite well publised problems.

As for wiggle/evans how can anyone compete with their financial clout? They can afford to run events at a loss just to broaden their customer base (lord knows they arent cheapest by a long shot) and keep their profile up.

David-Witts

Just too many events with Wiggle/Evans being the Tesco of sportives. Blitz the market place, copy and undercut the competition. Just a normal reflection of our economy but it does raise the standard and expectation of what a sportive needs to provide.

Enjoyed the events that I've entered SRS and Wiggle events and can see where my entry fee gets spent because of the organisation required. I can see one sportive in my area that has almost no entries and looks a good ride but the dates are far too close to a wiggle sportives to get more riders.

inkyfingers

I don't have a problem with people doing Sportives, you pay your money you take your choice. I personally will only do ones that raise money for charity as i'm not prepared to pay £25 just for someone to give me a number and a couple of free flapjacks and then ride around a course I can ride around for free,

rdt

inkyfingers wrote:

I don't have a problem with people doing Sportives, you pay your money you take your choice. I personally will only do ones that raise money for charity as i'm not prepared to pay £25 just for someone to give me a number and a couple of free flapjacks and then ride around a course I can ride around for free,

Or (true charity fund-raisers aside, I would hope), you don't pays your money and you takes your choice: avoid exorbitant entry fees, insure yourself against adverse weather DNSs, side-step start-line congestion, avoid crummy route sections, ensure food that's to your own taste and ride the "events" for free.

Seems increasingly popular....