Dragon Ride / Etape Cymru double entry offer!!

nunowoolmez
nunowoolmez Posts: 867
edited January 2012 in Sportives/audaxes/training rides
Had an email today telling me about the offer of a guaruanteed entry for both Etape Cymru & the Dragon Ride. This would cost me £100. If i can get the days off from work i will seriously consider it. Missed out on the Dragon but hadn't considered it. It is my aim this year to enter tougher more challenging events with higher mileage & more climbing. I was lucky enough to get a place on the Fred Whitton & have some others in the diary, just wondering if people think this is a good deal? It would be a lot of travelling & money with the petrol & accomodation.

Is anyone else considering this?

Any thoughts appreciated...

Cheers

Comments

  • Rodrego Hernandez
    Rodrego Hernandez Posts: 1,436
    Waste of money.
  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    Sounds like a great deal: instead of having one event to moan about (prior to rushing to sign up for the following year)... you get two for a mere £100.
  • nunowoolmez
    nunowoolmez Posts: 867
    Decided against doing this, common sense prevailed in the end! Gonna sign up for the AMR Peak 100 which runs on.same day as the Dragon. Did it last year & was incredibly tough! Probably have the best food on any sportive around, which is a nice bonus!
  • spokegeezer
    spokegeezer Posts: 86
    nunowoolmez wrote:
    Decided against doing this, common sense prevailed in the end! Gonna sign up for the AMR Peak 100 which runs on.same day as the Dragon. Did it last year & was incredibly tough! Probably have the best food on any sportive around, which is a nice bonus!


    Yeah, and you might even get an energy Gel, which is more than you will get on the Dragon Event, read the webpage - apparently they dont want any wrappers littering the course, but you would have thought people will now need to take extra ones themselves. Barking............ ripofff
  • Participate Sport
    Participate Sport Posts: 1
    As the new organisers of both the events in the Dragon Double, we are intent on investing heavily on the full cyclist experience, ranging from the start process, village experience, venues, road safety and closures, feed stations and much more. We have a deep understanding of what it takes to get this experience right and your cycling experience is core to our ethos. We hope to see many of you at both events, quite a few have taken the challenge on already...
  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    Participate Sport wrote:
    As the new organisers of both the events in the Dragon Double, we are intent on investing heavily on the full cyclist experience, ranging from the start process, village experience, venues, road safety and closures, feed stations and much more. We have a deep understanding of what it takes to get this experience right and your cycling experience is core to our ethos. We hope to see many of you at both events, quite a few have taken the challenge on already...

    Heh heh, and the last lot who ran the Dragon promised improvements every year...and, to be fair, they did seem to get more complaints every single year... only to be ultimately topped by the Etape Cymru in its first year. Way to go. Two crackers for the calendar.
  • napoleond
    napoleond Posts: 5,992
    Wtf?! Two sportives for £100?!
    You could do 4 Polocini ones for that and they have really good, proper food and bag of CNP goodies...
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  • rdt
    rdt Posts: 869
    These rides are on public roads, so anyone interested can simply ride the routes for nothing, if that's what they fancy doing. That would have the added benefit of allowing you to choose your ideal start time, independent of some organisers' attempts to funnel you into a 2 hour toilet-less queue for your depart. Of course, you must provide your own refreshments en route, but "pockets" and "shops" should deal with this nicely. And you won't have an official time, but then they don't always seem to work anyway, so you could always use a "watch".

    Then, that £100 could go a long way on entry fees for events that, for example, use club volunteers to keep their costs to a minimum, with the added bonus that such events often contribute their "profits" to local charitable good causes. What's not to like about supporting local clubs and charities?

    But each to their own of course, and may the rich tapestry of the cycling world continue, so the best of luck to the event organisers.
  • Wirral_paul
    Wirral_paul Posts: 2,476
    nunowoolmez wrote:
    Decided against doing this, common sense prevailed in the end! Gonna sign up for the AMR Peak 100 which runs on.same day as the Dragon. Did it last year & was incredibly tough! Probably have the best food on any sportive around, which is a nice bonus!

    Try a Polocini rides - you can get 6 events this year for a little over £100 and get great food too from what i'm told by those who did them last year. I should be doing them all - £22 for the "Winter Sprinter" in March is next
  • nunowoolmez
    nunowoolmez Posts: 867
    Great, certainly will check them out! Seems they have quite a following on these here pages.
  • Wirral_paul
    Wirral_paul Posts: 2,476
    nunowoolmez wrote:
    Great, certainly will check them out! Seems they have quite a following on these here pages.

    A nice review here which also contains a video of the Swiss Hill climb........http://philsroadbikingblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/polocini-winter-sprinter-2011.html
  • Stedman
    Stedman Posts: 377
    NapoleonD wrote:
    Wtf?! Two sportives for £100?!
    You could do 4 Polocini ones for that and they have really good, proper food and bag of CNP goodies...

    Or at least 20 Audaxes.

    If it is higher milage that you want, then there are 10 x 600k events and even one 1000k event in Scotland this year!
  • dead sheep
    dead sheep Posts: 109
    After last year - never again. I would rather eat cardboard.

    Take Stedman's or Wirral Paul's advise, consider investing your entry fee elsewhere.

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