Riders desperately needed for marathon one-day charity ride

Ride2Raise

I hope it's OK to post this in here.

We are in danger of having to cancel a charity ride on June 1st this year for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity because, despite lots of interest in what will be an unusual and very challenging ride, the only two riders who had actually signed up so far for the event have now had to pull out.

The ride is 192 miles in one day (although it could be dropped to 96 miles if needed) so is a huge challenge and this has appealed to lots of people because of the distance, but the charity have not been as committed to recruiting riders as we would have liked and for some reason people just haven't signed up for the event.

We only need six riders to make this event worthwhile and 12 riders would make it a big success. It isn't a race, or even a timed event, and it will feature all of the personal and professional service that all of our events enjoy - with Ride Manager, Support Team and food & drink included. It is intended to be a small group of riders enjoying cycling together over a huge distance to raise money for a worthwhile charity.

Details are here http://www.raisemagazine.co.uk/go-the-distance-with-fitnaturally-for-the-royal-marsden/ if anyone is interested in signing up.

Brakeless

I'm in no doubt that it's for a great cause but there aren't actually many cyclists capable of 192 miles in a day. The ones that are are going to be probably going to be pretty commited Audaxers who generally don't do 'commercial, charity events. Most successful charity rides actually make thier money from 'non regular' cyclists who are just about able to ride 40 to 50 miles in a day. Plus £49 registration fee and a minimum £500 sponsership required is over the top. Who ever thought this event up didn't really have much of a clue about the target market!

Ride2Raise

Thanks for your reply, I don't disagree with anything you say.

The details of the event were rather forced upon us, we would have chosen to do it differently, but unfortunately it is what it is and I fear that will actually end up being nothing.

Grill

Clownshoes.
Audaxes:
300k - £6
400k - £9
600k - £25 (includes food)
1400k - £219 (food, lodging, bag drops included)

So why should I pay £549 to put around with you folk? Answers on a post card please...

Ride2Raise

I think you're missing the point of what a charity event is… What you can pay to ride elsewhere isn't really relevant, this was aimed at cyclists who wanted a major challenge and had a desire to raise money for a specific charity. Many people - cyclists and otherwise - have reasons to be thankful for the work Royal Marsden do.

Using your logic I know of people who have paid over £3,000 to jog around London on a Sunday!

Brakeless was correct in that generally cyclist who are capable of covering this kind of distance are not the type of cyclists who go in for charity rides.

In hindsight perhaps it was unlikely we'd get enough riders although initially, when the ride was announced at the beginning of the year, we had a large amount of interest. Unfortunately that hasn't converted into signed up riders.

It's a shame, it would be a great challenge and a huge achievement to most riders.

JSS

It feels to me (as someone who doesn't know a lot about the charity ride market) that there are just too many events this summer competing for too few riders.

If an event like Bike Blenheim Palace can't make the economics work then there must be a decent number of events that are struggling to get more than 20 or 30 riders signed up. I know one organiser who told me he was running at about 20% of expected sign ups for a July event because once there would have been three sportives on that weekend and now there are at least 15.

Grill

Charity begins in the home; namely mine. When they get rid of the N+1 rule I may consider giving away my hard earned cash.

Ride2Raise

Hate to break it to you but there is no N+1 rule.

Grill

For your edification: http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/#12
Rules 1, 2, and 4 can also be applied in this situation.

Ride2Raise

Nope, sorry. 1 bike's plenty whether it's a Brompton or a Venge.

And if that makes me a twatwaffle so be it. Rules are for fools.

Grill

Well Tim, perhaps you should have a word with your team as Tony, Dave, and Aidan all have multiple bikes. Methinks you just don't want your new office nickname to be "twatwaffle".

Ride2Raise

Nothing wrong with having more than one bike - I have three - but it's not a rule. I have them because I enjoy cycling, not because of some made-up charter.

'The Rules' are BS.

Grill

Really? Are you sure? But they're on the internet! Woe is me, I can't believe I allowed myself to be taken as a fool.

Quick, I must sell all my bikes in order to fund a new ElliptiGO and an entry in a supported training ride so I that I too can wear the chopper badge with pride!

Stedman

Two years ago I floated a hypothesis on this forum that the sportive/organised commercial cycling scene was going to overheat with a number of good events already clashing. Last year I saw examples of this where the numbers were significantly down on the CTC Phil Ligget Challenge Ride and a local Audax event has already been bumped out of its traditional July slot into September.

With the Ride London 100 alone taking 20,000 riders out of the equation, I wonder if this is what we are seeing?

Bobbinogs

Personally, I don't get the whole 'sponsor me to ride a bike' thing, fullstop. I love riding my bike so if I was offered the chance of a cycling holiday, say from London to Paris fully supported, then I don't see how on earth I could ask my friends and colleagues to pay the requisite charity chunk to enable me to do it regardless of how good the cause was.

I think the major problem in this instance is not that the market has overheated (Dragon tickets anyone? Spare tickets for the Fred?), it is more a case that this idea (a 192 mile 'featureless ride) is exactly as others have said, just a bad idea given the requisite funding and price.

buckmulligan

Unfortunately, as others have pointed out (some tactfully, others like total tw@ts) the kind of people who would be able to complete a 192 mile ride are the kind of people who ride their bikes long distances for the of it fun and wouldn't think of asking people for sponsorship money to do so. I understand your sentiments that not everyone is like this and some people do get sponsored thousands of pounds to run a 10k, but finding people that meet these two (almost mutually exclusive) criteria is going to be hard.

Having said that, I read your link and it looks like a great cause so I hope you can find the participants to make it a success. Good luck!

And the rules are complete BS.

Ride2Raise

Thank you.

We will learn from this and, even if the event doesn't happen, I'm sure we'll re-think it and come up with another format which will appeal - maybe later in the year - in which riders will enjoy raising significant funds for the charity while pushing themselves to achieve something personally special.

mroli

Bobbinogs wrote:

Personally, I don't get the whole 'sponsor me to ride a bike' thing, fullstop. I love riding my bike so if I was offered the chance of a cycling holiday, say from London to Paris fully supported, then I don't see how on earth I could ask my friends and colleagues to pay the requisite charity chunk to enable me to do it regardless of how good the cause was.

I agree to a certain extent. I think it should be clear how much the event costs and the participant should pay that. Anything else is direct money to the charity and it is fine to fundraise for that.