Is it ok to party crash a sportive?

Pross

Mikey23 wrote:

So it's ok to crash sportives because the organisers are big and bad and make exorbitant profits out of us poor plebs ... Blah, blah, blah, yawn...

Of course, you could stop being such a rissole and help out by volunteering to be a Marshall or summat and helping the community and ride the course at a different time than the 4 or 5 hours that it is on

Why volunteer as a Marshall at an event a company is running for profit and how is that helping the community? It's different if it's a charity event of course but something like the Dragon charging £45 or even more for a guaranteed entry is just profiteering on the back of an upsurge in the popularity of cycling. I can't recall seeing many of these events 20 years ago when you could go on a 50 mile ride and never see another cyclist. Personally I put my off the bike efforts into organising races that make zero profit in order to do my bit to keep the sport alive and also every Saturday morning giving up a couple of hours to coach the club's kids section. Better use of my time than volunteering to help make someone else money I reckon. Audax UK manage to put on similar events to sportives for just a few quid entry. I'm not anti sportive though, I ride a few a year and enjoy them but all this morality and insinuating it is some form of theft to ride the route is plainly nonsense.

gezebo

Given the shoddy way companies like k2g treat their customers I'd have no qualms in riding one if their 'routes' and in the case of k2g would have no issue in accessing the feed stations either. Eye for an eye! Although I'd view it a way of getting a refund following their recent cancelled sportive and refusal to communicate with me and deletion of polite questions posted on their fb page.

cyclingsheep

hipshot wrote:

Mikey23 wrote:

So it's ok to crash sportives because the organisers are big and bad and make exorbitant profits out of us poor plebs ... Blah, blah, blah, yawn...

Of course, you could stop being such a rissole and help out by volunteering to be a Marshall or summat and helping the community and ride the course at a different time than the 4 or 5 hours that it is on

:roll:

People are quite reasonably asking if its morally OK to ride on open roads while a sportive is on. I'd say that's being considerate.

Why don't you 'help the community' by being a little less uptight.

Sadly that's not quite what the OP was asking. It's not that he has a ride planned that just happens to go along the route of a sportive, what he actually wants to do is use the route marking provided and do it at a time he knows the sportive is being run so he has some company. I know the roads are open for all but his reason to do the said route is to take advantage of the organisation and promotion that whatever company/charity is running it.

hipshot

cyclingsheep wrote:

Sadly that's not quite what the OP was asking. It's not that he has a ride planned that just happens to go along the route of a sportive, what he actually wants to do is use the route marking provided and do it at a time he knows the sportive is being run so he has some company. I know the roads are open for all but his reason to do the said route is to take advantage of the organisation and promotion that whatever company/charity is running it.

It is precisely what the OP was asking, otherwise he would have just ridden it. I said nothing about riding the route by accident.

Commercial sportives take place on public roads without any reference to you or me, they run them and that's that. Someone taking advantage of their 'organisation and promotion' is fine by me, I have more important things to worry about.

cyclingsheep

hipshot wrote:

cyclingsheep wrote:

Sadly that's not quite what the OP was asking. It's not that he has a ride planned that just happens to go along the route of a sportive, what he actually wants to do is use the route marking provided and do it at a time he knows the sportive is being run so he has some company. I know the roads are open for all but his reason to do the said route is to take advantage of the organisation and promotion that whatever company/charity is running it.

It is precisely what the OP was asking, otherwise he would have just ridden it. I said nothing about riding the route by accident.

Commercial sportives take place on public roads without any reference to you or me, they run them and that's that. Someone taking advantage of their 'organisation and promotion' is fine by me, I have more important things to worry about.

Fine, so your response to the OP's question is NO, you don't think it's evil, where as mine is, it's not evil but if you want to take advantage of others work en pay the money

Mikey23

i used to be the sec of my local running club and put on an annual road race as part of the cornish grand prix. the amount of costs involved and the time put in is astronomical. sponsorship would only really allow us to break even. im sure the wiggles and ktg of this world do make profit but that is only going to happen if the punters turn up in sufficient numbers. did coasting in cornwall yesterday and i think i got good value for the £30 entry. i spoke to the organisers as well and was pretty impressed with the amount of hard graft they put in

my original post said not evil but ignorant...

Fursty Ferret

Did the White Horse challenge yesterday. Signs, marshalls, outriders, broom wagon, St John's ambulance, bags of food and drink, mobile bike repair at the start (free of charge) timings chips blah blah blah and of course the proceeds going to water-aid. Don't mind paying for that and yes, you're a miserable tightwad if your puposely crash the course just to escape a £30 quid fee, which you'd probably quite happily pour down your neck that night anyway.

nferrar

It's a tricky one IMO, for starters charity sportives (actual ones that give a large donation to the charity not that just use their name) shouldn't be done bandit-style but others are more of a grey area I think.
I've not ridden one bandit yet but I've felt ripped off afterwards on a few. I'm really not sure what profits some of the make (I know a lot struggle to see any return) and given the hassle and work involved in arranging them I don't begrudge paying £20-30 although even then I'm usually disappointed at the lack of any effort at feed-stops (I'd rather pay separately for feed-stops and have a choice other than supermarket bargain bucket plain mini-sponges...). Some events like the Dragon are really starting to the piss though and I'd have no qualms about riding that bandit in future having paid twice in the past. £45+ entry for non-closed roads is a joke unless they've vastly improved the facilities from previous years.

TKF

Yeah how dare companies make a profit out of a popular and often oversubscribed event? Evil corporations!

OP why not just ride the same route a week earlier/later?

Pross

The last sportive I rode advertised having NEG marshalls but there weren't any. There were no static marshalls and feed points were manned by people from local army cadet groups. The organisers put up a few direction arrows and a start finish area in the local park and that was about it. I think entry was about £25 so at the lower end and the feed stops were pretty good (though the final one was too far from the finish IMHO), I'd say it just about offered value for money and as it doesn't seem to sell out I would pay the same to enter again but certainly wouldn't pay any more. When you think for a road race with a field of 80 riders entries cost about £15 to £20 and the organiser has to pay out for NEG, CSAS marshalls, BC levy, prizes and commissaires / lead car expenses plus I suspect have to jump through more hoops on the paperwork side and someone is doing very well for themselves out of the larger sportives.

cyclingsheep

TKF wrote:

Yeah how dare companies make a profit out of a popular and often oversubscribed event? Evil corporations!

OP why not just ride the same route a week earlier/later?

Because as he said "it gets me a well marked out route and the company of other riders"

TKF

cyclingsheep wrote:

TKF wrote:

Yeah how dare companies make a profit out of a popular and often oversubscribed event? Evil corporations!

OP why not just ride the same route a week earlier/later?

Because as he said "it gets me a well marked out route and the company of other riders"

Sounds good. Worth paying for, even.

Guanajuato

I've only done the one sportive, which was a charity one (Jennings Rivers Ride), organised by a cycling group that works with the charity. So any profit made would be supporting the charity. I'd have a problem justifying taking advantage of their organisation of the event by riding it free. But there's nothing to stop someone. Interestingly, there's a commercial sportive that does pretty much the same route earlier in the year but charges more. Going to do it again this year - it was really well run and very relaxed. they catered for all abilities - this year they've added another route to challenge regular leisure cyclists who aren't nut jobs (it avoids Honister Pass). The family ride was great too. That's changed this year and looks an interesting proposition.

I've entered a commercial sportive this year (originally Kendal Sportive, but now transferred to Tough Trough) and the entry fee is a reasonable £15. I don't think I'd be confident doing 70+ miles by myself on unfamiliar roads. For the organisation and support (I think I might need it - someone may have to peel me off the tarmac around Bentham I think), its worth it.
On the other hand, I see events with entry fees of £30+, expecting thousands of entrants and very little evidence of supporting any charity. I'd not have a major issue with crashing the route. I'd feel a bit cheeky trying to ride the whole route, but if my own route on the day shared the roads for parts, so be it. Personally I'd avoid the route as it'd be rather busy.

NITR8s

Just to let everyone know, i didnt bother crashing the sportive in the end.

It wasnt because I felt it was the wrong thing to do, after reading all these posts. It was more along the lines of didnt get up on time.

By the way those of you who guessed the Exmoor Beauty were correct.

noiseboyfeetman

I've done it before when i've seen signs on one of my usual routes which pointed down a road i'd never ventured down before, followed the route for a bit until it joined back with my normal route then carried on my merry way only to stumble back upon the route further down the road.

Velonutter

I only tend to do Sportives if there is a different route to enjoy and if so then I look at what they are offering and feedback from usually on here, if all looks fine then I pay up and do it.

If they are local then I don't usually do them as I don't believe on paying to ride my own roads.

In addition I don't enjoy riding in the wet, so on that basis I may take a chance on their being places available, however if I roll up and there aren't any places available then I will out of courtesy drop the equivalent into the charity box and ride it with my mates, but I won't take anything at the feed stations, not even a cuppa at the end.

For events further afield like the Wild Wales, then it is only £15 and I pay up and if the weather is atrocious then it's only a pee in the ocean against what I spend on my bikes each year.

Yesterdays Audax was fully booked, so I didn't stop at the end or take any refreshments, I rode with my mates as I didn't manage to book in time.

It's all really using your common sense, taking something for nothing is theft, so I always weigh up on that basis.

There are some Sportive organisations that are taking the Pish, they always run out of food at the feed stations, offer crap hospitality and charge £25/£30 now they out of order and rely on the new riders coming through without prior knowledge, companies like that don't deserve a penny of my money.

Mikey23

I personally don't have a prob with paying £30 for a good, well organised event. The coasting in Cornwall hit the spot and was a great opportunity to ride with others in sleepy old Cornwall. Good backup and facilities. If it had been rubbish then I wouldn't come back next year. A local road race around here is about 20, the London marathon and the Plymouth half marathon are prestige events and cost more.

It's thatcher And her blooming global capitalism that's to blame...

cheaterkiller

But I see no problem riding on open roads the same time as some cycling event. Dont they require some sort of pass to use their facilities tho?

Mikey23

no, i think we came to that conclusion at the beginning of the thread. public roads is public roads... my point was simply that if you go along at the same time as an organised fee paying sportive with the obvious intention of riding the route with the paying punters but for free, then you are being a little ignorant and might attract some unwelcome attention. and to argue that its ok because the organisers of these events are evil/unscrupulous/racketeering is just pathetic..

cheaterkiller

I have been riding along when marshels for some event have tried directing me. Even tho I never enter events, some people may assume you are. Not my fault tho. I go where I wanna go in my own time. I never even try to bother with anyone whether they are in an event or otherwise. Point is that if theres something going on at the time of my ride, I will ride that route anyway regardless if it pisses off a few organisers.

bigmat

Rolf F wrote:

BigMat wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

I think I sort of agree with topcattim!

I did ride the Grimpeurs de Wolds one year with a friend who had paid. The reason I didn't was that I'd paid the year before and turned up on the wrong day! I still rode the route that day and emailed the organisers to claim my T shirt as I'd effectively paid for it (and mention that they hadn't taken all their signs down) and they didn't reply. So I considered myself morally justified going the following year and not paying (and I'd have actually felt wrong paying!).

But I did feel a bit guilty cycling around without the number and in other circumstances I wouldn't do it. You can always go another week - the routes are available on the websites and if you have a GPS you can follow that just as well as the route signs.

Are you doing it this year Rolf? Starts / finishes at my old school! Doing it this year for first time since the inaugural one (2008?)

TBH, I've got out of the habit of doing Sportives so I hadn't thought about it. I rather like the route though and it's a tempting thought.

It will be my first sportive for around 18 months - was swayed by it being near my family and also need to get some training in for the Ride100 London Surrey thing a couple of weeks later. I remember it being a great course though.

shmo

The Chilterns Dipper sportive gatecrashed my 20-mile spin last sunday. At first I thought it was a club ride but couldn't understand why so many serious looking cyclists were riding so slowly. Turns out they were half-way into a 100 miler. Even commented to someone that "it's almost like a sportive" as I overtook them who must have thought I was mentally deficient in retrospect.

Was quite fun until I looped around and started travelling in the opposite direction to the sportive route. Took way longer than usual as I had to nod/bow/salute everyone to fulfill my rider acknowledgement quota for the forums.

Mikey23

You could have just been grumpy and joined the contrary view rider acknowledgent team ...