Ride London Surrey 100 - No registration

Stedman

Boleynboy wrote:

Stedman wrote:

theotherjake wrote:

I was in wave B and no one checked my card or numbers, either on the bike or me.

I was also in wave B, but I had my card taken, numbers checked and I was even stopped from going into the pen because the marshal did not immediately see the separate number on the frame.

With ballot places changing hands on e-bay this year for £200, I wonder if the organisers are going to do anything special to specifically challenge this next year?

I cannot believe people were selling their places on ebay, is nothing sacred anymore!?

I saw two RL100 places being sold from someone in Northern Ireland via e-bay earlier in the year on the basis that they were not aware of the actual logistics required to get to the start, however when I asked the seller how they intended to transfer the registration, I got no reply.

The impression that I was left with was that this was someone who had simply entered the ballot with the intention of selling on any places that they had won for a significant margin!

b4ssy

My rider card had fallen out of my pocket and was lying on my kitchen floor unbeknown to me. When I told the female marshal that I had lost my card, she just waved me through.

Had I sold my entry to anyone else after collecting all the numbers etc. from Excel they would simply have been able to do the ride in my name. There was no identity check once the documents had been obtained.

There were also many riders in my wave who should not have been in that particular wave. I have also noticed that other big sportives, such as the dragon ride, are also very relaxed about adhering to allocated start times.

My take on this is that if, say, 80% of the riders stick to their allocated time it's not really going to cause any problems with overcrowding.

rich_e

I think you are right, it would be plain heartless to ask people to go home if they were late. Obviously though if they said it was fine, it would be chaos.

That said, if a lot of people who did it this year are doing it again next, it does bring up the issue of whether it will be even more rife.

What surprised me the most I felt were the number of people waiting for friends/clubs in the neutralised zone. Its not like it was even really onto the course either, it was loads of people waiting at the sides of the road on the first turn that begins to head out of the Park. I wonder if next year they will stop people doing that. Or perhaps move people on to wait further into the 2 miles before the start. Obviously if there wasn't the neutralised section, anyone concerned with their time wouldn't be stopped.

itboffin

oops there it is

Cliveyp

I hardly saw a useful Marshall around Black starts. The only time we saw any was a guy telling us to dismount when we were by the baggage trucks and another one just saying "black starts here" or similar. As I entered the wave pen there was no one to be seen, which was lucky as I forgot to take my rider card...