RLS100 2014

Anonymous

So, the Prologue is complete and the course fully recce'd

Who wants to do that again and has signed up for a guaranteed place already?

Just registered with BHF (put the price up 20%!) so I am in :P

davep1

Are you sure you're in? The ballot doesn't open til Monday.

Anonymous

I have paid BHF £50, so yes I am in one way or another ;-)

I will enter the ballot and may get in that way, but whatever happens I am have a place for the 10th of Aug 2014.

getnoticed

I'll take my chances in the ballot but am sure the charity places will still be available if I am unsuccessful.

Training has already started, and my aim is to beat Boris's 2013 time

Anonymous

I just want to be sure.
I will not be able to raise any money as I did this year so if I do not get in on the ballot I might look out for a cheaper charity option.
Lowest I saw this year was £350 for a fireman charity.
Next year may be tougher and BHF could even go to £750 nearer the time?

vamos tony

Is anybody going to predict the time the web sites crashes on Monday when the ballot opens. I’ll give it about 5 mins.

Anonymous

Is there a reason to rush?
How quickly do you think the 80,000 entries will take to fill?
Is it like the marathon where you get in by your fifth go?
If so, does being a previous charity rider count against you?
I am planning to pay worse case scenario. Getting in on the ballot will be a bonus.

vamos tony

80k will be gone in the first day. just think of all the charity places that have already come out of that number.

Anonymous

It took forever to fill the first ballot cut off point. In fact I do not think they actually reached it. Didn't they reach the time cut off point first?
Will be a big indication of how much of a wake up call the inaugural event was if 80,000 is reached in day one.

davep1

I'll try the ballot first - I missed the cut off this year (I think it was about Jan 4 so what with New Year and going back to work, I wasn't thinking about bike rides in August!) and got in with Alzheimers Society in the middle of January.

They asked me to raise £750 though, and I haven't the brass neck to ask that again this year of friends and family.

I really really don't want to miss 2014 though! Want to get in under 5 hours...

rich_e

vamos tony wrote:

80k will be gone in the first day. just think of all the charity places that have already come out of that number.

The ballot didn't close early for this years event though as the total was never reached.

Obviously the interest in taking part next year will be at its peak right now, as I know of at least one friend who has a mountain bike who now intends to enter. I think Boris being able to complete it has certainly shown that you don't need to be super fit and that will spur a lot of people on, which as he said himself was what he was trying to show that the event is for everyone.

So while the interest is high, what skews that is that remember that this event itself was announced after the Olympics, had a good deal of publicity and already had many people signing up to it who didn't even own bicycles or had never done any proper riding. So arguably, the interest level is likely not that much different to last year.

make mine a triple

My prediction for what its worth is that the ballot will fill up quicker this year, & that the standard of riders will be higher. Before this event there were about 7 or 8 in our club that got in, many had never heard of it at the time of the first ballot, and a lot that did thought it was a gimmick or wouldn't be anything special. If our club is anything to go by, those of us who did it have been on FB / club rides this week raving about it*, and they have all seen 'lesser riders' like me smash their best 100 mile times. Cycling is all about your 'numbers' and if you average 19mph plus on a club ride, and someone like me who usually averages 16ish tells them they just did a ton at 19.5 believe me you are not going to pass up that opportunity, *(I didn't even mentioned the free salad cream)

Anonymous

^This pretty much hits the nail on the head.
I told two club mates to enter when I heard about it and neither bothered. They were kicking themselves nearer the time that they had not gone for the ballot, then kicked themselves again as it got nearer and wished they had got a charity place.
Even when it happened they were surprised at how big a deal it was.
They will not be making the same mistake again I bet.

It was an unknown quantity before.
I think loads more people will enter the ballot for 2014, and certainly a lot faster.
The 80,000 will definitely be reached before the cut off date this time.

P.S. There are only 79,999 left now as I have my place for 2014.

I did not get in on the ballot this year and figure my chances are slimmer for next.

vamos tony

The free salad cream will bring in 000’s alone. Most of my mates had not heard about this until the ballot was closed last time. Now they know.

Slo Mo Jones

Carbonator wrote:

P.S. There are only 79,999 left now as I have my place for 2014.

?

The ballot hasn't opened yet

Anonymous

Slo Mo Jones wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

P.S. There are only 79,999 left now as I have my place for 2014.

?

The ballot hasn't opened yet

You can pay for a guaranteed charity place though ;-)

simona75

I believe there were 20,000 plus places issued this year (I had a number in the 21,000's so I guess so) However I also noticed that there were only 15,000 or so people taking part. If there is a 25%+ drop out rate every year they could quite easily issue a few thousand extra spots

Anonymous

I thought it was 15,000 that finished, not started?

rich_e

Slo Mo Jones wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

P.S. There are only 79,999 left now as I have my place for 2014.

?

The ballot hasn't opened yet

He said in the opening post that he already got a place through a charity.

I don't think the ballot places and charity places are linked anyway. So if it closes at 80,000 ballot entries, that then gets drawn into whatever number of places are allocated to the ballot. The remainder go to sponsor places and charity places, which I would imagine they will increase or decrease based on how it went this year. I seem to recall that some charities still had places right at the end, so perhaps didn't manage to use them all.

Anonymous

Raising that much money is a big ask.
I did it this year but have used my get out of jail card now.
Its ballot or an expensive weekend for me from now on.

On the bright side, when charities knock on the door I can say that my charity pot is all spent, but if they have any RLS100 places going cheap, the cash is theirs for the taking ;-)

BHF have upped their price by 20% but maybe the charities will end up having a clearance sale on places.
Might even end up with voucher codes lol

Slo Mo Jones

Carbonator wrote:

Slo Mo Jones wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

P.S. There are only 79,999 left now as I have my place for 2014.

?

The ballot hasn't opened yet

You can pay for a guaranteed charity place though ;-)

Which isn't related to the ballot. So there are 80,000 places in the ballot available.

davep1

Would love to know how the numbers work out. I saw riders with 25,800+; the announcer at the start was talking about 16,500 on the day, and it looks like circa 15k finished. I guess some would be forced to quit with mechanical issues or fitness.

If they managed to push the pro-race start back, and worked on the bottlenecks, they could probably get more people through the course. I can't see how they could start any earlier, unless the first hour was dedicated to people living/staying within 10 miles of the start. Having said that most of the course could have taken more people, in my experience.

How many places get given to charities? It felt like a lot to me, but have no idea of the numbers. I understand the charities wanting to get a lot of sponsorship for their places, but surely if they had lower pledged targets they would fill all their places.

Anonymous

Slo Mo Jones wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

Slo Mo Jones wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

P.S. There are only 79,999 left now as I have my place for 2014.

?

The ballot hasn't opened yet

You can pay for a guaranteed charity place though ;-)

Which isn't related to the ballot. So there are 80,000 places in the ballot available.

A/ It was kind of a joke in the first place and B/I am not too bothered about numbers and what comes from where as I have a place.

Anonymous

DaveP1 wrote:

How many places get given to charities? It felt like a lot to me, but have no idea of the numbers. I understand the charities wanting to get a lot of sponsorship for their places, but surely if they had lower pledged targets they would fill all their places.

I guess as many as they want to buy and then the rest get put in the ballot to be shared out amongst the 80.000.
There are lots of other people taking up non ballot places, so I think you have a slim chance of a ballot place if the charities did well out of it and are going to buy more entries.

BHF have upped the pledges they want from people by 20% so I am guessing they will also buy more places if they can.
Its a fundraising event so I cannot see why they will be held back from having more places.

People will be more likely than last year to go for a charity place.

MattPillinger

While I am all for the charitable side of event, I hope that RL100 organisers don't allow charities to take up such a huge proportion of total places that it becomes like the London Marathon and non charitable entrants have a very slim chance of getting in.

I'm fortunate enough to have done RL100 this year (got a place through Wiggle), but have never done London Marathon (6 ballot rejections), I've done various other events though (Vienna Marathon, Reading Half Marathon *4 , London Triathlon * 2).

As a result potential sponsors obviously know that I am fit enough to do these events and so are less likely to sponsor me - basically it's not really a huge challenge for me.

Also, I aren't inclined to do it for charity when the charities are paying large sums to the organisers for their places and therefore a good proportion of your sponsors money is going back to the organisers

I'm sure some will disagree, these are just my views. I don't want RL100 to become a giant charity event when it should really be about the pleasure of cycling.

davep1

+1 Matt!

Anonymous

It never really seemed know what it was (charity event or cycling event) and IMO it cannot really be both.

It seems doomed to go further down the charity/fundraising route and I am glad I have done the fundraising option this time and got it out of the way. I will never be asking anyone to sponsor me again as I do not believe in it.
I would have raised some funds for charity this time (as its a charity event pretty much) if I had got a ballot place, but not as much as I did.

My plan is to hopefully get in on the ballot in the next 2 years and pay for one of them the other. That way I get to do three for about £300 each, which to me is easily worth it.

roadiemk

I'm hoping for a ballot place this time around, after being unsuccessful in this years ballot. But we shall see.
After watching this years event I wished I had entered via a charity place. The whole event looked fantastic.

Der Kaiser

I am going to put myself into the ballot again this year. I have done more sportives since the rejection this year so I must be a shoe in?

Or maybe I should just not put anything down and claim to not know what a bike is?

I agree with Matt on the charity side of things. If it is a legacy event of the Olympics then forcing people down the ride for charity route is going to restrict access to the event to people which kind of defeats the object of it.

Charities have become, for want of a better word, aggressive fundraisers over the last few years. You can't walk down most high streets without a chugger approaching you. If you watch TV during the day then you are bombarded with appeals. I am at heart a charitable person and I give to charity on a regular basis (collection pots) and have done rides and runs to raise funds. I just feel some charities are almost businesslike in their approach.

I bet that if they did away with the charity spaces then plenty would sign up for fundraising. I know I would.

mididoctors

its an easy ride though, its the sportive equivalent of the metro suduko ...so the charity option is there. you can get a load of fat commuters around in under 10 hours. boris did it in 8.

I think they want riders across the spectrum and I suspect it will go the way of the marathon. The whole set up is so "pro PR". immense backup from the media and governance.

I suspect the company that runs this event will end up having very well paid managers as does the marathon.

rich_e

mididoctors wrote:

its an easy ride though, its the sportive equivalent of the metro suduko ...so the charity option is there. you can get a load of fat commuters around in under 10 hours. boris did it in 8.

I think they want riders across the spectrum and I suspect it will go the way of the marathon. The whole set up is so "pro PR". immense backup from the media and governance.

As I pointed out earlier, that is what Boris said when he finished, by completing it he showed it is not just for the elite. The comments made by organisers also suggest that they deliberately chose experienced people this year and next year is likely to be opened up more to less experienced riders and those who many take a long time.

I myself already have a couple of friends who want to sign up who aren't really massive cyclists, mostly just commuters on hybrids and mountain bikes.

I suspect the company that runs this event will end up having very well paid managers as does the marathon.

Ride London is run by exactly the same people who run the London Marathon. I guess you didn't realise that, but its likely one of the reasons everything was run so smoothly, as they have such great experience with mass participation events.