Organising a Sportive

simonhead

A local charity that I am involved with have asked me to look at organising a charity sportive. I know there are flaming hundreds in and around Surrey but we want to do something a bit different. Rather than do the ride in the traditional format we came up with the idea of a cycle treasure hunt/orienteering ride where participants have to complete a number of tasks and solve clues as well as visiting various places.

I have looked at the costs involved including insurance, food stops and goodie bags as well as a support centre for mechanicals and first aid.

The plan is to do 2 challenges, 1 where the shortest distance is 35 miles and another where the shortest is about 70. Costing wise we are looking at about £20 a head for the short and £28 for the long with a big bowl of noodles at the end.

I was hoping people would offer feedback and advice as to how we could make the event something a bit special.

t4tomo

I know there are flaming hundreds in and around Surrey

this and not just Surrey

we came up with the idea of a cycle treasure hunt/orienteering ride where participants have to complete a number of tasks and solve clues as well as visiting various places

not sure how that will work. Middle-aged dentists just want to pretend tey in the tour de france and race against each other, not have to stop and think. if they think to much they will question why they are paying £28 for a bowl of noodles, albeit a big one.

simona75

Maybe look to drop the distances and make this a family orientated event. Looks like something that people with kids might like

noiseboyfeetman

Have you looked at The Joker sportive? They do a slightly different take on the usual sportive where there offer alternative sections of route and you collect Joker cards. I've not done it but it sounds interesting. Obviously you don't want to just rip that idea off, but some kind of take on it could be good.

mrfpb

I think you mean a road version of this : http://www.gorrick.com/trailtrax/index.php

Trailtrax has been running a few years now. I've not done it myself but it may be worth talking to them about how they do it.

simonhead

mrfpb wrote:

I think you mean a road version of this : http://www.gorrick.com/trailtrax/index.php

Trailtrax has been running a few years now. I've not done it myself but it may be worth talking to them about how they do it.

Much appreciated, that is exactly the type of thing we were thinking about.

markhewitt1978

simonhead wrote:

The plan is to do 2 challenges, 1 where the shortest distance is 35 miles and another where the shortest is about 70. Costing wise we are looking at about £20 a head for the short and £28 for the long with a big bowl of noodles at the end.

Why two seperate ones? Many sportives have different routes running at the same time. You could easily have a 35 mile and 70 mile loop with the same start and end points.

As you've said yourself there are already loads.

simonhead

markhewitt1978 wrote:

simonhead wrote:

The plan is to do 2 challenges, 1 where the shortest distance is 35 miles and another where the shortest is about 70. Costing wise we are looking at about £20 a head for the short and £28 for the long with a big bowl of noodles at the end.

Why two seperate ones? Many sportives have different routes running at the same time. You could easily have a 35 mile and 70 mile loop with the same start and end points.

As you've said yourself there are already loads.

Sorry yeh start and end points would be the same as would some of the control points, the 70 would be an extension of the 35.

markhewitt1978

BTW big bowl of noodles? I personally wouldn't be able to face a bowl of noddles at the end of a 70 mile ride.

simonhead

markhewitt1978 wrote:

BTW big bowl of noodles? I personally wouldn't be able to face a bowl of noddles at the end of a 70 mile ride.

Ahhh these are special, one of the ladies who helps out is Thai so does amazing noodles in a really light broth, they are not heavy at all and taste amazing. We would offer an alternative.

menthel

Getting cards stamped at specific check points having found your way there on a bike. Sounds strangely familiar to me...

ugo.santalucia

I think your charity should join an existing event... organising an event from scratch is a lot of work and we really don't need any more sportives...

Pumpkin Positive

British Cycling have regional events officers whose job it is to advise on such matters - http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/member ... Contacts-0

simonhead

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I think your charity should join an existing event... organising an event from scratch is a lot of work and we really don't need any more sportives...

We would love to, the problem seems to be that unless you are a major charity you dont get a look in. I spoke to the Ride London organisers and asked them how to go about getting charity places, we would only require a half dozen places and the big boys are booking 200-300.

simonhead

Pumpkin Positive wrote:

British Cycling have regional events officers whose job it is to advise on such matters - http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/member ... Contacts-0

Really appreciated

ugo.santalucia

simonhead wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I think your charity should join an existing event... organising an event from scratch is a lot of work and we really don't need any more sportives...

We would love to, the problem seems to be that unless you are a major charity you dont get a look in. I spoke to the Ride London organisers and asked them how to go about getting charity places, we would only require a half dozen places and the big boys are booking 200-300.

Alright, but you started from the very pinnacle... maybe start from a lesser event than that pile of corporate burocrats...

markhewitt1978

Look at UKCyclingEvents and Evans Cycles. Evans especially did a sportive in cooperation with the Muckle Toon Festival so they are not adversed to working with outside parties.

essjaydee

Sounds like an interesting idea. Having been actively involved with organising this http://www.sharetheroadride.co.uk here are my thoughts which you may find useful.

You really need support and help, so I hope it's not just you doing all the work. Set up a group with assigned roles and responsibilities, and someone to chair and steer everything. Really try and quantify the costs up front and how you can fund these expenses. Will you need a seperate bank account? Easy to set up but takes a few weeks to sort.

We have booked the start/finish in a sports arena and also booked a village hall to use as a feed stop (££), posters, entry forms and any other promotional materials, route signs including laminating them. It's surprising how the little things can add up quite quickly and take a lot of time and effort to produce, even if you do it yourselves! Insurance cost £60 for 100 riders or part of.

Contact local councils and police around the area of your route and give them as much information on what you are doing and when, and get there agreement on it. This needs to be done early as possible.

Contact the energy product suppliers. We found one that was more than willing to support charity events at greatly reduced costs which we have used to encourage entrants. Contact as many local bike shops and see if they are willing to support or help. We were amazed at the generosity of most at donating goods or services and have a great selection of goodies for a free raffle for all entrants. National retailers are worth a shot also. Also cotact local cycling cafes who are usually willing to promote the event and may offer support.

Get into the social media side to help promote it, Facebook, Twitter etc, and contact local papers, radio stations to see if they will help promote also. Do you need a dedicated website? Worth a thought but can add to the cost and you really need someone who can run this easily.

We have also been offered a local band, and maybe something you might want to consider, but probably only worth it if you have other events going on at the start/finish place at the same time e.g kids face painting, bouncy castle and other stuff to attract families too. Worth considering at the event planning stage.

It's a LOT of hard work and hassle, but rewarding also.
Hope this helps and good luck with it

simonhead

essjaydee wrote:

Sounds like an interesting idea. Having been actively involved with organising this http://www.sharetheroadride.co.uk here are my thoughts which you may find useful.

You really need support and help, so I hope it's not just you doing all the work. Set up a group with assigned roles and responsibilities, and someone to chair and steer everything. Really try and quantify the costs up front and how you can fund these expenses. Will you need a seperate bank account? Easy to set up but takes a few weeks to sort.

We have booked the start/finish in a sports arena and also booked a village hall to use as a feed stop (££), posters, entry forms and any other promotional materials, route signs including laminating them. It's surprising how the little things can add up quite quickly and take a lot of time and effort to produce, even if you do it yourselves! Insurance cost £60 for 100 riders or part of.

Contact local councils and police around the area of your route and give them as much information on what you are doing and when, and get there agreement on it. This needs to be done early as possible.

Contact the energy product suppliers. We found one that was more than willing to support charity events at greatly reduced costs which we have used to encourage entrants. Contact as many local bike shops and see if they are willing to support or help. We were amazed at the generosity of most at donating goods or services and have a great selection of goodies for a free raffle for all entrants. National retailers are worth a shot also. Also cotact local cycling cafes who are usually willing to promote the event and may offer support.

Get into the social media side to help promote it, Facebook, Twitter etc, and contact local papers, radio stations to see if they will help promote also. Do you need a dedicated website? Worth a thought but can add to the cost and you really need someone who can run this easily.

We have also been offered a local band, and maybe something you might want to consider, but probably only worth it if you have other events going on at the start/finish place at the same time e.g kids face painting, bouncy castle and other stuff to attract families too. Worth considering at the event planning stage.

It's a LOT of hard work and hassle, but rewarding also.
Hope this helps and good luck with it

Really useful, thankyou for the advice.

DaveMoss

lok at www.btck.co.uk for free and easy to use website hosting.

Assuming you will have plenty of willing volunteers from the charity supporters, I expect your event will be better than most of the commercial supposed "professional" events out there. don't call it a sportive if it isn't a sportive, what you describe isn't. Don't be afraid of just doing a straightforward sportive, yours will be better than many of the others I'm sure.