Ride London 2014

PhildB

Does anyone have any idea when applicants will be informed whether they've made the ballot or not?

StuBradley

February 2014

Anonymous

Wife has entered this year too.
Thinking she will probably get a place and I will have to pay :-(

They asked for your time if you did the first one so wondering if a faster or slower time (if any) would help in the ballot?
If they are going to increase the number of riders I guess it helps if they have a firm idea of how long some riders will take to do the course.

davep1

They should do something about the no-shows. 2013 was meant to be for 20,000 riders, I think less than 16,000 turned up on the day. Could they not have a "bank" of people who live less than 10-20 miles away from the start and get them involved?

Anonymous

Do you live less than 10-20 miles from the start by any chance? 8)

Yes, that many people not turning up was plain silly.
Some people would have even been at the event with their bike but just did not get in on the ballot.

There were a couple of ladies from Cirencester staying in my hotel who came all the way to London to ride on the Saturday Freecycle.

Stedman

My disappointment is that they don’t have a good for age time qualification category as do for the London Marathon! I am sure that if they did, I would have already qualified.

Pumpkin Positive

I'm in for 2014! Having deferred my entry last year for (genuine) medical reasons I've been given a place (and paid for it, again) automatically and ahead of the ballot.

davep1

Carbonator wrote:

Do you live less than 10-20 miles from the start by any chance? 8)

Yes, that many people not turning up was plain silly.
Some people would have even been at the event with their bike but just did not get in on the ballot.

There were a couple of ladies from Cirencester staying in my hotel who came all the way to London to ride on the Saturday Freecycle.

No, but 45 miles is close enough in my book!

Anonymous

Anyone know when in Feb the ballot is?

Started my training on the 1st Jan so the excitement is building :P

Think I will wait for the mag to come this year, as looking on line last year was depressing when it was not good news

Velonutter

Because we were in Wave A and it got cocked up we both got automatic free entry into Next years, so see you all on the line

ugo.santalucia

DaveP1 wrote:

They should do something about the no-shows. 2013 was meant to be for 20,000 riders, I think less than 16,000 turned up on the day. Could they not have a "bank" of people who live less than 10-20 miles away from the start and get them involved?

80% turn up at a sportive event is average, not much you can do about that. We used to organise the Chiltern 100 and those were the stats for good weather, give or take. You can probably push them up by charging a lot more, but I am sure you don't want that.
They could run a cancel/refund policy up to 48 hours before the event, but it's not in the organisers interest to sign up for more work for no extra income

Der Kaiser

I have booked a refundable hotel near the start (3 miles away) just in case.

I have heard talk that if you are a woman then you are pretty much in.

If I get in I get in.

No shows at events like this annoy me. They could easily have a stand by list of people who live locally to give them a chance to ride. Maybe even those who fail to show with no good reason are excluded from the next years ballot.

I have already had a few charities offering spaces. One has said that the minimum sponsorship is £1000. Like I have said before this is a substantial chunk of cash in anyone's book. If I get a ballot place then I will probably raise funds for my local hospice with no pressure of having to raise a certain amount.

Anonymous

Yep, think women and overseas riders will be straight in.
Wife and mates wife are in the ballot this year so I would not mind to be honest.

Have hotel across the road booked (they did breakfast from 4am last year :P ) and charity place on standby. BHF have upped the price 20% to £600. Saw places as low as £350 last year but have not looked around yet this year.

francis666

Are the charity places still available after the ballot?
Looked at 1 site and said closed Jan 4th!

Anonymous

They were last year.

Der Kaiser

I can understand the reasoning for prioritising female riders but why overseas riders?

I know it is not a normal sportive (First come first served) but this is a strange one as it is an Olympic Legacy event.

It's left me puzzled :?:

ugo.santalucia

Der Kaiser wrote:

I can understand the reasoning for prioritising female riders but why overseas riders?

Let me see... could it be because they bring more revenue to local businesses than someone living in Croydon?

Also, you might think the organisers want 20,000 entrants on the day, but I suspect they are happier with 20,000 entrants and 15,000 showing up... less congestion and fewer problems, same revenue and they can still say on TV there were 20,000 people at the event and what a great day it was, which is what matters

If I was the organiser I would do exactly the same

Anonymous

I have given up on wingeing about who gets in and why this year.
Am just going to do what I need to do to get in every year :P

Der Kaiser

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Der Kaiser wrote:

I can understand the reasoning for prioritising female riders but why overseas riders?

Let me see... could it be because they bring more revenue to local businesses than someone living in Croydon?

Also, you might think the organisers want 20,000 entrants on the day, but I suspect they are happier with 20,000 entrants and 15,000 showing up... less congestion and fewer problems, same revenue and they can still say on TV there were 20,000 people at the event and what a great day it was, which is what matters

If I was the organiser I would do exactly the same

So going by you rationale as somebody who doesn't live within a short driving distance of London and needs to stay overnight I should get in as I am going to bring more into the economy. It could also be argued that if you bring your family to spectate you get in as they will spend money during the day.

I understand what you are saying about the 20,000 entered / 15,000 showed up but to say it was a success despite 25% of entrants not turning up is not what matters. To me that shows a problem with the selection process. Anything more than a 10% No show should be considered a failure.

Maximum participation should be one of the goals of the organisers along with a sustainable event that is enjoyable for all. It is after all an Olympic Legacy event and should benefit as many participants as possible.

I do however reserve the right to change my opinion if I get in. :roll:

Anonymous

I kind of feel the same as you DK.

I think the overseas visitors are more for image and status of the event rather than revenue.
They do not want too many people staying locally as doubt there is capacity and infrastructure to cope.
Unless the air fairs count towards revenue then I cannot see an overseas visitor necessarily spending that much more than we will when we rock up.

I never really saw it as an Olympic legacy event and 5000 keen newbie road cyclists missing out kind of proves that.
Does the London marathon have 25% no shows?

Its early days for the event though and it went a lot better last year than I thought it would.

Am noticing far more woman (round these parts) saying they are doing it than men this year.
Most must be going the charity route unless they are just convinced they will get in.

speshsteve

the problem last year is that on registering they didn't make it clear that you had to turn up in person to register in docklands in the days running up the event. Its a complete arse and I imagine the logistics put a fair few off, I wonder how many confirmed registration of the 20k places in the days prior?

ugo.santalucia

Der Kaiser wrote:

So going by you rationale as somebody who doesn't live within a short driving distance of London and needs to stay overnight I should get in as I am going to bring more into the economy. It could also be argued that if you bring your family to spectate you get in as they will spend money during the day.

I understand what you are saying about the 20,000 entered / 15,000 showed up but to say it was a success despite 25% of entrants not turning up is not what matters. To me that shows a problem with the selection process. Anything more than a 10% No show should be considered a failure.

Maximum participation should be one of the goals of the organisers along with a sustainable event that is enjoyable for all. It is after all an Olympic Legacy event and should benefit as many participants as possible.

I do however reserve the right to change my opinion if I get in. :roll:

It would be a bit difficult to discriminate by postcode, but it's very easy to discriminate by country of origin. I would do exactly the same, to give more stature to an event.
As for the 80% show up... this is normal and I don't see why this event should be any different from other events which run on a 80% show up. When they ask you to register one year in advance it is to be expected... things happen in life.
15-20 K doesn't make any difference to how successful the event is... all you need is packed roads for the TV cameras and these numbers are plenty.

Basically you are assumin the organisers care about who register and want reliable cyclists (maybe good ones too?), while they only care about maximising visibility and profit, as they should

roger_merriman

Well this thread reminded me to ring up and cancel my Ballet since well a reasonably major injury this year is about recovering and slowly getting back on the bike, which will take time. And a 100 mile bike ride when i'm fit and well great but not for the foreseeable future, this year at least.

vamos tony

From the web site

If you were one of the 80,000 people who entered the ballot for the 2014 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, you will be notified by post from Monday 3 February and by Saturday 15 February at the very latest. If you haven't heard from us by then, please call our helpdesk on 020 7902 0212.

Good luck.

johnsonmoog

So, do you think we can access the site and check to see if we were successful as last year? And, if so - can someone remind me of the way we do it. Ta, and best of luck to everyone!

moscowflyer

johnsonmoog wrote:

So, do you think we can access the site and check to see if we were successful as last year? And, if so - can someone remind me of the way we do it. Ta, and best of luck to everyone!

I'm sure the link will go around early doors tomorrow, last year's has expired so it will be a fresh one for this year.

slowbike

Todays the day - well the first day anyway ...

moscowflyer

https://regonline.activeeurope.com/regi ... ionExist=1

Right link entered this time... I'm not in this year.

Der Kaiser

MoscowFlyer wrote:

https://regonline.activeeurope.com/register/login.aspx?EventId=1273725&RegTypeId=121656&MembershipID&MethodId=0&EventsessionId&attendeeExist=1&registrationExist=1

Right link entered this time... I'm not in this year.

Where does it say whether you are in or not?

moscowflyer

Enter your details, then view the receipt and if it says cancelled on it, you're out. Otherwise it should prompt you to pay.

marcusjb

Not in. Better half is - so that's all good!