Velothon Wales - June 2015

peteb0

Turns out it may not be closed roads after all: http://road.cc/content/news/147857-cons ... d-closures

Having sold it as a closed road event, I would have thought they had the necessary agreements in place...

Anonymous

I want a refund if its not sorted! Hope I can cancel hotel.
Wales will be off the Holiday list for quite a while too. Add it to the banned destination list underneath France!

Oh, and they will not find any oil like Surrey just did. Its not a coincidence you know, its Khama 8)
Decent closed road sportive with friendly crowds :arrow: 100 million barrels of oil.

peteb0

I have a good friend's wedding the day before in London, and given the choice between open roads (and not that special of a route) or having a few drinks & making the most of his wedding, I know which I'd choose.

Not impressed with the communication from the organisers on this. If it's out there in the press they should be transparent with those who have signed up.

gethinceri

The organisers are frigging rubbish and have been since the first publication of the event.

jazgill

Form a post on road.cc

"Hi all

I tweeted @Velothonwales this morning. Below is their response:

"All TTROs – Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders - are subject to public consultation by law. This is the case with any major
event - the London Marathon/ the Olympic Games/ the New Year's Eve fireworks on Victoria Embankment etc.

The local authority’s highways team must consult its public on road closures by law. The Velothon Wales is no different.

There is no reason to suggest there will be any issue with this. The roads will be closed for the event"

This company specialises in closed road sportives; this will be a closed road sportive.

Anonymous

Sounds a bit like there is little point in the consultation if the roads are going to be closed regardless then.

stretchy

Carbonator wrote:

Sounds a bit like there is little point in the consultation if the roads are going to be closed regardless then.

Scratching my head at this also :?

Anonymous

Its an odd/difficult one.
If you let the locals decide then quite a few will say no, but what right does anyone have to disrupt others lives.

If parents in the same school stop you videoing the nativity play then there is no way Welsh villagers are going to let a load of London etc. cyclists have their roads for a day.
People are given too much of a say IMO.
Parents should just not have their kid in the play if the majority want to be able to record it, and the authorities should decide if an event is good for the area/country/nation, and reasonable to take place.

I assumed this was all agreed when they took our money.
I really don't care, just want to know if I am doing it or not so I can plan my life.

gethinceri

Apparently it's the Caerphilly County Borough Council who are tequesting it goes to consultation. As a resident of the Borough I'm as annoyed as those of you who aren't, I blame the Velothon organisation completely.

stretchy

I'm fairly sure it's just a bit of a non story and they will be closing the roads anyway. It's not like they will have 15,000 riding on open roads... The road will just be full of cyclists so they couldn't drive anywhere anyway.

However if the roads do turn out to be open I will be asking for a refund as I can get the pleasure of cycling open roads every day for free :shock:

Anonymous

Yeah, I feel it will get sorted.
The sun will shine on the fantastic scenery that is Wales, and the people of Wales will be largely very welcoming (As I have always found them).
Hopefully the cyclists will have a great time, behave themselves, and maybe even inspire others.

hangeron

Here's the report someone in the 'filthy Council has written

http://www.democracy.caerphilly.gov.uk/ ... .pdf?LLL=0

Anonymous

Anyone know if there is a date for this to be decided one way or the other?

Its not like the organisers are going to announce that its definitely on fully closed roads given that most people will feel that was the case already.

I don't want to get there and be told on the day!

pipipi

Sorry if I've missed it but has anyone got a map download link I can put on my Garmin?

Thanks in anticipation

Anonymous

Why would you need that?

Anyone heard if its been confirmed that its actually fully closed roads yet?

paul2718

Links to the official route on http://www.velothon-wales.co.uk/en/rout ... oad-route/ Observe the caveats...

Paul

d.j.fish

pre entered last year cant wait closed road some stunning scenery and a great chance to meet other cyclists of the country should be a good bike version of a rave yeeaaahhhhh!

d.j.fish

stretchy wrote:

I'm fairly sure it's just a bit of a non story and they will be closing the roads anyway. It's not like they will have 15,000 riding on open roads... The road will just be full of cyclists so they couldn't drive anywhere anyway.

However if the roads do turn out to be open I will be asking for a refund as I can get the pleasure of cycling open roads every day for free :shock:

im with you on that one fella i cycle on open roads daily for free it was a bit charity but alot of the event and closed road that made me think its well worth paying for but again charity like cancer is always worth a few quid to me and my family as we have been quite effected by it.

Anonymous

Waves/start times released today.
I am wave 8 (effectively 6 as first two are short route) of 21, so a bit disrespectful of my sportive racing ability but I am more than happy.

LETS GET READY TO TUMBLE!!! :P :P :P

dortmunder

I've been put in Wave 20!!! I'm not impressed. Anyone know how the wave placings were sorted?

norvernrob

dortmunder wrote:

I've been put in Wave 20!!! I'm not impressed. Anyone know how the wave placings were sorted?

They said the quickest were going off first to avoid large groups of faster riders setting off later catching other large slower groups.

However, I'm in wave 4 starting at 7.50am and I think my original estimated time for the 120km route was 4.30-5hrs which I didn't think was particularly quick.

Anonymous

My mate who will probably take 50% longer than me to finish is in wave 3 (the first 140k wave).
Guessing he was a bit optimistic with his estimated time though.

My wave (8) is from starting pen 'F1' which I quite liked :P

thegreatdivide

I would strongly advise taking two inner tubes, a pump or at least a couple of Co2’s - maybe even a patch kit. Not trying to be the bringer of doom but from reading all the ‘traders up in arms’ stuff going on and with this being the first Velothon Wales there’s ever chance some complete twit will do an Etape Caledonia and chuck some pins across the road. I really hope not though.

gethinceri

Someone sabotaged The Bwlch on a sportive last year, so it's not unknown in these parts. 2 tubes, pump and gas are to be recommended on the Velothon route regardless of tacks etc. the road surfaces are dreadful.

johnc2788

Anyone else having trouble getting a response from the velothon people at the moment?

Pross

Unfortunately p**s poor route selection has meant that parts of South East Wales are effectively cut off by road closures for 10-11 hours. Publicity has been non-existent with the road closure warning signs only going up a couple of days ago and these have now been sprayed with 'no' and all this in an area with a strong history of supporting large cycling events. There's a lot of bad feeling and I won't be at all surprised if there's some sabotage but to be honest a few punctures is a minor issue, I'm more worried that people will force their way onto the circuit in cars as there's absolutely no way they can close every side road on 100 miles of road, a fair bit of which is urban.

I'm shocked by how amateur the organisation has been but then they're a commercial organisation out to make themselves money and not bothered about the ill feeling they'll leave behind for those who ride and organise events in the area the rest of the year. I'll be avoiding riding my local roads for a few weeks after.

norvernrob

Pross wrote:

Unfortunately p**s poor route selection has meant that parts of South East Wales are effectively cut off by road closures for 10-11 hours. Publicity has been non-existent with the road closure warning signs only going up a couple of days ago and these have now been sprayed with 'no' and all this in an area with a strong history of supporting large cycling events. There's a lot of bad feeling and I won't be at all surprised if there's some sabotage but to be honest a few punctures is a minor issue, I'm more worried that people will force their way onto the circuit in cars as there's absolutely no way they can close every side road on 100 miles of road, a fair bit of which is urban.

I'm shocked by how amateur the organisation has been but then they're a commercial organisation out to make themselves money and not bothered about the ill feeling they'll leave behind for those who ride and organise events in the area the rest of the year. I'll be avoiding riding my local roads for a few weeks after.

It's a shame about the lack of warning for people. When something happens in Sheffield, the electronic info boards on all the major routes into the city display the information for a good few weeks before.

I do think a lot of the ill feeling is because it's a cycling event though, I bet if it was a marathon, rally stage or similar nowhere near as much would be said.

Pross

No, the bad feeling is over the extent of the closures and the length of time they are in place. The area hosts a pro race every year and other than a break of a few years it has done for at least 25 years that I've been involved in the sport. Last year's Nationals were really well supported with very few negative comments but then closures were much more localised and notified weeks in advance. There are also numerous sportives in the area but none have ever needed to be held on closed roads. It's just shoddy organisation from a company looking to make themselves a few quid and move on. I've been surprised by the selfish attitude some cyclists on other forums have displayed having read of the concerns of locals who are basically being seriously inconvenienced. In one case the comment was literally 'f**k them'.

Given the resources available to the organisers and the support they've had from Welsh Government I reckon I could have come up with a far less disruptive closed road route that would have provided more scenic, rural riding.

roger_merriman

Have to agree with Pross the route and information is poor.

this is area that has had TOB stage finishes and so on. it's on the whole used to and comfortable with the odd road closure for these things.

hopefully it will not sully feeling to other events

bendertherobot

That said, today's M4 electronic signs are dominated by information regarding it and a request to "plan ahead."