Where and how to start planning a charity event

nuggiebok

I only took up cycling last year in order to take part in the Women vs Cancer night time charity event (100km through the night Windsor - London - Windsor). All that training gave me the bug and I've now entered the Ride London 100mile event, which fingers crossed I will be successful for August.

Tonight, a very unfit, non cyclist female friend of mine asked if I would help her to organise a charity bike ride from Swindon to Plymouth in order to raise money for a Hospice which cared for a family member, who sadly died in November 2014.

I believe she is very passionate about this, and determined to finally get fit and raise a lot of money.

Does anyone have any hints or tips on where to get started? I've got the basic plans covered, like organising a route, accommodation (as we will be doing it over a couple of days), support vehicle, return travel, Just Giving Page, training plan, publicity, fundraising etc but is there anything else I should be concentrating on. How easy is it to plan a cycling route? What about following the route whilst we are cycling?

Thank you all

cougie

That's about 185 miles according to the google route planner for bikes. That might be a start but you need to check with local riders as to those roads.
Following a route isn't too hard - in the past I've written key towns on duck tape and put it on top of my shoe or stem.
You can get fancy garmin computers and input it into them but there's really no need for the expense.

When are you doing it ? Sounds like a fun challenge.

nuggiebok

Hopefully end of September. Any later and it gets darker earlier, and so we wont have as many hours in the day to ride. Is google fairly reliable then? I already use Strava so I guess I could check out each section on there or create a .gpx file.

I have a Garmin already but its the edge 500 so only a basic route planning function.

Do you think we would need some sort of support vehicle with spares/bags/changes of clothes etc? I don't suppose it would hurt if we could get it.

cougie

September sounds very sensible then.

Google seems to be ok but you have 9 months to finalise it. You can always use street view to check some key roads.

Do you really need a support car ? You need to be out getting the miles in so will you expect this every time you ride ?

180 is just two 90 mile rides or three x 60 mile rides. I guess it might be ok for luggage and changes of clothes but you'll need an understanding friend or relative prepared to volunteer.

How are you getting back ?

nuggiebok

Thanks for replying. Getting back has been considered. Probably the train.

thepawbroon

Hi,

Good luck with the ride!

Have a look on the CTC website, I think there are some guidelines.

I can share a few things I learned, I (with lots of support from colleagues) organised a 3-day 420km ride from London the The Hague, there were around 30 of us. Training is important of course, not only will everyone be fit enough, but they will have shaken out all potential bike mechanical issues.

Re: Support car - It all depends on how many riders you expect - if it's just 3 or 4 of you, you could probably get away without a support car as long as you're prepared / carry your toothbrush & spare pants with you. After all you are riding through civilisation and can always get help.

Any more than that, and the chances of staying together as a group reduce - so more than one person needs to know the route. Also, the chances of something going wrong increase, so it's worth thinking about contingency plans - i.e.

If someone gets a puncture - do you all stop? Or just one other rider to help?
What if someone needs a mechanical repair or minor injury treated?
What happens if someone has to pull out?

I would think that you'll easily find someone to drive a support car, even better two people so it's easier to navigate and have some banter.

We had 30 riders inc a rented tandem - it needed quite a few bike shop visits in Belgium. We had one chain break which needed a bike shop visit to fix, also a couple of punctures. We had one minor injury which our first aider / support car navigator treated.

What about food stops? We pre-booked cafés etc on the way (elevenses, lunch, early dinner) but what we omitted to think about was paying! Our group eventually turned into two peletons - fast team and slow team - by the time the slow team arrived at dinner, the fast team were ready to go! Lucky, one of the support drivers had a company credit card so picked up the bills and we all settled up after. Only an issue for a big group.

We had three support vehicles - that number was need to get bikes (and most people) home to three locations - Aberdeen, London and Southampton. The drivers also had a good time and volunteered to do it again. Another benefit was that one car could jump ahead and take pics / video clips - it meant a good video diary was created.

Re: mapping - We made paper maps of the route, but we generally followed road signs. Once in France / Belgium / Holland we followed sign-posted cycle routes.

A Garmin would have been great - even an Edge 200 (£80?) can do directions so you don't need the Touring model. Most smartphones can do the same but the battery probably won't last.....

As we were "sponsored" by the company, we were obliged to get insurance cover and perform risk assessments - the main thing that came out of the risk assessments were the need for first aider(s) and for everyone to have ID and contact details of the support cars on them.

I'm sure most of this won't be relevant to your trip, but might help...

Anyway - good luck and keep us posted! And I hope you get a place in RideLondon100, I've entered the ballot too and have everything crossed.

bobmcstuff

You don't mention how many riders might be taking part - I organised a similar ride over a similar distance for ~15 riders in August last year, Edinburgh to Aberdeen (~180miles the route we took).

My route was mostly on the National Cycle Route 1 so I purchased a few the Sustrans route maps which were moderately useful because the signage wasn't all obvious. I also had the route on Strava on my phone - I didn't have any battery issues, but I was carrying a backup battery pack just in case (you can pick battery packs up for ~£20 which are good for a few phone charges before they need recharging).

I researched lunch stops along the route along with cafe/shop locations on and near the route just in case, and I'd really recommend doing so in advance because you don't want to be trying to google cafes in X town when you're trying to herd cats down the road... I also got someone to research any road closures, events or roadworks along the route which was again very useful as it turned out there were major roadworks on the run up to the Forth Road Bridge and we had to take a reasonable diversion.

I think my key piece of advice, since you mention that the person you are organising it for is a non-cyclist, is not to underestimate how difficult inexperienced or infrequent cyclists will find it, and how hard it is to impress on everybody the need to do a lot of training (especially if the group is large, there's always one or two who think they'll be fine). We did ours over 3 days, something like 75-55-65 miles. On paper the second day was by far the easiest, but in practice there was a driving headwind and rain all day and it was pretty bad, morale was very low and it was very slow going. I would suggest that 2x90 mile days could be quite challenging, depending on route.

We were lucky enough that the charity we were supporting (Venture Scotland) graciously provided us with a minibus and volunteer driver for the event (plus a couple of riders who wanted to come along). This proved incredibly useful. If you have someone willing to volunteer their time to help out I would really recommend it, just simply because it makes things a lot easier - if there were only a few of you it might be different, but with a larger group it can be quite logistically difficult and having that extra support there just makes it a bit simpler and takes some of the pressure off you as the organiser. I.e., if someone decides they can't ride up X hill or they need to stop or they pick up a [minor] injury or whatever else you can just put them in the car/van and not have to worry about escorting them/getting them to your stop when you have the rest of the group to worry about.

As above our driver had a really good time and has offered to support us again this year, and he took some really good videos/pictures for us.

nuggiebok

Thank you to thepawbroon and bobmcstuff for your replies. I've only just got around to reading them. You are absolutely right about the fitness being underrated. We are midway through April and the furthest my friend has cycled is 14 miles, at less than 10mph average. I don't think this September is realistic. I know not everyone can stick to their training plan but she has no base level of fitness or bike experience at all.

I didn't get a place in the ride london, and didn't take a charity place because this event was always on the horizon

jmillen

I live in Plymouth so would be happy to try and advise on route choice towards this end