Veloride..Birmingham...

vinnymarsden
vinnymarsden Posts: 560
edited October 2016 in Road general
One word comes to mind looking at the administration of the online entry that meant to start at 8am today..then an email said 6pm..still nothing happening.....Fiasco!!!

Lets be honest, if they can't arrange a server to accommodate the entries, does the smooth running/logistical side of the actual ride stand much chance....

Comments

  • dempsey1
    dempsey1 Posts: 320
    General entry £75! , Fast track £105. Flippin' madness..........
  • mfin
    mfin Posts: 6,729
    It is expensive, I never ride these things but considered it. More than the price though is you're not paying to ride on closed roads, you're paying to ride on roads rammed full of cyclists which to me is paying to ride in traffic. Also, it doesn't sound like a good route once in the countryside, and I can sort of understand people wanting to ride central London but Birmingham?!

    The website f*** up might cost them now, all the urgency has compulsiveness of many people will have passed by and the price and route has had more time to dawn on them.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    there is already a thread in the sportives section, just join that one
    left the forum March 2023
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    Whenever this 'closed road' nonsense designed to milk run of the mill Sunday cyclists or whoever for that matter.. I am just reminded of what one gentlemen of the county council remarked to me in his hi viz when erecting temporary traffic lights for a repair.. 'these are public roads mate, they aint for you to race on them...' no answer to that really.
  • andcp
    andcp Posts: 644
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    there is already a thread in the sportives section, just join that one
    viewtopic.php?f=40007&t=13070673&start=60
    "It must be true, it's on the internet" - Winston Churchill
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,106
    mfin wrote:
    It is expensive, I never ride these things but considered it. More than the price though is you're not paying to ride on closed roads, you're paying to ride on roads rammed full of cyclists which to me is paying to ride in traffic. Also, it doesn't sound like a good route once in the countryside, and I can sort of understand people wanting to ride central London but Birmingham?!

    What are we supposed to get excited at the sight of the Houses of Parliament or something ? The are both big cities - I'd rather ride through Birmingham because it's a lot easier to get to from my house and if I did choose to stay over it'd be a lot cheaper.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    DeVlaeminck wrote:
    What are we supposed to get excited at the sight of the Houses of Parliament or something ? The are both big cities - I'd rather ride through Birmingham because it's a lot easier to get to from my house and if I did choose to stay over it'd be a lot cheaper.

    Er, yeah, kind of.

    London is much bigger on the 'city' hotlist and a much bigger deal to have its roads closed.

    Surrey seems to have the edge over the outskirts of Birmingham too.
  • davep1
    davep1 Posts: 837
    DeVlaeminck wrote:
    mfin wrote:
    It is expensive, I never ride these things but considered it. More than the price though is you're not paying to ride on closed roads, you're paying to ride on roads rammed full of cyclists which to me is paying to ride in traffic. Also, it doesn't sound like a good route once in the countryside, and I can sort of understand people wanting to ride central London but Birmingham?!

    What are we supposed to get excited at the sight of the Houses of Parliament or something ? The are both big cities - I'd rather ride through Birmingham because it's a lot easier to get to from my house and if I did choose to stay over it'd be a lot cheaper.

    You'd have to be a bit chippy to say the appeal of riding through London on closed roads is less than the appeal of riding through Birmingham on closed roads, surely? Only my opinion of course. Plus RL is a lot cheaper than VB.
  • fenix
    fenix Posts: 5,437
    JGSI wrote:
    Whenever this 'closed road' nonsense designed to milk run of the mill Sunday cyclists or whoever for that matter.. I am just reminded of what one gentlemen of the county council remarked to me in his hi viz when erecting temporary traffic lights for a repair.. 'these are public roads mate, they aint for you to race on them...' no answer to that really.

    Except they can be closed can't they. London Marathon - Olympics - Coronations - State Funerals -all that kind of thing. It'd be a crap nation if we couldn't close roads for events ?
  • captain_chaos
    captain_chaos Posts: 111
    Well despite the the c**k up on entry and the price I still signed up (eventually)

    At £75 its more than RL (which I have also done) - but for me travel, parking etc etc makes RL a lot more expensive in total. And this was accounting for the fact that I could stay for zero cost at my parents house - add accommodation in and RL is very expensive. And I needed to take a day off to get the rider pack. and spend £40+ on fuel

    As I live in the southern suburbs of Brum - actually the more leafy and posh metropolitan borough of Solihull - the entry cost for me for VB is the total cost - full stop. I can ride in and get the rider pack and ride in and back to and from the start on the day

    And for those London centric cynics, you can generally go in any direction from Brum centre for about 6-7 miles you will be in the country, some of which is real "proper" country - not like Surrey. (Just don't try NW as that takes you to the urban sprawl that is Wolverhampton and the Black Country)

    I hope I'm not disappointed!
  • stueys
    stueys Posts: 1,332
    Shambles, complete shambles. Doesn't bode well for the event itself.

    And the pricing is nuts. It''s not as if it's an iconic route/climbs, etc
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,106
    DaveP1 wrote:
    You'd have to be a bit chippy to say the appeal of riding through London on closed roads is less than the appeal of riding through Birmingham on closed roads, surely? Only my opinion of course. Plus RL is a lot cheaper than VB.

    I don't know what "a bit chippy" means but why ? I used to work in London, I lived there for a short while, I've visited lots of times - nothing against London but I don't see why it has better streets to ride on than Brum and the latter is a lot closer to my home town than London is.

    As for the comment someone made about an iconic route - no it's not a great route but then neither is Ride London or the Tour of Cambs - that for me is the main criticism of all these rides. £75 for 100 miles on closed roads taking in Snake Pass, Cat and Fiddle and Winnats or the equivalent in the Lakes, Yorkshire, Wales etc and I'd be in without hesitation. For me the VeloBirmingham event is just another Ride London type event only a lot more convenient for me to get to which will be the reason I enter if I do.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    Fenix wrote:
    JGSI wrote:
    Whenever this 'closed road' nonsense designed to milk run of the mill Sunday cyclists or whoever for that matter.. I am just reminded of what one gentlemen of the county council remarked to me in his hi viz when erecting temporary traffic lights for a repair.. 'these are public roads mate, they aint for you to race on them...' no answer to that really.

    Except they can be closed can't they. London Marathon - Olympics - Coronations - State Funerals -all that kind of thing. It'd be a crap nation if we couldn't close roads for events ?

    Yeah, right.. they tried it in Cheshire a couple of years back....
    local drivers just ignored the whole thing.. and there was nothing anyone could do about it... guess what .. it will never happen again... the council learn its lesson.... until you make it a criminal offence ... and that is never going to happen.
    I'd rather the 1.5 metre rule was enforced.. that is more like applicable to the majority of cyclists in life.
    We aint talking Lady Di's funeral cortege,, just a bunch of Sunday cyclists overpaying.
    Oh runners do get preferential treatment... that I agree
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 9,106
    If they have 15k cyclists then local drivers aren't going to be ignoring anything because there will be so many bikes any cars are going to get stuck and I imagine attract the ire of people who have paid £75 each for cars not to be there.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    Why would people ignore the closed roads signs? It's the midlands, it's not far west... I can assure you there aren't that many guns around either
    left the forum March 2023
  • sparklehedgehog
    sparklehedgehog Posts: 295
    dempsey1 wrote:
    General entry £75! , Fast track £105. Flippin' madness..........

    I voted with my wallet and abandoned any idea of giving them my money. Shambles doesn't come close to describing it so imagine what the day will be like!

    And as for the secretive entrapment of entry fees never being announced until you're desperately trying to book well that's obvious why they did that now at those prices!

    Glad they're struggling to sell out.

    Money grabbing chancers
    Giant Propel Advanced Pro 1 Disc 2020
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    Canyon Lux CF SL 7.0 2019
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    Wattbike Atom V2
    Garmin Edge 530
  • W12_Lad
    W12_Lad Posts: 184
    Captain Chaos wrote:
    Well despite the the c**k up on entry and the price I still signed up (eventually)

    At £75 its more than RL (which I have also done) - but for me travel, parking etc etc makes RL a lot more expensive in total. And this was accounting for the fact that I could stay for zero cost at my parents house - add accommodation in and RL is very expensive. And I needed to take a day off to get the rider pack. and spend £40+ on fuel

    As I live in the southern suburbs of Brum - actually the more leafy and posh metropolitan borough of Solihull - the entry cost for me for VB is the total cost - full stop. I can ride in and get the rider pack and ride in and back to and from the start on the day

    And for those London centric cynics, you can generally go in any direction from Brum centre for about 6-7 miles you will be in the country, some of which is real "proper" country - not like Surrey. (Just don't try NW as that takes you to the urban sprawl that is Wolverhampton and the Black Country)

    I hope I'm not disappointed!

    Any chance of staying round your parents?
    From a Londoner having to pay all the extras :lol:
    https://veloviewer.com/SigImage/15e386/4/5/I/p/bhcdefghij.png[/IMG][/URL]
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    Captain Chaos wrote:

    As I live in the southern suburbs of Brum - actually the more leafy and posh metropolitan borough of Solihull -

    me too... :D
    left the forum March 2023
  • captain_chaos
    captain_chaos Posts: 111
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    Captain Chaos wrote:

    As I live in the southern suburbs of Brum - actually the more leafy and posh metropolitan borough of Solihull -

    me too... :D

    If you ask no one lives in Brum - they all live in Solihull!
  • kammybear
    kammybear Posts: 500
    DeVlaeminck wrote:
    If they have 15k cyclists then local drivers aren't going to be ignoring anything because there will be so many bikes any cars are going to get stuck and I imagine attract the ire of people who have paid £75 each for cars not to be there.

    This is true.

    RideLondon this year, we were diverted for about 10 miles down open roads. May as well have been closed as cars were surrounded by 1000 Lycra-Carbon warriors!
  • laurentian
    laurentian Posts: 2,548
    Carbonator wrote:

    Surrey seems to have the edge over the outskirts of Birmingham too.

    Really? The route goes through Worcestershire and Herefordshire . . . in my experience much nicer.
    Wilier Izoard XP
  • thebikeboy16
    thebikeboy16 Posts: 108
    I didn't have any issues signing up. Bear in mind £75 includes photos.

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