To gatecrash a sportive or not?

Alex99

vimfuego wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

Alex99 wrote:

This thread has been awesome. I've read it all. I should get a life / do some work.

have you considered doing a sportive?

nah just gatecrash one

Anyone gatecrash a BC road race? Public roads...

milemuncher1

Alex99 wrote:

vimfuego wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

Alex99 wrote:

This thread has been awesome. I've read it all. I should get a life / do some work.

have you considered doing a sportive?

nah just gatecrash one

Anyone gatecrash a BC road race? Public roads...

I've found myself in amongst a few open road races, over the years. It's always a laugh to see the faces of the volunteer types, manning the routes, when you go the 'wrong way' at one of their turn points.

Alex99

Milemuncher1 wrote:

Alex99 wrote:

vimfuego wrote:

Chris Bass wrote:

Alex99 wrote:

This thread has been awesome. I've read it all. I should get a life / do some work.

have you considered doing a sportive?

nah just gatecrash one

Anyone gatecrash a BC road race? Public roads...

I've found myself in amongst a few open road races, over the years. It's always a laugh to see the faces of the volunteer types, manning the routes, when you go the 'wrong way' at one of their turn points.

I've marshaled for a few road races. You always end of holing the traffic for a few non-racers. It's not a big deal and they seem to like the moment of special treatment.

Bobbinogs

One of the best 'fun' things I have done on a bike was gatecrash the TdF. Our club went out to the Omah Beach area when the tour rattled through and we worked out the timing such that we could get out and do a group ride which took in the last 50 miles of the stage route about an hour before the tour came through. Hence, closed roads, huge cheering crowds, police motorcycle escorts buzzing around and a massive tailwind to make us look good. Managed to ride right up to the Flamme Rouge before getting stopped. We didn't manage to get any free cake...although seeing Cav flash by to win the stage a short time later made up for that :-)

mrb123

Doing the Lakeland Loop sportive this coming weekend.

I see from the event notes that they're issuing wristbands for participants to show at the feed stops due to the number of people now gatecrashing these events and nicking all the scran!

casatikid

A real tight arse from the club I used to be a member of pre planned where he was going to ambush a local sportive which was about a mile from the start.That was bad enough but the hard faced bastard stopped at all the feed stations and filled his belly and his pockets. Since then I haven't bothered with him.
I also took him( prior to the sportive thing) to a bike event / fair about 30 miles from home and he never offered to pay for any fuel or my entrance fee.Alarm bells rang from then on about this free loader.

Matthewfalle

CASATIKID wrote:

A real tight ars* from the club I used to be a member of pre planned where he was going to ambush a local sportive which was about a mile from the start.That was bad enough but the hard faced bastard stopped at all the feed stations and filled his belly and his pockets. Since then I haven't bothered with him.
I also took him( prior to the sportive thing) to a bike event / fair about 30 miles from home and he never offered to pay for any fuel or my entrance fee.Alarm bells rang from then on about this free loader.

Clubbies, eh .....

SME

Navrig2 wrote:

Couldn't be bothered reading the ping pong argument!

If it's sold out then you can't buy a place.
BUT
You can ride it at the same time, it's not illegal.
AND
You can correct your moral compass by donating the equivalent of the "entry" fee to the main charity (or a charity of yuor choice).
OR
Just ride, don't donate BUT don't advertise it on a public forum for everyone to have a pop.

^^^THIS^^^

My friend said some weeks ago he may do a sportive, to which I said I'd be interested. His 'reminder' popped up on a social forum but by the time he contacted me the login for the event was closed.

He's new(ish) to cycling and, rather than him go on his own, I'm still going along - I may even be able to register on the day. It's not a charity run but, if I can't register, I've decided to donate a sum to a charity that my friend done a triathlon event for last year.

It's around 35-40 miles, a decent distance for him, but I've regularly done this distance into work, and same back again, when I've had a weekend shift, so I know my nourishment requirements and can't foresee needing 'to raid' the organisers refreshments.

I feel a little awkward that I couldn't register, but a donation to a charity and the fact that I'm encouraging a friend with his cycling kinda offsets it for me.

Garry H

Remember to raise your hands in the air when you cross the line, in front of your friend

pinno

Garry H wrote:

Remember to raise your bike in the air when you cross the line, in front of your friend a la Gilbert

FTFY

Garry H

Pinno wrote:

Garry H wrote:

Remember to raise your bike in the air when you cross the line, whilst wearing the winningest shades in the peloton , in front of your friend a la Gilbert/GvA/MK/

FTFY

FTFY

SME

Garry H wrote:

Remember to raise your hands in the air when you cross the line, in front of your friend

Heh heh. He's just phoned me. Apparently there are vacancies - I just missed the on-line deadline so will have to pay a little extra tomorrow. C'est la vie!

imposter2.0

Matthewfalle wrote:

CASATIKID wrote:

A real tight ars* from the club I used to be a member of pre planned where he was going to ambush a local sportive which was about a mile from the start.That was bad enough but the hard faced bastard stopped at all the feed stations and filled his belly and his pockets. Since then I haven't bothered with him.
I also took him( prior to the sportive thing) to a bike event / fair about 30 miles from home and he never offered to pay for any fuel or my entrance fee.Alarm bells rang from then on about this free loader.

Clubbies, eh .....

Trolles, eh ....

Garry H

Trollies?

Matthewfalle

Trollies dollies?

charlie_potatoes

Matthewfalle wrote:

CASATIKID wrote:

A real tight ars* from the club I used to be a member of pre planned where he was going to ambush a local sportive which was about a mile from the start.That was bad enough but the hard faced bastard stopped at all the feed stations and filled his belly and his pockets. Since then I haven't bothered with him.
I also took him( prior to the sportive thing) to a bike event / fair about 30 miles from home and he never offered to pay for any fuel or my entrance fee.Alarm bells rang from then on about this free loader.

Clubbies, eh .....

Bigots, eh.......

mfin

Remember to either be 3-4 stone overweight, or bald, or with an aggro face, or combinations of these if you can, then you'll go unnoticed.

Oh, and remember to 97.5% of the time ONLY talk about cycling or bikes, that will help you blend in very well by being suitably dull.

Garry H

mfin wrote:

Remember to either be 3-4 stone overweight, or bald, or with an aggro face, or combinations of these if you can, then you'll go unnoticed.

Oh, and remember to 97.5% of the time ONLY talk about cycling or bikes, that will help you blend in very well by being suitably dull.

And don't forget to chuck your gel wrappers all over the place, pro stylee.

milemuncher1

I dunno about gatecrashing sportives, but I just had a wizard wheeze gatecrashing a Marathon, and I was on my bike too. Kapow, take that Marathon, yeah.

Garry H

Gatecrashed a TT today, but I was going in the opposite direction. Would've won it otherwise.

spin_city

Here's a true story from many many years ago after I'd done a few triathlons and, possibly an important point, I still had a number attached to the front of my bike. I was close to home and heading past Wythenshawe Park on the day, unbeknownst to me, of the Manchester 100.
There were marshals in the road herding me into the park. I moved over to the other side of the road as I tried to skirt round them but they just spread out across the road preventing me from passing the entrance. I thought it would be easier to just go round the park and get on way back home. However, when I entered the park, in front of me there was a proper finish line across the park road. I didn't know what to do so just headed towards the line. When I crossed the line I was presented a finishers medal and a full goody bag.
I just wrapped the goody bag round my handlebars and chuckling to myself, carried on home to tell my wife about the totally unbelievable event that had just happened. I still smile to myself when I think about it.

Matthewfalle

Gate crashed a duathlon today but didn't stop as I didn't have my sneakers with me. Would have easily won it otherwise.