TOUR OF AYRSHIRE

RallyBiker

Anybody else out on this closed road event?

bill_gates

I'm in. Rider numbers were released today.

Matthewfalle

Is it ok to gate crash it?

bill_gates

I'd like to gate crash the car-parking. Strangest and unfairest pricing structure I've seen.

RallyBiker

Bill Gates wrote:

I'd like to gate crash the car-parking. Strangest and unfairest pricing structure I've seen.

Could you enlighten me please, as I've not recieved anything yet from them be email. Thanks

bill_gates

PARKING

Car Parking free before 07.00hrs, £10.00 from 07.00hrs to 08.00hrs, £20 from 08.00hrs to 10.00hrs.
Arrival by car. Follow traffic management signage on nearby roads and motorways to Tour of Ayrshire Official Parking. Follow the signs from Parking to HQ.

RallyBiker

Bill Gates wrote:

PARKING

Car Parking free before 07.00hrs, £10.00 from 07.00hrs to 08.00hrs, £20 from 08.00hrs to 10.00hrs.
Arrival by car. Follow traffic management signage on nearby roads and motorways to Tour of Ayrshire Official Parking. Follow the signs from Parking to HQ.

So I suppose I'll be there before 7am then! :shock: All I need now is my rider number! Website seems sh1te for user friendliness I must say!

bill_gates

I'd love to be there before 7AM but means leaving the house around 4:30 which is excessive for a 10AM start.

RallyBiker

Bill Gates wrote:

I'd love to be there before 7AM but means leaving the house around 4:30 which is excessive for a 10AM start.

Just googled my B&B location and it's less than 3 miles from the start, so I'll ride in at 8.45am after brekkie. Happy days!

sopworth

Thoughts on the event from those that got involved?
Personally, I was pretty disappointed. I'm only 20 miles from Kilmarnock, so I knew the state of the roads before hand, but it still didn't make cycling over them any more enjoyable.
I waited around for about an hour after finishing for a qualifiers medal, but the delay getting the cut off times published was farcical considering it's all electronic, so I left without one.
As expected, the locals are out in force since the event complaining about the closed roads. I hope the event runs next year, as it's been good for Ayrshire.

meanredspider

A friend did it and was very cross about it - especially the state of the roads chosen. He also said that the numbers were a fraction of the number expected.

bill_gates

It was OK, not tremendous but definitely a good effort for the first time to run the event.

Noteable items were:

• Car-park was a good distance from registration
• Cold and windy at the start.
• Delay for sport riders delayed due to a fire on the course
• Road conditions were pretty poor although you can see that some temp repairs had been attempted in advance of the event
• Photographers based on steep descents were distracting and could have been dangerous info paying attention. I'm sure they will produce some of the best photos though!
• Free beer at the end.

sopworth

I don't thing the numbers were anything like the 5k advertised. I'd have put it at half that maybe.
Given my AG is 40-45 (pretty popular in the sportive world), there were only 164 I believe from the results.

meanredspider

sopworth wrote:

I don't thing the numbers were anything like the 5k advertised. I'd have put it at half that maybe.
Given my AG is 40-45 (pretty popular in the sportive world), there were only 164 I believe from the results.

My mate thought that the results showed it wasn't much more than 1000

bill_gates

The start-line announcer said 1500 participants.

Mark RIDE IT

I enjoyed it, in my experience the roads are in a pretty poor state all over the country, they weren't the best but also weren't the worse either.

I'm sure some of the locals weren't happy about the road closures but there were people out on the route cheering the riders and the few local people I spoke to seemed genuinely interested in the event even though they weren't cyclists so I didn't notice any local hostility towards it.

Seems the organization with parking, start gates, etc was geared up for much larger numbers. The briefing info was encouraging people to arrive early to avoid a last minute rush but that wasn't really necessary with the number of entrants they had and I could have spent an extra hour in bed instead of standing around in the cold.

The plus side of the smaller entry was the riding felt a bit safer without thousands of riders competing for the same bit of road that I've experienced at other closed road events.

Not sure what was going on with the qualification times but it was similar at the Tour of Cambridge last time I did it. That was the only frustrating bit for me, in the end we went and got some food, got changed, then came back later in the day to pick up the medal but still had to wait.

BenjoMunro

I enjoyed it. My first experience of a closed road "race" and I think it went very well.

I was a bit disappointed with the ignorance of the cyclists at the venue at times. People continued to walk indoors with cleats on despite the race manual saying it was not allowed and a nice little Scottish woman politely telling people to take them off was constantly ignored. The amount of people trying to walk indoor with their bike amazed me too. One MAMIL blocked a door with his bike after being turned away and continued to talk on his phone while people squeezed past him.

I think the farce with the qualification times is a ploy to keep people there for the ceremonies. It should never take that long in this day and age.

I hope to do this one next year and the only real improvement I would like to see are better road surfaces. Also, unless I was to consumed in the race, I didn't see any of the feed stations so maybe they could be better sign posted.

sopworth

Likewise - where were the feed stations? Didn't see any.

bill_gates

The village of Catrine had the first food stop. Lemon drizzle cake was the highlight of offering. Tonnes of sausage rolls but that wouldn't be my choice mid-ride.

RallyBiker

Roads where in a pretty poor state. Feeds were good as were the portaloo facilities. Signage into junctions could have been better and additional " road narrows signs" would have been beneficial too. Marshalling was good as was the motor cycle support. Distance was a bit short, as I thought it was supposed to be 80 miles, so I did a 20km pre event warm up and did a loop at the end to get my 100 mile in! To tell the truth the main reason I did the event was to get a photo of the bike under the 'Welcome to Moscow' sign, honestly!!

fac83ajc

Enjoyed the event in general. I am originally from around those parts and could stay at my mums 2 miles form the start, so I wasn't affected by the parking etc. Still somehow found myself sat at the start gate freezing for 40 mins though...

Delays in timing/results is even more pronounced having just done the Fred Whitton, where they hand you your time and certificate literally as you finish. Not bothering to hang around I didn't realise I had qualified for the world Gran Fondo thingy and missed out on a shiny medal, oh well.

The roads are the roads, they are the same all over the country. I did the 'Ride it Callander' a few weeks before on which the roads were considerably worse in parts. Main criticism of the TOA route would be the hairpin right at the bottom of the descent into Galston. I heard a lot complaining about it, and a girl I know came off and ended up in hospital which was a shame.

All in all I hope it's on next year and I would go along again.