Velo Birmingham & Midlands May 12 2019
Comments
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ugo.santalucia wrote:Rank_amateur wrote:
Ugo, this looks like it goes right past my house. Where’s a bigger version of this map?
I loved VeloBirmingham, it was one of my best days ever on the bike, great fun. That new route though, hmm, I’m not so convinced.
It's here... but you can join the Strava club I created (follow the link on the other thread)
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/28461800
I have a plan to run it next year as an Audax... either July or September, still have to decide... in the meantime, please do the loop (or part of it) and give me some feedback on the route
Off topic, I know... :roll:
Going back in time somewhat, but the link is no longer working. Any chance it could be resurrected?0 -
Paracyclist
@Bigmitch_racing
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Big Mitch - YouTube0 -
Thanks, but the link was to a different route.BigMitch41 wrote:0 -
BigMitch41 wrote:Galatzo wrote:kingrollo wrote:Galatzo wrote:I'm in Purple 2 - the last of the last off unfortunately.
I'm wondering whether to turn up just before the start and avoid the early car park queues and waiting around for 2hrs.
It'll only take me about 40 mins to get there so allowing 20 mins for parking and faffing time I'm thinking of leaving at 06.45 rather than 05.15ish.
Anyone know Brum parking well and got any thoughts on this ?
Cheers
Have you got anyone who can drop you in ?
Why don't you drive to somewhere like the botanical gardens - park up on the street - its a 10 minute tootle to the start then - I am not doing it this time due to a back injury - but that was where I dropped off last time - depends how comfortable you are leaving you car on the street - getting into Birmingham center could be a bit of faff - where are you coming from...
Coming from Derby, maybe more like 50 mins but shouldn't take long at that time.
Jewellery Quarter looks a good option as pretty much on my route in but not too close to the start.
@BigMitch41 I'll keep an eye for your gang, shouldn't be hard to spot, 4 fella's ech with 3 legs
Cheers all
3 legs and one arm in my case
I should really read peoples strap lines before I speak/type :oops: 25th August 2013 12hrs 37mins 52.3 seconds 238km 5500mtrs FYRM Never again.0 -
I've noticed that whilst i still have the nerves about this upcoming ride*, I don't have the same degree of buzz I felt when about to do the PRL100s.
Maybe it's because I'm now used to doing them, but I think it's also the way that VeloBrum is quite a lot more laid back than RideLondon. There seemed to be a lot of pressure for the London ones: getting a ride; booking accomodation; getting to the right place at the right time. Also a feeling that you were having to beat a clock all the time to stay on the course.
*BTW, whilst I realise that to some, 100 miles is no big deal, it still is to me.
The older I get, the better I was.0 -
How did everyone get on? 0
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lettingthedaysgoby wrote:How did everyone get on?
Great, thanks for asking!
Perfect weather, nice route, if a bit flat. That said, with 17000 on the ride, fast downhills being that crowded would have been risky. Couple accidents as it was, one of which looked quite serious. Hopefully the rider in question is ok.
Organisation was good and lots of support on the route.
Couple of people riding like idiots, but I guess that's inevitable with so many people.0 -
I enjoyed it again. It was a bit flat, and it felt like there was a little less atmosphere than last time, but still a good day out.0
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Flat and fast. I "trained" with my commute and a 90k hilly ride a couple of weeks back and went round in a touch over 5 hours. Mind you, after a 2 hour drive back home, I'm shuffling like an old man.
I thought it well organised, with not too many choppers. Apart from the road priority 3 mile from the finish, which was ridiculous.0 -
Organisers have just announced that the rider involved in that horrible looking crash has passed away in hospital
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Blimey, sad news... You don't enter a sportive on closed roads to leave family and friends behind forever!
Depending upon the circumstances, it could have dire consequences for future "Velo" rides.================
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NitrousOxide wrote:Blimey, sad news... You don't enter a sportive on closed roads to leave family and friends behind forever!
Depending upon the circumstances, it could have dire consequences for future "Velo" rides.
Wouldnt have thought so ....someone died at ride london last year.
Its the irony of cycling on rural roads ...where most us like to be ...but if anything happens the emergency services can take longer to reach you.
RIP to the riders family.0 -
Was that the bloke being seen to on a quickish straight descent? That's the only crash I saw I think.
I remember speaking to the bloke next to me saying it didn't look good.0 -
Actually, googling it, it was nearer the start.0
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About 23 miles in, a quick decent, into a sharp climb and then a sequence of quickish downhill corners. Slightly sketchy surface, but nothing too out of the ordinary.hopkinb wrote:Actually, googling it, it was nearer the start.0 -
I passed about a minute after it happened. Not a particularly difficult descent but steep and fast with a fair amount of traffic as we were all in the 3 fast starts. Could have been as simple as something as a clipped wheel, which as that speed could be catastrophic. Police are hoping that someone might have some GoPro footage. How very sad.0
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I was a long way behind that one - maybe 45 minutes plus. But it caused a massive holdup (naturally and understandably), and you can see from the official timing stats that most riders' average speeds took a big hit as a result.
I did see two other crashes in front of me on big-speed descents. What you can get away with on your own, or in a small group, is quite different to what will cause grief when surrounded by others. Lots of people were descending like loonies because there were no cars and they could use the whole width of the road, whereas in many places you needed to go slower. There was one chap who went screaming past me four times in the space of about 3 miles, each time leaving me wondering how he'd not (yet) crashed. Of course, the fact that he had four opportunities to pass me just meant that for all his high-speed (reckless) descending, he obviously could not climb for toffee.They use their cars as shopping baskets; they use their cars as overcoats.0 -
Aside from the fact that there are no chevrons or indeed steep descents in the West Midlands as you seem to suggest (if there are, where were the marshals calming the traffic of riders?), it is frustrating that every single time they manage to attract 15+K riders on closed road sportives, inevitably someone has to die. There are probably just as many riders going out for a sunday ride in the area and there isn't a casualty every week, which suggests these events, road closures or not, are inherently dangerous.
I go as far as saying that if the roads were open, probably nobody would die (although there would be other, less dramatic issues).left the forum March 20230 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:Aside from the fact that there are no chevrons or indeed steep descents in the West Midlands as you seem to suggest (if there are, where were the marshals calming the traffic of riders?), it is frustrating that every single time they manage to attract 15+K riders on closed road sportives, inevitably someone has to die. There are probably just as many riders going out for a sunday ride in the area and there isn't a casualty every week, which suggests these events, road closures or not, are inherently dangerous.
I go as far as saying that if the roads were open, probably nobody would die (although there would be other, less dramatic issues).
Does someone die on every closed road sportive ?
Considering you didnt do the ride, werent involved in the emergency services on sunday...how you can say he would survived on open roads is a particularly stupid thing to say.....even by your standards.
Its also in pretty bad taste imo.0 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:Aside from the fact that there are no chevrons or indeed steep descents in the West Midlands as you seem to suggest.....
Not steep by some standards, but this particular stretch of road was steep enough that 40mph + was easily achievable for most riders, heading into a fairly tight left / right pair of bends.0 -
Sad news about the fatality. When i passed the aftermath of it (about 9:15), it didn't look good, there was blood on the road and a lot of police looking very annoyed.
To me the route was anything but "flat". There wasn't anything that really got me panting, but I knew there was lots of day to go and so was taking it steady when i needed to. It was clear later on that a lot of people were feeling it, especially in the last 20 miles.
I saw quite a few people at the sides of the road being tended to, who looked like they'd crashed. One was on an ascent, looked like it involved two riders.
Mrs Slog saw me off from the hotel in Brum and then made her way to Coventry by train. She stood about 100yds from the underpass on Ringway St Patricks with my daughter in law, they were both ringing cowbells. While they were there, a cyclist fell off in front of them, removing quite a bit of skin from their shoulder. Mrs Slog patched him up at the side of the road, administering sympathy and plasters. She couldn't see any reason why he fell, the bike just seemed to skip out from under him as he was descending into the start of the underpass, would have been around 10:30.
I saw a lot of times when there were cars coming up to the closed road barriers at junctions. A few were arguing with the marshals and in Birmingham around the Ridgeacre section, they were out of their cars and it looked like trouble brewing because of the holdup. At another point in the course we were suddenly joined by a car that had somehow got through a junction. I've no doubt there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth, Brum centre looked like bedlam, but then so do most cities most weekends.
All in all, we (son and I) had a good day, and I'm glad I entered. Not sure I'd bother again, but I do like riding on closed roads.
The older I get, the better I was.0 -
kingrollo wrote:
Does someone die on every closed road sportive ?
Every RL100 has at least one casualty, so yes...
I'm not saying he would have survived, I am saying that the dynamics of these accidents are very similar... riders going down while descending as a bunch... it's the same every year down Leith hill at RL 100.
If the roads were open, people couldn't go downhill as a large bunch or indeed reach those sorts of speeds on shallow descents.
My point is that closed roads make events more dangerous rather than less. I have seen folks on Strava doing the ride in just over 4 hours and everyone was at least an hour quicker than had it been a sportive on open roads, the sort of speed you expect in a race, which is a notoriously risky activity, so I stand by my commentleft the forum March 20230 -
Well there were the usual bunch of idiots running chain gangs screaming “on your right”. Most egregious around my group was a Polish cycling club. Just a few morons who cannot understand it’s not a race. Getting a good time is one thing, trying to indulge your onanistic fantasies about joining a pro cycling team is another entirely.
With regard to the speed of descents, the marshalls were more proactive on some than others, particular where there were speed bumps. Still, some will ignore and ultimately freak accidents can and do happen without bunched up cyclists.0 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:kingrollo wrote:
Does someone die on every closed road sportive ?
Every RL100 has at least one casualty, so yes...
But normally due to a medical issue right ?
Ok we dont know if that wasnt the case here either tbf ,but it sounds more like a crash happened on a descent, that was fast and due to the nature of closed road event faster than you'd normally expect, and that naturally then asks questions on the organisers was the route suitable,safe, were riders suitably informed, etc etc certainly from an insurance point of view, I haven't read the t&c s of entry and where liabilities end up, but those are the questions the people who permit closed road events to take place will certainly be asking in the future0 -
barongreenback wrote:Getting a good time is one thing, trying to indulge your onanistic fantasies about joining a pro cycling team is another entirely.
I agree, but how you police that? It seems to me "racing" is very much part of these events and the very reason many sign up for them. I can't find anywhere the organiser making a point that riders found "racing" will be disqualified, which would be the correct way of going about things.
It's left as a bit of a grey area, it's not a race but you will receive an official time... it's not a race, but surely there is a "race like" arch and an official finish line, maybe even something that replaces a "flamme rouge"....it's not a race but organisers take inspiration from races.
Where this is not the case, there is no "racing"... no racing at the "Paris-Roubaix velo", but racing at the ASO organised equivalent...left the forum March 20230 -
awavey wrote:ugo.santalucia wrote:kingrollo wrote:
Does someone die on every closed road sportive ?
Every RL100 has at least one casualty, so yes...
But normally due to a medical issue right ?
Both, Leith hill is always the scene of a bloody crash, sometimes it's only a few broken bones, sometimes it's worse.left the forum March 20230 -
Capt Slog wrote:All in all, we (son and I) had a good day, and I'm glad I entered. Not sure I'd bother again, but I do like riding on closed roads.
^^This.
I was surprised by how empty the roads were, though I was in an early wave. Joined a couple of fast groups who were riding sensibly until I was spat out of the back as my lack of training showed through.
I'm doing Ugo's Loop of Brum audax later this year with my brother (who has been out on a ride with Ugo, though is not on this forum). It will be interesting to compare the two events.0 -
hopkinb wrote:
I'm doing Ugo's Loop of Brum audax later this year with my brother (who has been out on a ride with Ugo, though is not on this forum). It will be interesting to compare the two events.
You can't compare them. 90 riders Vs 15,000... all lanes and very few main roads, home made curry instead of bars and gels... small groups or solo, rather than pelotons, it's a different thing altogether and it's a different speed as well.
You need to be a pretty strong rider to average in excess of 15 mph... AND you need to physically get off the bike in at least 3 places, probably spend an hour off the bike altogether... there won't be any racing, I tell'ya and you won't be done by lunch time, you'll be lucky to be home for dinner...
I expect some won't be back until after 9 PM...left the forum March 20230 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:hopkinb wrote:
I'm doing Ugo's Loop of Brum audax later this year with my brother (who has been out on a ride with Ugo, though is not on this forum). It will be interesting to compare the two events.
You can't compare them. 90 riders Vs 15,000... all lanes and very few main roads, home made curry instead of bars and gels... small groups or solo, rather than pelotons, it's a different thing altogether and it's a different speed as well.
You need to be a pretty strong rider to average in excess of 15 mph... AND you need to physically get off the bike in at least 3 places, probably spend an hour off the bike altogether... there won't be any racing, I tell'ya and you won't be done by lunch time, you'll be lucky to be home for dinner...
I expect some won't be back until after 9 PM...
so its not a race - but speed matters 0 -
ugo.santalucia wrote:kingrollo wrote:
Does someone die on every closed road sportive ?
Every RL100 has at least one casualty, so yes...
I'm not saying he would have survived, I am saying that the dynamics of these accidents are very similar... riders going down while descending as a bunch... it's the same every year down Leith hill at RL 100.
If the roads were open, people couldn't go downhill as a large bunch or indeed reach those sorts of speeds on shallow descents.
My point is that closed roads make events more dangerous rather than less. I have seen folks on Strava doing the ride in just over 4 hours and everyone was at least an hour quicker than had it been a sportive on open roads, the sort of speed you expect in a race, which is a notoriously risky activity, so I stand by my comment
Pretty sure no one died in the first velo Birmingham so no
or Velothon Wales - so no again....0
