Does anyone think sportive’s will return in 2021?

slowmart

I’m thinking of the Fred, early May.

Personally I can’t see it.

itboffin

Join a club most have a long ride at the weekend for £0 in much more sociable riding

jimbohorizontal

I did the Norwich 100 a month ago.

pblakeney

slowmart said:

I’m thinking of the Fred, early May.

Personally I can’t see it.

I can't see it from here either. 🤣 No reason you can't do it without the sportive.
Cheaper and probably on quieter roads too.

david37

theyre going to be back with contingency for varying social distancing. unless people cant travel around the country they will happen. (well some of them anyway)

briantrumpet

Audaxes are still happening (with a few more to go this year). They're so cheap that, TBH, you could book up 5 or so, and it would still be less than a single sportive. Just as long as you don't treat it as a race. But then, I'm sure no-one would treat a sportive as a race.

https://audax.uk/

john80

If they are not back in 2021 then there really is no hope. Large field, own equipment and a large course. If you cant manage that then what can you manage.

kingstongraham

Surely as long as you don't have a communal bowl of crisps there's a way of managing a sportive safely. No same day signing on maybe, etc but turn up, ride, get provided with water into your bottle without all touching the same stuff, go home.

joe_totale-2

kingstongraham said:

Surely as long as you don't have a communal bowl of crisps there's a way of managing a sportive safely. No same day signing on maybe, etc but turn up, ride, get provided with water into your bottle without all touching the same stuff, go home.

It's the starting/finishing areas and the feed zones that are the issue. As you say though there should be ways to resolve this.
Also, if it means less of this nonsense of having to attend an event to pick up your number like with Ride London and everything being sent in the post, that can only be a good thing.

As Cargobike says, audaxes are perfectly good if you must do an organised event and be provided with a route.

carbonclem

I did the Rapha Urban Peaks ride and will do the Day In Hell this weekend. Get a course route that you can do at any point over a weekend, join in at any point en route, be self sufficient (apart from a partner cafe stop) and get a badge after the event. These have been free but I guess they can be monetised in some way?
Nice way to do a new route, maybe see a few like minded folk along the way and remove a lot of the aggro.

Pross

joe_totale-2 said:

kingstongraham said:

Surely as long as you don't have a communal bowl of crisps there's a way of managing a sportive safely. No same day signing on maybe, etc but turn up, ride, get provided with water into your bottle without all touching the same stuff, go home.

It's the starting/finishing areas and the feed zones that are the issue. As you say though there should be ways to resolve this.
Also, if it means less of this nonsense of having to attend an event to pick up your number like with Ride London and everything being sent in the post, that can only be a good thing.

As Cargobike says, audaxes are perfectly good if you must do an organised event and be provided with a route.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to do away with the feed stations for good and get people to carry their own food like on any other training ride.

morstar

Helvellyn Triathlon ran this year without issue so it is perfectly possible to run events.
Had a very elite field too due to being one of the few longer distance (any distance) events that ran.
Ali Brownlee set a record that may take a while to be beaten.
If sportives don’t run, it will only be down to lockdowns or lack of willingness on the part of organisers due to costs and risks. I’d blame those that have bitched about cancellations this year if organisers don’t chance it next year.

briantrumpet

Pross said:

joe_totale-2 said:

kingstongraham said:

Surely as long as you don't have a communal bowl of crisps there's a way of managing a sportive safely. No same day signing on maybe, etc but turn up, ride, get provided with water into your bottle without all touching the same stuff, go home.

It's the starting/finishing areas and the feed zones that are the issue. As you say though there should be ways to resolve this.
Also, if it means less of this nonsense of having to attend an event to pick up your number like with Ride London and everything being sent in the post, that can only be a good thing.

As Cargobike says, audaxes are perfectly good if you must do an organised event and be provided with a route.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to do away with the feed stations for good and get people to carry their own food like on any other training ride.

I suppose it's the feed stations and occasional marshal that allows the sportives to charge fairly silly money. Otherwise there seems hardly any difference, apart from you're actually not allowed to check in on an audax if you've gone too fast, so you don't get the people who think sportives are mass road races. Win win.

slowmart

I doubt I’ll enter another sportive after those cunts who ran the brum sportive kept the entire entrance fee. Absolute scum IMHO.

However the Fred’s been an itch I’ve had for a few years and they rolled over this years successful entrants into 2021.

It’s also been a focus to tighten the nut with structured training.

I’ve done an Audax and enjoyed it but next year I’m aiming to do a coast to coast which is approximately 170 miles in a day which will be unsupported except what i can carry and then cycle home the following day.

briantrumpet

If they marketed it well, TTs ought to be making a comeback, if permitted. But I don't hold out much hope that CTT will exploit the opportunity... they've been missing the boat for several years. I think they care more about the past than the future, and satisfying those who already do TTs, rather than the vast potential they have.

I know it's a completely different thing from getting on your bike for a 100 miles or whatever along country roads, but it could appeal to the plonkers who think that a sportive is a race and those who can't follow more than a couple of directions to get back to the start.

slowmart

I was hoping the local club would do a socially distanced hill climb event, unfortunately no event which is shame.

capt_slog

slowmart said:

I doubt I’ll enter another sportive after those cunts who ran the brum sportive kept the entire entrance fee. Absolute scum IMHO.

However the Fred’s been an itch I’ve had for a few years and they rolled over this years successful entrants into 2021.

It’s also been a focus to tighten the nut with structured training.

I’ve done an Audax and enjoyed it but next year I’m aiming to do a coast to coast which is approximately 170 miles in a day which will be unsupported except what i can carry and then cycle home the following day.

1. Didn't know they'd done that, cheeky sods.
2. How did you get THAT past the filter

slowmart

capt_slog said:

slowmart said:

I doubt I’ll enter another sportive after those cunts who ran the brum sportive kept the entire entrance fee. Absolute scum IMHO.

However the Fred’s been an itch I’ve had for a few years and they rolled over this years successful entrants into 2021.

It’s also been a focus to tighten the nut with structured training.

I’ve done an Audax and enjoyed it but next year I’m aiming to do a coast to coast which is approximately 170 miles in a day which will be unsupported except what i can carry and then cycle home the following day.

1. Didn't know they'd done that, cheeky sods.
2. How did you get THAT past the filter

I reckon the filter entered the brum sportive and got shafted as well. ;-)

brundonbianchi

I hope sportives never return. Chop fests. Although I did like using some of their routes after the chop fest had finished sometimes. I did a modified version of the PRLS, using the official route, spliced into my own route, which meant I felt the whole year wasn’t wasted. I put the Bayswater road into it, which would have been excellent in the official chop fest.

thistle_

briantrumpet said:

If they marketed it well, TTs ought to be making a comeback, if permitted. But I don't hold out much hope that CTT will exploit the opportunity... they've been missing the boat for several years. I think they care more about the past than the future, and satisfying those who already do TTs, rather than the vast potential they have.

I know it's a completely different thing from getting on your bike for a 100 miles or whatever along country roads, but it could appeal to the plonkers who think that a sportive is a race and those who can't follow more than a couple of directions to get back to the start.

TTs have been running and it's supposed to be a bit old skool (turn up, collect a number, ride, go home ) but at the ones I attended over the summer there was very little social distancing going on and the CTT's very basic covid rules were being dismissed as stupid by a lot of riders and marshalls.
Stupidly early start times and events on ridiculously busy roads probably don't help attract newcomers either.

ugo.santalucia

CTT have done a lot of work to make events Covid-proof. I've done about 15 between flat TT and hill climbs and I've never felt unsafe and never had to get physically close to anybody.
Sportives? Don't know... certainly not the ones with large numbers

briantrumpet

thistle_(mbnw) said:

briantrumpet said:

If they marketed it well, TTs ought to be making a comeback, if permitted. But I don't hold out much hope that CTT will exploit the opportunity... they've been missing the boat for several years. I think they care more about the past than the future, and satisfying those who already do TTs, rather than the vast potential they have.

I know it's a completely different thing from getting on your bike for a 100 miles or whatever along country roads, but it could appeal to the plonkers who think that a sportive is a race and those who can't follow more than a couple of directions to get back to the start.

TTs have been running and it's supposed to be a bit old skool (turn up, collect a number, ride, go home ) but at the ones I attended over the summer there was very little social distancing going on and the CTT's very basic covid rules were being dismissed as stupid by a lot of riders and marshalls.
Stupidly early start times and events on ridiculously busy roads probably don't help attract newcomers either.

I suspect the lack of respect for social distancing there comes down to the attitude of the club. I'd hope my club would make sure that they were respected.

And quite, re early start times and busy roads. That's just to please the people who think that their absolute time is more important than having events at a time and on roads that are more welcoming to newcomers. If CTT were really interested in expanding TTing, there are all sorts of changes they could make, like giving the courses sensible names, encouraging clubs to find courses that aren't busy and scary, doing them at sensible times, and letting clubs do more come & try events (personally, I think that should be the default).

Dorset_Boy

CTT's Open events close to entries about 2 weeks beforehand which is crazy early. They could reduce that to 36-48 hours beforehand in this age.

The do feel like they are in many respects stuck in the 1980s!

Our weekly club (evening) TTs had a 50% increase in entries and we have a double hill climb event that we open up ourselves to local clubs and the entry was 40 people, just about the max we could cater for. Last year we had 24.

We did plan a Try-a-TT which would be a 6 mile event but that fell foul of lockdown this year, but we will hopefully have it next year.

briantrumpet

Dorset_Boy said:

CTT's Open events close to entries about 2 weeks beforehand which is crazy early. They could reduce that to 36-48 hours beforehand in this age.

The do feel like they are in many respects stuck in the 1980s!

Our weekly club (evening) TTs had a 50% increase in entries and we have a double hill climb event that we open up ourselves to local clubs and the entry was 40 people, just about the max we could cater for. Last year we had 24.

We did plan a Try-a-TT which would be a 6 mile event but that fell foul of lockdown this year, but we will hopefully have it next year.

It sometimes feels like the clubs are fighting CTT to bring TTing up to date.

Dorset_Boy

CTT levy for club events is rising to £4 ph next year too which won't help attact people - we will have to charge £5 for members and £6 for guests as a result, all for less than 30 minutes of effort!

briantrumpet

Dorset_Boy said:

CTT levy for club events is rising to £4 ph next year too which won't help attact people - we will have to charge £5 for members and £6 for guests as a result, all for less than 30 minutes of effort!

Grr. That's doubled in about 5 years. I'm starting to wonder if they actually want clubs to give up putting them on.

capt_slog

I posted this the other day in the "Tours route organised rides" bit of the forum

https://www.facebook.com/surreylivenews/posts/3892811840746549

Surrey council have pulled support for RideLondon. Answers on that bit of forum include the observation that the UCI race has been axed and therefore the ride can't continue as a standalone event.

I for one, will miss it. I've done it a couple of time and whilst I realise it's not everyone's cup of tea, I enjoyed the whole thing.

david37

I predict no mass start gravel and self supported "challenge" rides will gain traction.

morstar

Most events are chip timed so mass starts aren’t really necessary anyway I’d have thought.