Sportives are not Races.

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    edited July 2010
    Airwave wrote:
    I do a couple of sportives a year just for fun,but i race at least once a week.Which catagories am i allowed to browes mr/mrs dmclite? :roll: :roll: :roll:

    Both of them, doh. :lol:

    You could try to "browse" a spelling thread ?

    Or just enjoy what you are doing, you know the difference if you do both. BTW, its Mr dmclite, Sir to you. :wink:
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    amaferanga wrote:
    Anyone who has done both or even done a sportive and watched a bit of cycling on tv will know that sportives (in the UK) are nothing like races. They're even less like low level racing (3rd/4th cat, which is probably what most people on here have done).

    But I'm sure we'll all much happier now that it has been formally brought to our attention :roll:


    Good point, exactly what the Original post was trying to say.

    But you are in the same category as me now, so stuff yer rolling eyes up yer bumhole. :D
  • naive
    naive Posts: 47
    dmclite wrote:
    Sportives are not races

    SCR still is though, right??? Otherwise I'm gonna have to give in and get me a car and save all that effort!
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    naive wrote:
    dmclite wrote:
    Sportives are not races

    SCR still is though, right??? Otherwise I'm gonna have to give in and get me a car and save all that effort!

    Oh, yeah, SCR is the Daddy, no worries on that one. Keep on scalpin' matey. :wink:
  • guilliano
    guilliano Posts: 5,495
    Well I'm doing Ride To The Horns on Sunday and I treat it as a personal challenge to get round the 93 miles with 5000m of climbing in under 7 hours. I'm never going to race, I enjoy riding too much to spoil it by trying to beat someone else. So what if someone with shaven legs beats me by 3 hours? It's a fun ride with a lot more people to chat to at the start and end than a usual ride on my own. Maybe people there will think I don't deserve a carbon road bike with Ultegra groupset.... who cares? I enjoy riding it more than I enjoyed an alloy framed road bike with a Sora/Tiagra mix a couple of years previously and I ride more because of that.
  • nwallace
    nwallace Posts: 1,465
    Smokin Joe wrote:
    nwallace wrote:
    But results are often published showing times in order of fastest to slowest from Sportives.
    Effectively ranking riders in time order and therefore allocating "positions" and essentially you are issuing Results.

    If you did that in a motorsport event organised as non-competitive you would be hauled in front of the appropriate governing body for organising a competition without the appropriate permit.

    But if the appropriate governing body (British Cycling) don't consider that to make it a race then. Meh.
    It's an attempt to use the fact that results are issued to indicate that it's a competitive event and therefore a race under the Road Traffic Act that bothers me.
    You've hit the nail on the head there.

    Sportives are starting to sail very close to the wind legally, to a point where BC had to prevent an organiser from offering prizes to the fastest riders in a recent event (which one escapes me). Racing on the public highway is strictly controlled by act of parliament, and any impression given that it is a competitive event could land organisers and riders in serious trouble, and cause all sorts of problems to the future of road racing in this country.

    If results weren't issued how long would it take for "unofficial results" to be posted on a bikeradar thread? I'm thinking as soon as the first rider gets home. Then see how competative it gets....

    But unofficial results are fine because they haven't been issued by the organisers.

    On a "Touring Assembly" which is just another name for an untimed car club run there is no compulsion to stay in formation or anything, the MSA can't turn up and decide that since everyone knew what time they started at and what time they got to the end of the roadbook at and can calculate how long they took and compare times (yes it happens) the organisers were running a competition.

    If 2 riders on a sportive were actually racing each other it's not impossible for the police to stop them for racing, but as long as the organisers have stuck within the bounds of the event being not a race it is only those 2 riders that are in the shit.
    And if a sportive was deemed to be a race, the police could go through every single person taking part and charge them with unauthorised racing on the highway.
    Do Nellyphants count?

    Commuter: FCN 9
    Cheapo Roadie: FCN 5
    Off Road: FCN 11

    +1 when I don't get round to shaving for x days
  • Airwave
    Airwave Posts: 483
    dmclite wrote:
    Airwave wrote:
    I do a couple of sportives a year just for fun,but i race at least once a week.Which catagories am i allowed to browes mr/mrs dmclite? :roll: :roll: :roll:

    Both of them, doh. :lol:

    You could try to "browse" a spelling thread ?

    Or just enjoy what you are doing, you know the difference if you do both. BTW, its Mr dmclite, Sir to you. :wink:

    Not interested in my spelling mistakes,just in going faster on the bike-master/mr dmclite :wink:
  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    Forgive me if it's been posted on this thread, but I read in a mag

    Sportives are for people who like to think they're racing, but aren't. Audax are for people who like to think they're not racing, but are.

    This is a quote from memory and not my opinion as I've done neither type of event.
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • EKIMIKE
    EKIMIKE Posts: 2,232
    A good days fishing for dmclite. Loads of 'em took the bait. :lol:

    It's like the new Campag vs. Shimano or Roady vs. Triathlete.
  • wiffachip
    wiffachip Posts: 861
    haven't read all the posts in this thread, so it might have already been mentioned, but at the end of this years Northern Rock Cyclone you got a ticket with your time on, your position at that time and the quickest time. Found that quite surprising.
    When I crossed the line, I was 727th out of erm...............727

    Good job it wasn't a race
  • GiantMike
    GiantMike Posts: 3,139
    Sportives are NOT races if you chhose to treat them as a ride. They ARE races if, as a rider, you choose to treat them as such.

    Races are, by definition, races. However, if a rider decides to pootle around at the back then he's just treating it as a ride.

    I do Road races, Sportives, Cyclocross races, MTB races, TTs etc. At the end of the 2009 Big G Sportive I was very tired. At the end of ALL my races I'm very tired. At my level, they're all glorified training events.

    ETA. I'm the best, btw.
  • nolf
    nolf Posts: 1,287
    I think its fair to seperate the 2.

    In a race, the aim is not to get round in the fastest time, it's to get round 1st.

    While they're kind of the same, the point is that, you could have a road race where the bunch cruised along at 15mph the entire way, then had an epic bunch sprint for the finish.

    It would still be a race.
    In a race you deliberately upset the rhythm of other riders, so as to drop them/weaken them. That's generally slower than just keeping a high pace going.

    In a sportive, you don't attack to drop people, you work with them, as the aim is to clock the fastest speed you can over the course, not to beat the group of riders you're with.

    I'm not saying one is inferior, but they're completely different. You don't WIN a sportive, you just clock the fastest time.
    "I hold it true, what'er befall;
    I feel it, when I sorrow most;
    'Tis better to have loved and lost;
    Than never to have loved at all."

    Alfred Tennyson
  • jimmythecuckoo
    jimmythecuckoo Posts: 4,712
    I just enjoy riding my bike :D

    For someone who has had a go at road racing and time trialling and who is doing less cycling, but wants to get a buzz of riding in a group and riding hard, they are ideal.

    Doesnt make them better or worse than TT or RR.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    EKIMIKE wrote:
    A good days fishing for dmclite. Loads of 'em took the bait. :lol:

    It's like the new Campag vs. Shimano or Roady vs. Triathlete.

    Busted. :D

    Started off a few more threads as well, nice. :wink:
  • Frank the tank
    Frank the tank Posts: 6,553
    dmclite wrote:
    EKIMIKE wrote:
    A good days fishing for dmclite. Loads of 'em took the bait. :lol:

    It's like the new Campag vs. Shimano or Roady vs. Triathlete.

    Busted. :D

    Started off a few more threads as well, nice. :wink:

    dmclite, the most successful fisherman since captain birdseye. :lol:
    Tail end Charlie

    The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.
  • Airwave
    Airwave Posts: 483
    I think his point was sportives are races&he was just avin' a laugh.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Airwave wrote:
    I think his point was sportives are races&he was just avin' a laugh.

    In the Kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is King.
  • softlad
    softlad Posts: 3,513
    nolf wrote:
    I think its fair to seperate the 2.

    In a race, the aim is not to get round in the fastest time, it's to get round 1st.

    While they're kind of the same, the point is that, you could have a road race where the bunch cruised along at 15mph the entire way, then had an epic bunch sprint for the finish.

    It would still be a race.
    In a race you deliberately upset the rhythm of other riders, so as to drop them/weaken them. That's generally slower than just keeping a high pace going.

    In a sportive, you don't attack to drop people, you work with them, as the aim is to clock the fastest speed you can over the course, not to beat the group of riders you're with.

    I'm not saying one is inferior, but they're completely different. You don't WIN a sportive, you just clock the fastest time.

    or a time faster than the one clocked last year.. ;)

    either way, that's probably the best explanation so far....
  • Airwave
    Airwave Posts: 483
    dmclite wrote:
    Airwave wrote:
    I think his point was sportives are races&he was just avin' a laugh.

    In the Kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is King.

    Deary me caught on your own bait :roll:
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Airwave wrote:
    dmclite wrote:
    Airwave wrote:
    I think his point was sportives are races&he was just avin' a laugh.

    In the Kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is King.

    Deary me caught on your own bait :roll:

    You are too clever, honest. I bow to your superiorness, I am in your shadow. If you could spell and be grammatically correct you would be perfect. I don't eben know if I am allowed to respond to your pearls of magnificent wisdom.

    If you haven't cottoned on that the OP was tongue firmly in cheek, then you are so dense, you could bend light. :wink:
  • RichN95 wrote:
    DesWeller wrote:
    So are we saying the Tour de France isn't a race because, as the title clearly indicates, it's a tour...?

    And it has feeding stations so it's DEFINITELY not a race.

    And once at the Tour, Federico Bahamontes stopped for an ice cream at the top of a mountain, just like I, and others, did in the Dragon Ride.

    More proof that the Tour is a glorified sportive.

    And the peloton just had a big ''we're not racing any more'' sulk. Definitive proof that it's not a race.
  • sure it's been said before, but:
    "sportive riders pretend they're racing, audax riders pretend they're not."


    However, if sportives were *allowed* to call themselves races, do you think they would?

    And do you think it would make the ride much different in any way?
  • rjh299
    rjh299 Posts: 721
    dmclite wrote:
    Airwave wrote:
    dmclite wrote:
    Airwave wrote:
    I think his point was sportives are races&he was just avin' a laugh.

    In the Kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is King.

    Deary me caught on your own bait :roll:

    You are too clever, honest. I bow to your superiorness, I am in your shadow. If you could spell and be grammatically correct you would be perfect. I don't eben know if I am allowed to respond to your pearls of magnificent wisdom.

    If you haven't cottoned on that the OP was tongue firmly in cheek, then you are so dense, you could bend light. :wink:

    ? :oops:
  • Airwave
    Airwave Posts: 483
    dmclite wrote:
    Airwave wrote:
    dmclite wrote:
    Airwave wrote:
    I think his point was sportives are races&he was just avin' a laugh.

    In the Kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is King.

    Deary me caught on your own bait :roll:

    You are too clever, honest. I bow to your superiorness, I am in your shadow. If you could spell and be grammatically correct you would be perfect. I don't eben know if I am allowed to respond to your pearls of magnificent wisdom.

    If you haven't cottoned on that the OP was tongue firmly in cheek, then you are so dense, you could bend light. :wink:

    You'd ave to search very very hard to find some one as thick as me.Came bottom of the class every time.Quantum mechanics is such a hard mistress :wink:
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :wink:

    I concur.