Ride London 2014

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    AllanES wrote:
    They've taken the link down within the last half an hour, I'm guessing they're getting inundated with calls from people trying to confirm whether they're in or not...

    Ah!
    Thanks for that.
    I guess i'll just have to be patient
    :)

    I do not think they have taken the link down. It depends on how you are trying to access it.
    P.C. seems a no no, mobile better (I almost got in with mine but then it would not load), but I had to use an iPod touch which worked perfectly for some odd reason.

    Its really quick to reset your password if you need to.

    I got in this year (it seems, but waiting on magazine) after going with BHF last year.
    They would have known my time from last year so not sure if that helped.

    My wife entered for the first time this year but hers showed as cancelled :-(
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    BigMat wrote:
    Looks like I've been denied but my wife has been accepted. We wanted to ride this together so this is a pain in the backside. :evil:
    I'm sure we're not the only couple like this either.
    Is there some kind of waiting list that I can go on or is that pretty much it for me this year..?

    Get one of the charity places? I'm sure between you you'd be able to raise the necessary sponsorship.

    With doing LEJOG later in the year, also for charity, this isn't an option.

    LEJOG is free isn't it? Does the charity you are doing it for have any Ride London places?
    Could you switch to a similar charity that does?

    There are still British Cycling places to go in a ballot. You need to be a member of a BC affiliated cycling club.
    Other option is to look out for competition places which people won last year.

    Did you donate your entry? If so there is a second ballot of about 1000 places I think.

    Failing all that just miss out on something else in your life this year and buy a place between you :wink:
  • Carbonator wrote:
    BigMat wrote:
    Looks like I've been denied but my wife has been accepted. We wanted to ride this together so this is a pain in the backside. :evil:
    I'm sure we're not the only couple like this either.
    Is there some kind of waiting list that I can go on or is that pretty much it for me this year..?

    Get one of the charity places? I'm sure between you you'd be able to raise the necessary sponsorship.

    With doing LEJOG later in the year, also for charity, this isn't an option.

    LEJOG is free isn't it? Does the charity you are doing it for have any Ride London places?
    Could you switch to a similar charity that does?

    There are still British Cycling places to go in a ballot. You need to be a member of a BC affiliated cycling club.
    Other option is to look out for competition places which people won last year.

    Did you donate your entry? If so there is a second ballot of about 1000 places I think.

    No, LEJOG is definitely not free. Not the one I'm doing, anyway.
    As I will be raising money for charity for this, I am not prepared to ask people to sponsor me for Ride London also.

    I'll keep my eyes peeled for other options.

    Cheers.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    What's not free about LEJOG?
  • Carbonator wrote:
    Whats not free about LEJOG?

    When doing it through Deloitte Ride Across Britain at £1600 per rider.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    :shock: What happens to the £1600?
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    Carbonator wrote:
    What's not free about LEJOG?

    Well - unless you're riding to the start/end and not eating or sleeping then you have transport, support, food & accommodation to pay for.

    You can do it cheaply - self supported and wild camping with the occasional luxury B&B sounds good, but it still costs to get there and you have to carry your kit.

    Alternatively, you go with a company who organise your transport to/from the start/end points, provide you with food and accommodation, transport your kit and spares as well as provide on the road assistance in case of a mechanical.
  • Slowbike wrote:
    Carbonator wrote:
    What's not free about LEJOG?

    Alternatively, you go with a company who organise your transport to/from the start/end points, provide you with food and accommodation, transport your kit and spares as well as provide on the road assistance in case of a mechanical.

    Which is exactly where the £1600 goes. :D
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Oh ok, so a bit like a free holiday?
  • Carbonator wrote:
    Oh ok, so a bit like a free holiday?

    Well, whether you consider it a 'holiday' or the biggest cycling challenge in the UK, it's not cheap.

    As I will be raising money for charity for that, I am not prepared to ask people for money twice. I'm also not going to buy a charity place.

    I was simply hoping to ride the 100 miles with my better half and that's now looking like a non starter which is a shame.

    Not sure if they do a waiting list or not but I imagine that if they do, there will be several thousand people on it. :cry:
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I would consider it a challenging cycling holiday :P

    Think once your status is shown as cancelled thats it unless you donated the original entry and are in the second ballot.

    That said there were a lot of no shows last year and there are more people doing it this year.
    Its also early days for the event so they could do anything really.

    As you have one place I would not rule out being able to do something.
    I guess you have to pay for the one place by a certain point though.

    Some of the no shows last year were probably people that accepted a place but then could not do it with people they wanted to so were just happier to lose the £48.

    Maybe there should be some joint entries so you either both get in or both do not.
    Husband and wife, father and son etc.

    Thinking about it they may give only one place to multiple applicants living at the same address to persuade the other/s to take a charity place 8)
  • Carbonator wrote:
    I would consider it a challenging cycling holiday :P

    In that case, can I please borrow your legs..? :D
    Carbonator wrote:
    Maybe there should be some joint entries so you either both get in or both do not.
    Husband and wife, father and son etc.

    Thinking about it they may give only one place to multiple applicants living at the same address to persuade the other/s to take a charity place 8)

    You might have hit the nail on the head there. Wouldn't surprise me in the least.
  • hjghg5
    hjghg5 Posts: 97
    We didn't get any places from two applicants at the same address...

    (Leeds must definitely be too far north!)

    I've never got in the vlm ballot either in nearly 10years of trying (with a couple of years of guaranteed good for age places in the middle) so not sure why i'm surprised!
  • Mine shows cancelled too :-(
    If you forgot your password, the reset link works if you also access that on your Ipad - PC is just a blank screen.

    Did someone say British Cycling have some places? Where is that info?

    Never mind - I found it
    http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/sportives/article/sp20140204--Ballot-results-announced-for-Prudential-RideLondon-0
    Its for cycling clubs.
    Trek Madone 3.1 Carbon 2012 Road
    Sunn Kern S1 2011 MTB
    "Mellow Johnny's" water bottle from Lance's shop in Austin
  • I didn't get in for the 2nd year running, although it looks like I'm not alone on that front.
  • tlw1
    tlw1 Posts: 21,831
    Der Kaiser wrote:
    matthew h wrote:
    Der Kaiser wrote:
    stepdavi wrote:
    Rejected again. Maybe cheshire is too far north for organisers, p#ssed off.

    Shropshire is too far north for them. Don't get too upset. Try again next year.

    we should organise a ride Ludlow :)

    I will probably head off into Wales and find some off road trails on the day of the ride.

    I will be doing this the week before http://staffordgp.co.uk/

    that looks worth a look - only 20 odd miles away, thanks
  • love to know how many places were in the ballot for 80k entrants. I'm guessing 10k at best. Year 2, another miss.
  • Spatulala wrote:
    love to know how many places were in the ballot for 80k entrants. I'm guessing 10k at best. Year 2, another miss.
    Must be something in the water down here, no luck here either!
  • Cancelled for me as well , i also had a confirmed charity place riding for Diabetes uk but a min of £750 seemed a bit much to raise so turned it down , as others have posted time to look at some other challanges .
  • cancelled for me too, i was luck enough to do it last year via the wiggle promo.

    I think we have a responsibility to NOT take up the charity places. As far as i know this is the only cycling event balloted like this and we need to stop it before it becomes the norm.
  • Hi All

    If anyone's interested in a charity place please email fundraising@sebastiansactiontrust.org

    The have a few places still available with a sponsorship pledge of £350.00 and £30.00 deposit.

    A very worthwhile cause.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Bargain too. Couple of hundred quid less than BHF. Much easier amount to raise or pay for.

    What happens with a charity place if you are injured/ill?
    Can it be deferred or is it just lost?

    A lot of people use just giving etc. and the money is paid by the 'donors' before the event.
    What happens if you do not end up doing it?
  • I've missed out too. Boo :(

    One thought for those who care about these things: if you want to know what this is turning into, look at the London Marathon. The same guys are used to organise it, and the risk costs of both events are significantly underwritten by the funding produced by the selling of 'golden bonds' i.e. the guaranteed places which charities can buy and then offload for income.

    Many amateur runners miss out on places in the London Marathon - the number of AAA places is quite small and the % chances of getting in via the ballot are small: the same situation exists at Ride London and will increase with its popularity.

    Set against this is that it is much easier for affected communities in Surrey and London to accept the disruption of hosting an event like this when its generating tens of millions of charity income rather than simply providing a great Sportive on closed roads for enthusiasts. For those on here (like me) who want to do the event without doing so through a charity, I think the chances will only get more difficult...
  • boris54 wrote:
    I've missed out too. Boo :(

    One thought for those who care about these things: if you want to know what this is turning into, look at the London Marathon. The same guys are used to organise it, and the risk costs of both events are significantly underwritten by the funding produced by the selling of 'golden bonds' i.e. the guaranteed places which charities can buy and then offload for income.

    Many amateur runners miss out on places in the London Marathon - the number of AAA places is quite small and the % chances of getting in via the ballot are small: the same situation exists at Ride London and will increase with its popularity.

    Set against this is that it is much easier for affected communities in Surrey and London to accept the disruption of hosting an event like this when its generating tens of millions of charity income rather than simply providing a great Sportive on closed roads for enthusiasts. For those on here (like me) who want to do the event without doing so through a charity, I think the chances will only get more difficult...

    Supply and demand though. If all of us on here refuse the charity entries, they'll still fill them. When you get 80k entries for 20k places, things won't change on the charity front, they'll only get worse.
  • JDinho
    JDinho Posts: 16
    Spatulala wrote:
    love to know how many places were in the ballot for 80k entrants. I'm guessing 10k at best. Year 2, another miss.

    If so many places are given to charity places, widely believed to be no-hoper cyclists then how come so many got round so quickly last year? Half the field got round in less than 6hrs :lol: .

    Entries were up to 24k this time around, i think 10k is light. I'd say inclusive of sponsors places, charity places, deferred places from 2013 and those who were comped after going the wrong way in the first group last year, there would be 15k ballot spots up for grabs. Remember not everyone who got a provisional entry acceptance will take it up.

    Still 15k ÷ 80k are difficult odds for getting a place. For what its worth I would imagine British Cycling membership would help... the organisation only broke through 75k members in June 2013 and not every last one of them will have applied 8) .
  • I'm in...but the 2 guys that persuaded me to enter the ballot didn't get in. Bit of a bummer as was looking forward to a team challenge.

    At first I thought well I'm not doing it on my own, but been having a good think about it and am now quite excited by the challenge. Going to finish my bike build this week and get out on the road.
  • boris54 wrote:
    I've missed out too. Boo :(

    One thought for those who care about these things: if you want to know what this is turning into, look at the London Marathon. The same guys are used to organise it, and the risk costs of both events are significantly underwritten by the funding produced by the selling of 'golden bonds' i.e. the guaranteed places which charities can buy and then offload for income.

    Many amateur runners miss out on places in the London Marathon - the number of AAA places is quite small and the % chances of getting in via the ballot are small: the same situation exists at Ride London and will increase with its popularity.

    Set against this is that it is much easier for affected communities in Surrey and London to accept the disruption of hosting an event like this when its generating tens of millions of charity income rather than simply providing a great Sportive on closed roads for enthusiasts. For those on here (like me) who want to do the event without doing so through a charity, I think the chances will only get more difficult...


    Interesting points. The other annoying aspect is that with so many places being those that are "bought" by big charities it severely restricts people sponsored for smaller local charities that could in no way afford to buy places so are reliant on ballot entries but would be hugely more benefited by someone raising £500 for them than one of the big ones.
  • If, hypothetically speaking, a mate had an entry confirmed but couldn't make it, how might a friend of that person ride in his or her place?

    i.e. is there a transfer system for entries, and if not, what ID checks are in place?

    As I said, only hypothetically of course.
  • I got the commiserations magazine today. Seems like a very low percentage of forum users got through the ballot.
  • 2 commiserations mags delivered to my home yesterday :-(