- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
A good reason not to go full gas in Richmond Park (CC BY-NC 2.0 aglet:Flickr)"Selfish cyclists" blamed for litter that caused Richmond Park deer deaths
Richmond Park conservationists have asked cyclists taking part in organised events to dispose of litter more responsibly. Recent post-mortems of some deer found their stomachs contained a large volume of litter that could not be digested and which then denied the animals the nutrition they needed.
It is estimated that around five deer a year are killed as a result of eating discarded rubbish and The London Evening Standard reports that events such as RideLondon and the London Duathlon have been identified as times when a lot of gel wrappers and the like are discarded.
Richard Gray, trustee of the Friends of Richmond Park, said:
“It’s a real health issue. What we have identified with these two particular races is this phenomenon of the gel packs. Lots of our members are cyclists, I’m a cyclist, but you get a number of slightly more selfish cyclists who aren’t getting rid of it responsibly.
“They are doing the Tour de France thing, seeing people tear off their gel packs and spitting them out. But unlike other races, it doesn’t get picked up. It’s a new phenomenon, particularly because so many more people are taking up competitive endurance cycling and use gel packs.”
Friends of Richmond Park said they found 182 gel wrappers and opening strips in just 600m after RideLondon passed through in July. A similar exercise following the London Duathlon on Sunday saw more than 160 empty gel packs left behind in the same area.
RideLondon organisers admitted there had been a communication issue with litter patrol teams after this year's event but also said they were considering installing cameras on the route next year to identify and ban those who litter.
Friends of Richmond Park chairman Ron Crompton welcomed greater prevention measures and said he hoped that the duathlon organisers would also make efforts to ensure that all competitors were clear that this sort of behaviour was unacceptable.
“Finding this large extent of litter 24 hours after the event is very worrying for the Park's wildlife and particularly the deer. The irresponsible disposal of gel energy bar packaging and their tear-off opening strips seem to be creating a particular problem,” he said.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- stonojnr 0 sec ago
Farmer puts yellow box on a pole to curb drivers speeding along a road, and it works...
- anagallis_arvensis 30 min 48 sec ago
It was, two cars did so, the solid line was ending, the road fairly straight the view clear. Are you seriously suggesting cyclists should alter...
- Oakhambike 33 min 48 sec ago
£11.5k for a bike weighing over 8kg that's 2 fingers to customers let alone UCI
- HarrogateSpa 35 min 28 sec ago
No trees need to be cut down for a cycleway....
- Dnnnnnn 49 min 6 sec ago
I'm going to show my bike a picture of this shed and tell it, "If you don't behave..."
- Hirsute 1 hour 36 min ago
Ex black cab https://twitter.com/KingArtAT/status/1783296299787309088
- bensynnock 2 hours 32 min ago
Quite. I was wondering where the cycling infrastructure is located that causes drivers to go 90 on the M3?
Add new comment
68 comments
It would be interesting to see the evidence that cyclists are to blame, or it's just trash from the general public. That being said, there's no excuse for throwing gel wrappers on the floor.
SiS, High5 and the like market their gels and advise having 'one every 20 minutes' which is obviously quite retarded. Gels should be only for emergencies, not for a 20k cafe run.
We've already done this one. The FORP are enemies of cycling in the park. This is more of their fact free propaganda designed to maintain a constant level of background "no" to any proposal that involves a use of the park that they don't agree with.
Among other things, is there any evidence that the deer the subject of the post mortem were killed by the litter in their stomachs? Any attempt made to separate causation from correlation?
The FORP are just as selfish as the people they complain about.
So, if they are one of the medium-fast riders (approx 5 hours), they will be 1h in and the gel will be absorbed 1h20 in to a 5 hour ride. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
Two other things:
I wasn't trying to come across as imperious.... I just feel that as a sportive, it isn't a race... and after 20 miles of a sportive, a gel is not really what anyone needs. The presence of a clock does not make a race.
The point i was trying to make is, If they are hungry or need energy, actual normal food would be what they need at that point. For me, sportives should be about cruising around, enjoying the ride, having a flapjack at a feedstation. Its not about pretending i'm in a race when i'm not, and mimicing professional cyclists at a quarter of the pace.
Plus, to drop litter at that point of the route is bizare... if you must drop litter (which you musn't), do it on the hammersmith flyover or some over dual carriage way. Try to restrain from littering in the wildlife park bit. Or just put it in your pocket and then in a bin.
Maybe they're having one before they're hungry. Isn't that exactly when they're supposed to be used? Let people decided how they want to ride their sportives themselves. How you think it should be riden isn't necessarily how everyone else thinks it should.
Agreed.
Cool - for you. But other people have their own motivations, which are no less valid than yours. If someone wants to ride as fast as they can (or even just a bit faster than their mates), and if they think getting sugar in via gels helps them do this, good on them.
It's a response to an awful lot of marketing gumpf and event sponsorship telling people what their nutritional strategy should be. Two minutes talking to your dentist should put most people off gels for good.
I've never had a gel. What am I missing? I did 115km this morning with only a bottle of water. Should I have had a gel? I was pretty hungry when I got home, so I had a burrito for lunch. What does that mean?
It means you should consult a doctor immediately.
That you need to grow a pair?
Try this:
Get up on Saturday morning and go for an uninterrupted 120 mile ride in Zone 3 to Zone 4 with just your bottle of water.
People use fast absorbing carb sources for really good reason. You'll can tell us why when you're back on Sat.
The word "cyclist" doesn't even appear in the FRP press release. Move along.
Apart from...
why would I do that? That's just bad planning. I'd probably have a breakfast first, and take a banana.
Was it a sports nutrition burrito with added science?
I hate litter bugs, but as some who took part in the Duathlon last sunday, I can confirm that there were plenty of warnings and signs about not dropping litter both in the pre-race info and around the course.
Inevitably a few are going to come out of people's pockets accidentally during the race and I know the organisers had litter pickers out. My wife worked at Richmond Park and it would have been an absolute condition of the licence that a post-race sweep be carried out. If FoRP set out to find gel packets on the course during the race then of course they are going to find them, but I suspect that they wouldn't find any after the race at all.
As for the 'I'm so 'ard I don't need gels' brigade, well good for you Mr superhuman, but for many people the Duathlon/ ultra-duathlon is a high intensity effort for several hours and refuelling is important. There is 15-30K of serious running involved, never mind just poncing about on your bike for a few hours
What time does the ultra-duathlon start in Richmond Park? Might give it a go, but all I see is folks cruising at about 28kph whenever I go. I tell a lie, the guy sitting on your wheel usually gives it the beans going down Sawyers.
A rank, lingering taste in the mouth.
Go on then. This saturday. Breakfast, take your banana, water and do a 100mile + ride at Z3 to 4.
Lets see your Strava when you're done. Seriously do it.
Not like it's a big deal, just go out on your bike on the weekend and record the ride with a heart rate monitor on, so no problem.
Can we count on you to ride your bike?
why are you so keen on me doing this? Are you employed by the Gel Defence Force? I never said they were bad guv'nor, just that I've never needed one.
If I had a 120 mile ride planned, I'd take some food. Your nonsense challenge is about as unrelated to my statement as it's possible to be.
Nonsense = Are you employed by the Gel Defence Force?
Sensible = asking someone who says they never needed a gel to go for a big ride to find out why.
Let me just spell out what the rest of us were thinking when we read your original comment. "This guy and his burritos thinks he's clever but just marked himself out as someone who doesn't do long threshold or tempo efforts and doesn't understand the basic science behind carb absorption/limits."
I wasn't keen on you doing it because you and your banana skin would be stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Zip them up chaps, you'll have someone's eye out.
Awfully sorry Captain Sensible, as you were.
The problem with that point, though, is that half the population of London are foriegn-born, a large proportion of them from other parts of Europe.
Certainly, at least when it comes to leaving empty cans and bottles around, some of the biggest litterers round here are the Polish street drinkers (nothing against them, generally, but I see no sign whatsoever that they are any better at putting things in bins than are native-born Londoners).
So if London has a litter problem, it has to be about something other than just the national characteristics of the residents. Either everyone quickly 'goes native' when they arrive here, or its more about councils failing to clean things up (or to provide bins to put things in in the first place).
Simon, you are just the sort of imperious cock I am telling to eff off. You are actually agreeing with me that the litter could be collected; yet concocted some fantasy that I think it okay for it to be eaten by wildlife. It will be eaten, thats the point.
If you stopped wasting your time reading between the lines and coming up with snarky responses you might be of some use for something. I have never seen you contibute a single new topic or thread to this forum, you just like to sit at the back of the bus sniping. Boring.
Quite a big difference actually, as if it is a race ONE police officer can call the event off.
It is classed as a sportive to avoid the problems with Plod.
Who deserves the asterisk in your original post now?
.
You wouldn't. He's just being an arse.
Even a top time triallist wouldn't ride 100 miles that way. Based on that post it makes me think that either he's being provocative or possibly doesn't even understand what the zones mean.
Yeah, why would anyone go for bike ride on a Saturday? Better to whine about people using gels on forums.
But he's not interesting, just a wise guy that got called out acting kewl.
So tell us, oh expert in heart rate zones, a top time trialist wouldn't ride between zones 3 to 4?
Now you're going to have to qualify that.
This ought to be good.
Nice try!
I'm not going have to qualify anything.
Since you seemed to be telling the previous poster what to do and in which zones to ride 120 miles I thought you must surely know it all, so there's no point me trying to help you. Blimey, I'd never claim to be an expert on anything, no-one would believe me if I did!
Pages