[joeegg]

Afer many years mountainbiking i’ve turned to road cycling and so far enjoying it.
Friends of mine take part in sportives so i thought i’d give it a go next year.
Looking at a couple of sportives in my area,the north east,i was amazed at the entry prices.One was £50 and the other £61.I know that other sportives are not these prices but does anyone actually think these sort of entry fees are reasonable.
I’ll be sticking with the club rides next year !

Topic

[Timbo13]

iammrc wrote:Don’t know how

iammrc wrote:

Don’t know how far you are prepared to travel but check out http://www.polocini.com.

All their sportives have a fixed price of £20 and this includes:

Porridge
Energy Gels
Hydration drink
Coffee
After ride meal of pasta.

Usually two well signed distances including at least a couple of decent climbs.

Did three last year myself and can’t fault any of it.

Excellent value for money in my opinion.

+1. And an organiser who not only cares but is willing to engage, whether face to face, by email or on Twitter.

[Timbo13]

Blackhound wrote:I did the

Blackhound wrote:

I did the Tour of the Peak from Darley dale about 2 years ago. Can’t recall entry fee but about £25-£30. A bunch from the club were going so went along. We knew some of the roads but some were a bit far away for a regular day ride. Food was mentioned at the finish but all I got was a dry bread roll! I was towards the back as our group stopped off in Glossop for a cafe stop. Some of the guys were the first back on the 100 miler and the promised thai food was already gone from the riders on the shorter loops. This was wrong as they knew how many were entered.

Just to clarify, this was not the Kilo to Go Tour of the Peak but a different sportive entirely, run by “Torelli”. I rode both that year. Chalk and cheese, or more accurately sugar and sh*te

[joemmo]

To the OP – if you’re in the
To the OP – if you’re in the north east, look at the Ryedale Rumble, Sept 2nd in North Yorks.

Last year’s entry was £27 and included parking, pre-ride breakfast and coffee, gels, timing chip, fantastic food stops (pies! fruit! mars bars!) great routes(3), coffee, pasta, changing and showers at the end and a t-shirt.

That’s good value I’d say.

[iammrc]

Don’t know how far you are
Don’t know how far you are prepared to travel but check out http://www.polocini.com.

All their sportives have a fixed price of £20 and this includes:

Porridge
Energy Gels
Hydration drink
Coffee
After ride meal of pasta.

Usually two well signed distances including at least a couple of decent climbs.

Did three last year myself and can’t fault any of it.

Excellent value for money in my opinion.

[fuzzywuzzy]

I see the Mario Cipollini
I see the Mario Cipollini sportive (in Bristol) is only £100, bargain. Then again I guess it’s something worth trying (smallish ride with a big name pro), you’d have to really want to meet the pro to pay 4x the price of a normal sportive though. Wonder how much they’re paying MC himself…

[Crun]

Peterborough Cycling Club’s
Peterborough Cycling Club’s first ever Sportive on 10th July, 2011 cost £10 in advance, £15 entry on the day

Over 100 riders had registered before the event and many others signed up on the day to ride on the perhaps the sunniest Sunday of 2011.

The ride generated interest from across the region and during the following days and weeks many positive and congratulatory e-mails were received commending the Club for its effort, organisation and, perhaps most importantly, the quality and content at the food-stops.

Plans are already afoot for 2012, due to “public” demand, to re-run the event.

[joeegg]

What makes me feel uneasy is
What makes me feel uneasy is the fact that some of these sportives are linked to charities.
Looking behind the charity headline it appears,i stand to be corrected,that it is private organisations running the events.
I have no problem people taking part in events for charity,a great way to raise money and awareness.
But,out of an entry cost of £61,what is the amount actually handed over to the said charity.
I believe it would be better for the organisers to publish the amount upfront before people pay their entry fees.

[Mostyn]

Sportives!
Wow there seems to
Sportives!

Wow there seems to be a price hike on everything these days; including a day out cycling with other like minded people! Some of the entry fees do seem to be at a ridiculously high level! In my opinion they are money making and completely overpriced un-necessary profit making practises.

Bring back the organised club rides! Audax and buy a meal out.

[Blackhound]

I did the Tour of the Peak
I did the Tour of the Peak from Darley dale about 2 years ago. Can’t recall entry fee but about £25-£30. A bunch from the club were going so went along. We knew some of the roads but some were a bit far away for a regular day ride. Food was mentioned at the finish but all I got was a dry bread roll! I was towards the back as our group stopped off in Glossop for a cafe stop. Some of the guys were the first back on the 100 miler and the promised thai food was already gone from the riders on the shorter loops. This was wrong as they knew how many were entered.

Audaxes cost about £5 to enter but you have to buy or provide your own food on the course. Sportive’s you get fed plus a water bottle, t-shirt or something. In the end not a lot different in cost but I prefer an audax.

A couple of years ago I did the Etape Caledonia route a few days before the event (the one with the tacks) and it was a lovely route and virtually traffic free roads. Escape Bikes in Pitlochry have a map of the route. Personnaly I would prefer to ride on my own or with a few mates rather than be surrounded by hundreds of other riders. Each to his own though, we are all different.

[monty dog]

Re the earlier comment
Re the earlier comment regarding insurance, some UK organisers state it’s the high cost of liability insurance that pushes up entry costs. However, most of this insurance is there to protect the organiser for liability if an incident were to occur to a participant or third party – I’d still make sure I have my own cover to protect my interests.

[the_mikey]

Ultimately it’s down to if
Ultimately it’s down to if you enjoyed it or not.

Some people can happily go out and spend £60 on a night out, come home at the end of it very drunk and sick, They could also just sit at home with a bottle of spirits and spend a lot less for the same result.

Sportives are like the drinkers night out, although if you have the right friends/company then perhaps you can achieve the sportive experience for a lot less. Not everyone is lucky enough to have friends like that, but going out for a ride alone is not the same!

[BigDummy]

If it’s a Big Day Out that
If it’s a Big Day Out that you wouldn’t otherwise do, and it comes good, then it’s money reasonably well spent I think.

I’ll not pay entry fees to ride roads I know with people I don’t know, but foer various reasons paying a bit of money for an entry helps to get a group of friends together and committed to a big ride in their diaries, often seeig somewhere slightly different or taking a train ride that I’d not bother with if there wasn’t an event.

The big money ones put me off because I just can’t imagine the value being there on the day, but I’ll pay those sorts of sums for entry to mountainbike events without batting an eyelid.

[Gkam84]

PeteH wrote:okay, so

PeteH wrote:

okay, so basically when we’re talking about paying £60plus for a UK sportive we’re expecting an experience on a par if not better than the Etape du Tour?

Does that match with the reality?

(I’m assuming here that the Etape du Tour is well organised.)

I’m going on your assumption aswell that it is well organised as i guess it would be

But NO, you shouldn’t be expecting the same if not better in the UK, for a few reasons

1. You might be lucky to get closed roads over here, but because this country puts up some much resistance to roads being closed and not enough attention on fun and fitness through these type of events, Just look at what keeps happening on the Etape Caledonia, people out putting nails all over the road

2. Its not very often you get to race the same stage as the worlds best/most well known in what is normally great weather, The UK climate can never offer the best of weather even in the height of summer

3. The caliber of riders doing the UK sportive’s can vary widely from guys who should be pro to the guys who have to walk up the smallest of climbs. To take on the Etape Du Tour, you have to really think about your own fitness and turn up ready for it and be able to finish as your accommodation is normally near the finish point and being in a foreign country, your not going to just stop and jump on a bus, lol, i also think they would have a van/lorry picking up stragglers that most sportives in the UK don’t have

[joeegg]

I suppose its how you
I suppose its how you quantify value for money.
A good ride out with the club ,or mates, is the price of a stop at the cafe.
More events will be set up because the pricing structure seems to be highly profitable,and that will draw in companies not interested in cycling, or supporting the sport,but more concerned about the bottom line.

[nick_rearden]

It’s a tricky one, isn’t it?
It’s a tricky one, isn’t it? But the fact is that the events charging £50-£60 really aren’t that huge in number and the organisers running them feel under pressure to provide good value otherwise people won’t come back year after year. Note for example that the Dragon Ride which had some complaints last year due to timer chips not working including mine still sold out in hours for 2012. Why? Because it was a great event to attend and ride and even if I had totted up the overall cost (+£60 petrol for starters) it was still a great day. Of course, I wouldn’t do that every weekend because I could neither afford it nor get permission to be away all day every weekend even if I wanted to. A couple like that are the highlights of the year that you work up to with the remainder of cheaper or free rides slotted in around work, family commitments etc. It’s all good. If you don’t want to ride ’em, don’t. If you want to travel all over the country to seek out every one, every weekend including all the international ones; that’s good, too. Whatever works for your life. All I know is that organisers setting up their events on the road.cc What’s On calendar has exploded and if that means there is more choice for more people then that can only be a good thing all round.

[Author]

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