Places for next September’s inaugural Vélo Birmingham 100-mile, closed road sportive will go on sale at 8am tomorrow morning – but if you want to grab one of the 15,000 places on offer, you will have to pre-register by 5pm today.
> Details released of 100-mile Vélo Birmingham sportive
Tens of thousands of people have already done just that, leading organisers of the event, which was officially launched at The Cycle Show last week, to predict that “demand for places is going to be huge.”
Pre-registration does not guarantee an entry, nor is there a ballot, with the FAQ on the event website saying:
Entries will be sold exclusively to all those who have pre-registered on a first come, first served basis. With tens of thousands of pre-registrations to date and only 15,000 places available, we’re encouraging everyone to enter as soon as entries open to avoid missing out.
The event takes place on Sunday 24 September 2017 as part of the HSBC UK BikeFest weekend, with the route starting and finishing in Birmingham City Centre and also taking in parts of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire.
Head here to pre-register.
22 thoughts on “Pre-registration for Vélo Birmingham closes 5pm TODAY”
Already been posted elsewhere
Already been posted elsewhere, but I’ll repeat it here for visibility.
It’s already open for British Cycling members to enter.
Costs £75 plus £3.75 booking fee for a General Entry or £115 plus £5.75 for Fast Track Entry.
pruaga wrote:
Do you have a link for that? I’ve logged on to the BC website, but can’t see any mention of this event.
Velo Birmingham have given us the date, the route, allowed us to pre-register and will open the entry process in less than 24 hours, and yet there’s no official announcement on the cost.
Like me, I suspect that many of those who have pre-registered will think again because of the cost.
Jon L wrote:
There is/was a link in the member news I got sent last week, but I think it is tied to my membership number so I can’t share it.
I got two emails this morning, one from Velo Birmingham saying registration opens in 24 hours and one from British Cycling saying the 24 hour priority access was open, which gave links to price.
Try https://register.canbook.me/velo-birmingham but it might need a membership number.
pruaga wrote:
Thanks, that worked although I’ve decided that £80 is too difficult to justify.
75 freaking quid?????
75 freaking quid?????
mrchrispy wrote:
No £80
I thought about doing this
I thought about doing this event, but then I remembered that it involves paying money, to ride on roads that I can ride on for free, at any other time, and that it was a Sportive, and thought “balls to that”.
Judge dreadful wrote:
It’s been a while since I went north of Watford admittedly, but I didn’t realise that roads in the Midlands were routinely closed at weekends. You really should make more noise about that, people might want to come and visit.
It’s a shame if they’ve been
It’s a shame if they’ve been keeping the price secret, signing up thousands to make people keen to ‘buy now to avoid disappointment’, then it turns out that it’s very expensive.
I’d like to ride a closed road sportive at a reasonable price, but I feel this is over-the-top and profiteering.
Considering its a brand new
Considering its a brand new even I am surprised the basic entry is £75…
I think the Ride London Closed road event cost me £65. And that is a closed road event around LONDON! That experience was pretty much priceless.
Velothon Wales is £65 too I think and that is a closed road event around the beautiful land of Wales!
But £75 to ride around the closed roads of Birmingham??? Am I missing something here?
Personally I woudl have said £50 for the basic and £75 for the special entry. If the event was a hit, the slowly increase the price to manage the supply/demand ratio.
just wow…
This is on many of my regular
This is on many of my regular roads and for people slating Birmingham a) it’s not that bad and b) the vast majority will be out in the countryside and round here it’s really nice. I’ve no doubt it will be a good route.
That said, I’m not entering, it’s too expensive. Even though these are roads I ride frequently I think closed roads and 15000 people would have been a different experience and I’d have been prepared to pay for it but I think charging more than Ride London is a mistake. I’m inclined to agree with this:
Also I’m a bit irked by the way they’ve handled the big reveal of the price.
Give that it is this time of
Give that it is this time of the year and there is a reasonable chance of rain the price is a bit to premium. Closed roads are great and the No.1 draw for this type of thing, but London is in the SE and in the high summer, it is going to be sunny. I did have the pleasure of doing Ride London 2014 in the Hurricane, but it was still warm and the sun came out at the end. This could be quite miserable. And why the secrecy? Then there is travel and accommodation… No I think it is too late in the season for me, I will do the Manchester 100 instead, its local and quite quiet on a Sunday morning.
100% out. Sorry but no. If it
100% out. Sorry but no. If it’s £65 to ride around the busiest city in the country why is it £75+ to ride around Birmingham.
Haven’t we just come through
Haven’t we just come through a rather warm September?
Have any of you guys ever been anywhere near Birmingham?
The route will be passing through plenty of beautiful countryside, much of which is covered by other sportives. Even the city centre has its striking landmarks.
I often ride these roads but am more than happy to take a punt on this.
Okay, so it’s not the capital city, but it’s one that’s steeped in cycling history and production. Think Reynolds, Brooks, BSA, etc.
That KOM section could be a toughie. I suspect it’s St Kenelms Pass, Shutt Mill Lane or something in the Lickey Hills. It’ll hurt after 85 miles, that’s for sure.
Has anyone managed to enter
Has anyone managed to enter today? The website was constantly unavailable this morning (presumably due to high demand) and now it says sales are temporarily closed.
theironduck wrote:
I got this email, though having seen this thread I won’t be bothering as I am not prepared to pay the fees.
We are aware that you are experiencing technical issues and we apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.
Due to overwhelming demand we have temporarily suspended sales.
There are still 15,000 entries available and we will email you later today with a revised on-sale timeline, so please keep an eye out for this email.
We appreciate your patience.
I like to think that
I like to think that somewhere in Birmingham there is someone standing next to a smoking server rack thinking, “So that’s why RideLondon run a ballot…”
Got in to work an hour early
Got in to work an hour early to book, only to find can not book because of technical issues, when It does get running bet i still have to pay booking fee.
I live on the route and can
I live on the route and can confirm that these are great cycling roads, well used by local clubs. The fact that they will be closed roads is an attraction but it wouldn’t be the same as riding a European sportive or even Ride London and for this reason I was suprised by the amount of interest in this.
Everything about this event seems strange to me. It was only announced just over a week ago (?) the deadlines for registration and signing up are tight and the cost is high. I would have doubted that few people would be prepared to commit a full year in advance. So far as I am aware no other events have such a long lead in period.
There has seemingly been no publicity about this locally (other than in the cycling press) and I can’t imagine that the locals will be completely happy about the roads being closed…. when they find out ! The high cost will no doubt be swallowed by the huge number of marshals & infrastructure that will be requred to keep the roads closed, on the assumption that this is done properly. At a local circuit road race we had about 15 marshals on a 10 mile circuit.
I wonder if they really have website difficulties or perhaps haven’t got everything properly in place such as the support of the various local authorities etc !
Timsen wrote:
What do you think would make it different? Temperature, atmosphere, route?
I know quite a few who pre
I know quite a few who pre-registered but having seen the cost and the server fiasco this morning have decided against entering. You do have to wonder how well organised the event will be if they can’t even sort out the entries a whole year in advance.
I pre-registered but after
I pre-registered but after seeing the cost it’s not value in my mind … I’m out
You have to wonder if they couldn’t (or more likely didn’t want to) resource an IT system capable of handling the expected demand on sales, it makes me wonder what the overall organistion of the event will be like. At the moment it seems like some organising company trying to cash in on the cycling boom in the UK but without much clue as to what’s involved and the costs of organising an event on this scale.