Cyclist caused an accident and left the scene

I rode many years ago in the

I rode many years ago in the a 100mile charity ride.  The first 25 miles in 57 minutes although not a race.

This sunday I came across a 100 sportive, no problems climbing a short sharp hill, it was one way only, yet when we hit the open 2 lane  road the group spread across both lanes with many club riders appearing to attack to get to the front,  a few treating it as a road race. The majority will ride sensibly obeying the rules of the road, the few will risk all for a moment of imaginary glory.  You can’t legislate for the few, regretably.

Having competed in many forms of racing and organised Road Races and time trials I had to jump through hoops twice to get permissions from 2 counties police forces with a controlled field of a maximum 70 riders.  The last race I organised the pre-race talk was attended by the police and they stayed to watch at various points around the course looking for infringements of the law. 

The afore mentioned 100 sportive took in some of the most dangerous sections of road the county has to offer. 

sergius wrote:

sergius wrote:

I’m one of those people that has little faith in others until proven otherwise, so the whole drafting thing isn’t for me – I’d rather be able to see where I’m going and hate riding on others’ wheels.  I would say that I’m a safe and considerate rider – whether I choose to complete a sportive as fast as I can, or pootle around is up to me.

That’s all fair enough. But you’re still racing at events that aren’t races: they’re fun runs on bikes – IMO! It is literally impossible not to hear the complaints about bullying ‘racers’ at sportives – I think I’ve heard multiple moans at each of my 10ish sportives, at food stations, at the finish – shit, even at the start, complaining about previous versions.

The organisers are deliberately ambiguous – they’re sold as fast rides, safe races, races without being races, but then, of course, NOT Races to attract both camps.

Personally, I consider it the domain of people who want an organised pootle, because there are actual ‘races’ to do elsewhere, which I do, when I want to race.

An ITT it ain’t.

Audax, the antithesis of a

Audax, the antithesis of a sportive. 

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Bit unfair to say the rider caused the accident when in fact the poor road surface did. His actions afterwards aren’t really defendable though.

Sure, it was the mud and shit that ’caused’ his accident, which then took out me, but a little bit of curiosity on his part about why I was thrupenny bitting the corner up the inside might have saved him a lot of grief. It’s not as if hazards on corners in country lanes in Northumberland are scarce.

I took up cycling 6 years ago

I took up cycling 6 years ago, after I had retired,  as an activity to keep me fit.   I ride solo but enter one Sportive a year as an incentive to keep riding regularly.

I ride Sportives as they are not meant to be competitive, I don’t want to be in races because I don’t have the experience or bike handling skill to ride fast in a group.   I just want a safe ride in new surroundings with other like minded people.

Sadly these events are always soured by arrogant and aggresive wannabe racers who habitually close pass and cut in front of us leisure riders in an obvious attempt to intimidate us.   

sergius wrote:

 

Sportives are an excuse to go out and ride with a bunch of likeminded people. 

All that crap about “join a club” or “go do cat 4 races” is for people who enjoy forcing their idea of riding onto others.  I ride my bike for enjoyment when it’s convenient for me, and occasionally do a Sportive as an objective measure as to how my performance is improving.

 

How about making your riding convenient for other people and organisers?

Do you know what would be a more objective measure? An actual race, or an actual TT.

Most of the people doing a sportive aren’t treating it as a ‘race’ and frustrated or chicken ‘racers’ blasting round them cause friction.

So why not actually join a race, or TT?

Jimmy Ray Will wrote:

Of course a sportive is a race… for a significant minority. 

personally speaking we need to either embrace this attitude or stamp it out. I hope that more grandfondo style events start to happen and there is a clearer distinction between organised group rides sportives) and competitive cycling events. 

My point being is… it doesn’t matter how often you say its not a race, people will still see it as a race. 

 

Agree 100%

davel wrote:

Canyon48 wrote:

Just seems silly when someone seems really keen to “race” when I’m commuting home, not to mention really annoying when I’m concentrating on traffic.

There are bellends who, for some reason or other, don’t want to compete in an actual race, but are intent on treating sportives as races and strava as TT results.

Apropos of nothing, Leviathan might be along soon to accuse me of ‘projection’ or some other psychobabble that he doesn’t understand.

Oddly enough I recently came across a friend I’d lost touch with from my motorbiking days. He looked a lot trimmer than I remembered and he’d got into cycling in a big way (he was actually pretty fast when I checked Strava) and told me he’d been ‘competing’ in sportives.

So there you go. Sportive competitions. For some people…..