Ride the Sportive Route – Don’t Pay BHF RIDE

Nothing wrong with riding the

Nothing wrong with riding the route. Snacking at the feed stations yes, but not riding the route. 

Living in the New Forest I have several sportives on my doorstep through the summer months, are you saying I should keep off my local roads whilst they’re passing through? I’ve certainly been out on regular Saturday/Sunday morning rides when I’ve encountered sportive riders. And with the thousands that participate it isn’t like you can drop back and apply time trial drafting rules. Personally wouldn’t dream of availing myself of the feed stops but its unlikely to be costing the organisers any money – no doubt Cliff and SiS pay a pretty penny to sponsor them.

(I should add that I’m a BHF-trained first-aider and I’m fortunate to still have my Dad with me 15 years on from multiple cardiac arrests)

How do you know they hadn’t

How do you know they hadn’t paid and were definitely riding the whole route?

It’s entirely possible that those clubs had groups of riders out on routes that cross the L-B, or even join it for a short section in places to link up other roads – although you’d think clubs of that size would have known about an event of that size and been able to plan alternative routes to avoid doing that if at all possible.

If that is what they were doing then, hey, you can’t stop people using a public road and, having done it (officially), it’s pretty easy to jump in immediately coming out of Hyde Park, if you haven’t already sneaked in with the other starters. 

Any closed road sections/feed stations/other official bits should have been open only to riders with an event number, although it’s going to be pretty hard/dangerous to stop specific riders going down closed sections when they’re mixed in with everyone.

If they were taking advantage of just the signed route and marshalls and didn’t touch the feed stations, or anything, then it would be nice to think they chucked a few quid in as a thank-you.

I have a few issues with this

I have a few issues with this topic. Sportives are nothing more than a licence to print money for organisers using public infrastructure (ie roads), some chuck a few drinks and snacks in to clear their conscience about the entry fee. What is the problem does wnight have with these 3 particular clubs, why just name them and not others, what evidence does he/she have that hundreds of people rode without paying? If you have evidence of that then why don’t you name and shame them yourself? If enough people paid for the ride to cover your costs (which shouldn’t be too much if this was a charity event and charitable people offered their time to help organise and marshal) how did a small percentage (a few hundred from an official figure of 15,000)of extra riders affect you?  Every rider on the road was increasing awareness of the good cause after all.  Their additional entry fee would not have made much difference to the £2 million raised. 

Did they deliberately ride

Did they deliberately ride the whole route? And stop to use the feed stations?

If I was involved in an official capacity I would write to those clubs. However, it probably won’t change anything, you’re probably pissing in the wind.

I’ve not rode it for a few
I’ve not rode it for a few years but the years I did I noticed the same, though the vast majority were not lycra based cyclists at the times I did it. Still pretty poor regardless. The congestion is bad enough at places anyway without people pushing in.

As for those clubs I’d send them an email – I highly doubt that their chairperson/committee would approve of their clubs name being dragged through the mud.