I was having to pop down to see family in the New Forest last weekend and a road sportive was on.

I was amazed at the level of lack of spacial awareness by some of the riders.

Overtaking into the path of oncoming cars
Riding 4 abreast on winding unmarked roads
Oh, and my personal favourite: riding 1m behind me whilst I’m gingerly trying to get past the snake of riders in both directions, with other traffic and parked cars, leaving me with the choice of either letting him smash into the back of me or for me to drive into others for his benefit.

I really really wish sportives would take more action to educate entrants far more, as I can see, but not excuse, non cyclists getting frustrated to the point of aggression.

I took part in an off-road bimble the weekend before and all walkers, golfists and doggists were met with a cheery hello etc.

Why do road events have to be so different?

Because roadies are all spazzos?

Because roadies are all spazzos?

I guess some roadies may have cerebral palsy, your point is?

Sportives are not races but should be closed road or rolling roadblocked.

weeksy – Member

Because roadies are all spazzos?
We’ve moved forward in the understanding of many things since the 1970s.

A spazzo roadie:

Rolling road block would seem reasonable, and safer than the mayhem they produce now. I imagine it would be expensive, or just put extremely clear signs up so other road users can divert?

I’d hate to think what would happen to a skittish horse being surprised by a load of cyclists coming around a blind bend.

Too much delusion and too little observation in those groups IME. Slightly scary to ride with (or towards 😯 ) them

Tricky given the length of road a sportive takes up – road races which use those tend to be far more compact. It also requires some sort of traffic order which they don’t currently need.

Until somebody gets hurt

I think the bizarre thing is that residents on the routes block closed road events without considering that they are even more inconvenienced by having 1500 mamils waddling down the street en masse.
It’d be better for all to have the road closed and just plan ahead a little bit.
Local residents wanting to get their copy of the Mail on Sunday screwed up the Etape Cymru. Selfish twunts!

snake of riders in both directions

never mind the riding, that’s really bad route planning

I thought that and it was because they placed a feed station at one end of a lane. Bikes going to and from. Not clever.

Dorset Bimble didn’t have feed stations, but did deliberately go past at least 2 excellent pubs with fine cider. Very clever

It’s about time to restrict entry to these things to e-bikes only. That way participants can keep up with traffic and not hold anyone up.

I asked this a bit ago: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/road-sportives-should-we-ban-them

I think it was a fairly unanimous “yes!”

I did one on closed roads. Terrifying.

Oh, and my personal favourite: riding 1m behind me whilst I’m gingerly trying to get past the snake of riders in both directions, with other traffic and parked cars, leaving me with the choice of either letting him smash into the back of me or for me to drive into others for his benefit.

Why were you trying to overtake cyclists in an area that sounds massively unsuitable for overtaking? :-/

It is a national forest not a motorway. Going slowly and being patient so that others can enjoy their day out is just part of the deal if you chose to drive through it.

Spoken like a true grockle atrthanks.

Contrary to your point some roads are straight and vision is clear ( as the heathland presents only dips in the landscape as a threat to visibility), but as the peleton stretched for about 8 miles with no alternative routes I tried to make progress respecting the safety of all other road users. Is it somehow a faux pas to overtake slower vehicles when appropriate?

The issue with the cyclist riding far too close to me happened many miles later, as I did not wish to cause injury to other users of the road.

Anyone else fancy making assumptions that I’m an impatient, dangerous driver?

getting frustrated to the point of aggression.

there’s no excuse for aggression. They’re still road users who are less safe than you, if you can’t accept that (even if they’re behaving like numpties) review your anger management technique

Anyone else fancy making assumptions that I’m an impatient, dangerous driver?

Are you?

I’d hate to think what would happen to a skittish horse being surprised by a load of cyclists coming around a blind bend.

https://twitter.com/forestcyclist/status/781800725806518272

Lets have special days when cars can use the roads.

Well done to the wiggle riders on that day. Not same riders I saw.

To answer others, nope not impatient and in regard to anger management; please reread my first post.

Go for a poo and treat yourself to a Horlicks, tomorrow’s another day.

Not same riders I saw.

They may have been 🙂

Anyone doing the Velo Birmingham thing? Bargain at £75…

Is the simple answer to the OP’s last question:

“Because it’s mainly choppers that ride sportives”?

Its people riding bikes ffs calm yourself. I drive to work every morning with roads chock full of brain dead **** in cars but I dont spout off on the interwebs about banning them. Some people are ****, oh well life goes on.

I didn’t say anything about bans! I think etiquette lessons by the organiser.

I’d echo some of this. Saw some utterly baffling, and at times scary, riding from people on the “Tour de Test Valley” recently, including several riders turning across oncoming traffic (Self included) and causing emergency stops from said traffic (Self included). I was the third car, all evenly spaced and all travelling at around 50mph on a two lane, fairly straight stretch of A road with clear visibility. About four riders turned right, across the front of the leading car. There were no cars visible behind me. Lead car had to slam on the anchors, second car and self had to come to a needlessly sharp stop.

Presumably all so they could “win” their “race”.

I think etiquette lessons by the organiser.

All the ones I’ve done(which is about 4) have had talks at the start about not riding like a bell end…some people cannot be helped!

Anyone doing the Velo Birmingham thing? Bargain at £75.

Was but then decided I would rather have £75

The people who bothered you whilst they where riding bikes will have got to the finish put their bike in a car and driven like bellends- speeding, driving too close, parking on pavement, texting, not indicating, knocking one out over Jeremy clarkeson etc.

Just people, the bicycles are incidental.

Not all Sportives are the same.
Is Fred Whitton a sportive? It’s one of the best rides I’ve ever done.

Anyone doing the Velo Birmingham thing? Bargain at £75…

Was really interested but can’t justify £75 on a race on a date that I won’t know whether I can have as leave for another six months…..

can’t justify £75 on a race

Would it be easier to spend £75 on a ride rather than a race?

mikertroid – Member
Was really interested but can’t justify £75 on a race on a date that I won’t know whether I can have as leave for another six months…..

You should look at Audax.

Sportives are a cruel joke aimed at mamils.

I don’t think having your head up your arse is the exclusive domain of “roadies”. All human beings clearly have that capability as witnessed by this forum and this thread.

It’s about time they got serious and did them on closed roads, nobody seems to mind that every major city closes roads so that people an go jogging or celebrate a historical event that probably didn’t happen why not for a good bike ride/race?

The thing with Sporives is, that they don’t need closures, as they aren’t races.

This – and very high numbers of entrants in some cases – is where the problem lies.

My personal opinion is that the promoters and any other bodies involved need to think carefully how the proceed. No matter how you try to avoid it, they are going to need safety legislation soon, which would be a shame for the sport as they are very important at grass roots. Beginning to ban events is a slippery slope, too.

I have concerns at the size of the fields and the standards of riding in some sportives these days, but now many accidents are there on these events per mile ridden? Do we need control – the cost of which will make such events unaffordable, thus making the point null and void – or do we need a sense of perspective?

Audax UK publish annual figures of incidents, their type and severity, and it is amazingly low given the miles ridden and the average age of the riders and their bikes. And don’t tell me an audax isn’t a “pseudo race” like a sportive. Have you seen how quick a 70 year old can ride when he thinks he’ll be at the back of the queue in the next cafe control? 😉