Was watching live on TV on Saturday afternoon, happened to turn on just before the peloton reached the “feeding station” (as if they were red kites at Nant Y Arian).

Fair enough, they get a food bag, sling it over their shoulder, take what they need, BUT the next bit looked very bad – to finish they scrunch the remainder up into a ball & throw it in the hedge/ditch/verge.

Now I’m now eco warrior, far from it, but that just isn’t on, is it?

With all the will in the world you could never find all that rubbish, strewn over several k’s.

So roadies, is that just the ‘done thing’ pretty crappy if so………

Pretty sure a lot of it gets cleaned up in the Pro races.

It’s the wannabe road racers doing Sportives and other non-races like that that make the real mess. I once picked up a bag full of gel wrappers from ONE climb from the 2012 Wiggle Dragon Ride after the event. Utter disgrace.

And it’s not just the roadies. MTBers are just as bad, whether during a race or at trail centres etc. I’m always picking up litter from both :/

Im not sure about the tour of Britain but the likes of the tour de France have a litter zone (shortly after the feed zone) where riders are allowed to throw their rubbish, they can get fined for doing this outwith the litter zone. It then gets picked up by a cleaning crew after the race.

Throwing their bottles is a bit different i dont think that is classed as littering and the bottles tend to be picked up by souvenir hunting fans.

The bottles, at least, are biodegradable (but admittedly we’re not talking weeks or months to break down). As OmarLittle said though, I think for the musettes there’s a zone a reasonable distance after the feed zone for them to dump the bags. Also at the Tour of Luxembourg they have a clean up crew following the route to get the worst of the spectator and rider rubbish cleaned up.

In the spring classics a number of riders got into trouble for dropping their trash all over the road.

Would be something if they were thrown onto a pavement or clear area, but these were literally being hurled deep into the undergrowth.

Poor show imo.

I just don’t like littering, there’s no need for it, especially while cycling – most people carry a rucksack or pack of some sort, it’s not hard to keep you rubbish in there ’til you find a bin.

In the UK there’s an 8 day UCI stage race with about 120 riders once a year. 🙄 and of course they carry rucsacs in pro road racing.
Just take a look at the rubbish created by events such as the London Marathon or Great North Run. Have you ever been to a 24hr mtb race? At the end of the weeken take a good look around at the rubbish strewn everywhere.

When I did a half ironman, they were very vocal on the punishment at the pre-race briefing about the punishment for littering (disqualification). Never been put any where near so bluntly for any mountain bike race or sportive, and therefore no surprise that I witnessed much less littering at the 1/2 ironman.

It all gets cleaned up by the race organiser afterwards, so there is no litter bar for a few hours…

The broom wagon also has a job of post-race cleaning and the vast majority gets picked up. Bottles all go to the fans; I’ve seen kids rummaging round in hedges an hour after the race has gone past and there was a guy on the run in to Kendal who was proudly clutching about 8 bottles!

There’s usually an allocated “litter zone” a couple of miles past the feed zone where the majority of it gets dumped.

But did they have to through the stuff into the undergrowth with such force, fair enough in a clearing to keep it away from the road, but not into the bushes where it is likely to be missed by any clear-up crew.

Respect to Jack Bauer who put his litter in his back pockets.

they throw it a long way to be sure it doesn’t land in the road or get blown back onto it. A Musette around your front wheel will ruin your day.

With all the will in the world you could never find all that rubbish, strewn over several k’s.

You’ve not seen the roadside verges on my commute. It’s horrible in winter when the hedges go you can see McDonalds bags etc for a few Ks, definitely.

A bottle on the road caused a big pile up in the Vuelta and Voeckler’s broken collar bone was down to a bottle in his rear wheel. I think the only thing they’re supposed to not just toss onto the roadside or into a litter area is food wrappers.

Think it was mark beaumont who suggested you can tell the quality of the food at drive throughs by how far out of town you see the wrappers at the side of the road……

aP – Member

In the UK there’s an 8 day UCI stage race with about 120 riders once a year. and of course they carry rucsacs in pro road racing.
Just take a look at the rubbish created by events such as the London Marathon or Great North Run. Have you ever been to a 24hr mtb race? At the end of the weeken take a good look around at the rubbish strewn everywhere.
Doesnt make it right that pro sportsmen, (and therefore ambassadors for their sport) lob their crap into the countryside.

This country has an awful attitude to littering, mostly along the lines of “its not my problem”.
FFS the amount of rubbish you see just chucked to the ground is shocking. We went for a walk yesterday and I returned with a number of drink and crisp packets. Is it really that hard to take the crap home with you in your car, as thats how you got it there in the first place!

Oh and whilst im ranting, why do many countryside car parks have dog shit bins, but not litter bins? FFS.

cycling is now so popular that whole families were out or at home watching this fantastic race.
i’m pretty sure though it gives off a bad message to children, that it’s o.k to throw litter onto the side of the road.

since a costa coffee shop opened up in our town, i’m astounded at the amount of rubbish that i see strewn along the beautiful grass verges of country lanes when i’m out cycling. mostly from this outlet.
keep meaning to collect it all up and deposit in the shop (too scared though).

I share the opinion of the OP.

Did two sportives just recently.
First the Ride with Brad and then the Tour Ride from Peebles to Drumlanrig.
On both I was utterly amazed at the amount of rubbish discarded by riders. On the Tour Ride I had the misfortune to follow a group of about 8-10 riders from a cycling club in Annan (all wearing black & yellow club jerseys). The amoung of gels they discarded in a few kms was awful.
Sadly they were traevlling a bit too quick for me to catch up with them otherwise I’d have tried to reason with them.

I also rode a section of the Tour de Ben Nevis ride yesterday (the event having taken place on Saturday). Again the amount of rubbish, which was clearly from cylists, was terrible.

Whose to blame.
1) The cyclists themselves.We pride ourselves on being an environmentaly conscious sport but then shoot ourselves in the foot by this indefensable action.
2) The event organisers. Who should, IMHO, take greater responsibility for cleaning up after the event.
3) The Pro riders. Yes I know the pro events do tidy up after the riders but what you see on the screen will be copied. So to be good role models been seen to discard rubbish sensitively & appropriately.
4) The TV channels. Have you ever seen Eurosport, C5 or ITV4 show clean up ops or even mention them?

Sadly I can’t see things changing, all I can do is my small bit and make sure I take all my rubbish away with me. I’ll try and make sure all my cycling buddies do likewise and when possibe; take a bit of someone elses crap (are you reading this Annan CC?).

TMS

It also really winds me up seeing dropped gel wrappers at the likes of 10 under the Ben. It’s not a pro race so stop taking yourself so **** seriously and put the empty wrapper back in your pocket ffs! 👿

at our races (the Brownbacks XC races at Lee Quarry), we have a very strict no littering rule and we will disqualify anyone caught breaking this rule. it’s simple really, there’s no need for it.
obviously we don’t monitor every single stretch of the race route at all times so there’s a chance we may miss someone dropping a gel wrapper but generally during pack down after the race we’ll do our best to pick up any litter on the trails too (regardless of whether it’s as a result of our race or not).
the thing is, we’re all doing this race organising thing voluntarily. we don’t make money from it, our marshals are all volunteers too and we’re out up in the quarry from 7am marking the course for a 10.30am-1pm(ish) race timespan, so it’s a pretty thankless and somewhat annoying job to then have to tidy up after thoughtless riders who’re seemingly happy to not care. luckily, we don’t have much of an issue with littering though, but if you’re one of those riders who does just toss your gel wrapper or haribo packet or whatever on the ground at ANY event/trail centre or so on, maybe just consider that somebody else is most likely going to have to pick that up for you and would you like to have to sort out other peoples’ mess yourselves?
i accept that it’s probably futile expecting some folk to actually consider anyone but themselves, but still, it had to be said.
finally, thank you to the majority of riders who don’t litter.

Oh and whilst im ranting, why do many countryside car parks have dog shit bins, but not litter bins? FFS

I believe this is intentional. I can’t recall the exact reason but its something along the lines that supplying litter bins across the countryside actually encourages visitors to litter rather than take rubbish back home with them.

I believe this is intentional. I can’t recall the exact reason but its something along the lines that supplying litter bins across the countryside actually encourages visitors to litter rather than take rubbish back home with them.

I suspect that litter bins un-emptied by the council for weeks or months, creates a vision of littering that is then replicated away from the bins.

ell_tell – Member

Oh and whilst im ranting, why do many countryside car parks have dog shit bins, but not litter bins? FFS

I believe this is intentional. I can’t recall the exact reason but its something along the lines that supplying litter bins across the countryside actually encourages visitors to litter rather than take rubbish back home with them.
Well the logic is flawed, otherwise why provide dog shit bins?
Not that it make eff all difference, the amount of dog crap you see deposited within 40m of the car parks is far more than you have actually put in the bin. Although I suppose it degrades pretty quickly. Still vile though.

It gets cleared up. Most clubs have a no litter rule (wrappers, gels and tubes) In amateur races it can get you thrown off.
I cleared up after a Mountain Mayhem once, **** me.