Having witnessed the chaos caused by yet another sportive on the Mendips its about time they were regulated and had numbers limited the same as road races
There were hundreds all over the road over about 4 miles today far to many riders to be safe !!
inconvenient to motorists =/= unsafe
It's probably actually safer than the same number setting off individually.
Regulate and limit people riding bikes? Get a grip you idiot.
The irony of reading this whilst watching the Tour de France live on UK terrestrial television... 8)
Highways Authority and Police clearances are obtained and warning signage is put up. Doesn't do any harm to remind some other road users that they share the road with another increasingly popular mode of transport.
Having said that, I kind of know what you're saying. I reckon the bubble will burst over the next few years and the large number of new events will no longer be commercially viable and we'll be back to the established events only. Maybe...
My guess is it depends largely on where you live. Never been inconvenienced by a sportif, driven through a couple but they were fairly small events.
I could imagine views might differ if you live in a popular region though.
It's probably one of those interminable moral maze question as to is my inconvenience more important than someone else's enjoyment?
That said I get the impression that a minority of riders think that riding in a competitive group is carte blanch to ride like a dick.
The only regulation needed IMO is whether they are races or not and whether marshalling is needed. There are riders who take stupid risks to get a time.
The Surrey Hills being where we've done the majority of our riding over the last 15 years is now becoming an area to actively avoid due to the number of sportives taking place. The standard of the racers is shocking and I can envisage serious incidents becoming commonplace.
We rode the Dragon Ride this year (8th time) and I saw at least 4 people being scraped off the road, and herself waited for 40 minutes for someone to be put into a helecopter on the last descent. In the first few years it was normal to create a group to work together and spend most of the ride with them. The last couple of years its just been every man for himself and bigger the consequences of those you've switched on flat roads or usually on a descent.
I've ridden quite a lot of Euro events and you know when you hear English being spoken that very soon someones going down or you'll find yourself pushed into the gutter.
Doesn't do any harm to remind some other road users that they share the road with another increasingly popular mode of transport.
A race is for sporting equipment, not transport, so that won't work. All it'll do is make more people think cyclists are selfish gits.
This chaos, does is it kill thousands of people each year, poison thousands more, block our roads every day and cause personal misery to those living nearby. Does it contribute to the nation turning into blobby balls of fat whom go on to consume my tax by burdening the nhs.
Or is it a few people making the first steps to more active live style?
Sort out the way a lot of car and lorry drivers behave then get back to us.
What people would understand is that cyclists have an unalienable right as subjects of her majesty to cycle on the queens highway, motorists are merely licensed and this privilege is revocable by the state at any time.
In essence a cyclist has a right to be there motorists do not.
Sportives are not races.
In the first few years it was normal to create a group to work together and spend most of the ride with them. The last couple of years its just been every man for himself and bigger the consequences of those you've switched on flat roads or usually on a descent.
Is this a sign of more non club riders? I know there was a thread on here and someone was asking why they were asked to do something on a club ride and got the usual stupid rules responses, there is a reason why club rides have rules.
Sportives are not races.
Yeah, they are. Pretending otherwise doesn't change anything.
They are (largely) regulated, most of them come under the insurance and auspices of British Cycling which has guidance/rules for organisers and they're reasonably self-limiting in the fact that if you try and put three Sportives on in the same area on the same day, at least one will fail to get any entrants. Or the route clash will be picked up by local cycle clubs or bike shops or by regional British Cycling staff and passed on to HQ.
There are of course still the odd few cowboys who run an event without any notification, take the money and run but most organisers are reaosnably sensible and they obviously aim for the areas where they get the biggest take up - of course it's Box Hill area this year but watch what happens in Yorkshire next year!
But yes, some riders behave like total ****ers - there seems to be a minority who don their lycra and immediately lose all common sense and manners; ride 3 abreast, swear at car drivers, drop gel/bar wrappers, speed through villages and whap their cock out in public to piss in a hedgerow.
Regulate and limit people riding bikes? Get a grip you idiot.
Hundreds of people riding unmarshalled is daft it holds a lot of people up and can lead to traffic trying to force its way past .I was going in the other direction and had to watch cars squeezing cyclists to the edge of the road as they were frustrated .IMO they are accidents waiting to happen .Maybe people should be sent of in much smaller waves according to ability to lesen the impact.
By the way dont call me an idiot
can lead to traffic trying to force its way past
Motorists shouldn't 'force their way past' they should be patient and pass when it's safe. If that takes several minutes then tough, leave earlier or take a different route.
Hundreds of people riding unmarshalled is daft it holds a lot of people up and can lead to traffic trying to force its way past .
Hundreds of people ride unmarshalled through the streets of London every day - they're called commuters and at peak time they can make up 30+% of the traffic on some routes.
Should there be marshals for them too?
I was going in the other direction and had to watch cars squeezing cyclists to the edge of the road as they were frustrated
Ah - so the problem isn't the cyclists?
Well it is ,road races are limited in field size and have escort vehicles
Regulate and limit people riding bikes? Get a grip you idiot.Hundreds of people riding unmarshalled is daft it holds a lot of people up and can lead to traffic trying to force its way past .I was going in the other direction and had to watch cars squeezing cyclists to the edge of the road as they were frustrated .IMO they are accidents waiting to happen .Maybe people should be sent of in much smaller waves according to ability to lesen the impact.
By the way dont call me an idiot
Does frustration excuse criminality, endangering people?
Of course not but other slow moving mass participation events ,ie running take place on closed roads or circuits when the numbers approach those I saw today
Does frustration excuse criminality, endangering people?
no,
Motorists shouldn't 'force their way past' they should be patient and pass when it's safe. If that takes several minutes then tough, leave earlier or take a different route.
highway code rule 169, do not hold up traffic. Not law but would be used against you if any problem arose.
Er, the cyclists aren't holding up traffic. They [i]are[/i] traffic. I think you need to have a closer look at that Highway Code fella.
By the way dont call me an idiot
what ya gonna do idiot?
No it wouldn't, it's not law and cyclist cycling is not holding up traffic. That guideline is intended for motorists parking in such a way as to hold up other traffic.
I get held up most morning by cars blocking the roads, very frustrating but i dont resort to dangerous behaviour, i pity them sitting in their boxes wasting their lives getting fat and diseased.
Your arguments are weak,shallow and naive.
I fail to see why voicing my concerns over sportives warrants an insult
Er, the cyclists aren't holding up traffic. They are traffic. I think you need to have a closer look at that Highway Code fella.
yes the cyclists are traffic and in the same way a tractor is traffic they can hold up other traffic. Is it so hard to understand.
No it wouldn't, it's not law and cyclist cycling is not holding up traffic. That guideline is intended for motorists parking in such a way as to hold up other traffic.
Highway code rule 169.
Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass.
See the bit about slow moving traffic!
Don't see anything in that last part that relates to cyclists, they aren't "drivers of large or slow vehicles"
So according to you tractors aren't allowed on the road either?
Read the highway code, is it so hard to understand that slow traffic is expected to ceed the road to allow faster traffic through occasionally so long queues do not form?
I'm sorry you are so insulted. Maybe you should take your silly ideas to petrolheadtrackworld instead.
Of course not but other slow moving mass participation events ,ie running take place on closed roads or circuits when the numbers approach those I saw today
Rush hour is a slow moving mass participation event that happens every weekday only the roads aren't closed, and people expect their journey to take longer.
they should also expect their journey to take longer I'f there are a lot of cyclists riding a sportive.
Why is limiting and regulating sportives a silly idea ? Road races and most of the Audaxes I have done are limited .The road race I helped with had a field of about 60 and I think the Dartmoor devil has 200 .
Having witnessed the chaos caused by yet another sportive on the Mendips its about time they were regulated and had numbers limited the same as road races
There were hundreds all over the road over about 4 miles today far to many riders to be safe !!
Yes you win the DARWIN award for stupidity, on the final day of the tour de france, the day of the week when all the cars with cushions on the back windows go out on masse, the day when all the idiots want to drive faster than the car in front, where the population of power rangers dressed in their leather suits descend on any twisty road and peroceed to not obey any road regulation or law.
So basicly you wenmt out in the car and got delayed by us cyclists using the roads for pleasure, as opposed to going to Tesco for wine..
Read my post I was driving in the opposite direction witnessing it all ! I was off mountain biking with my sprog .I am one of us cyclists .
Road races and most of the Audaxes I have done are limited .The road race I helped with had a field of about 60
Road races run under completely different laws and insurance provisos to Sportives.
It doesnt matter under what rules they are run it`s the size of the fields that is the problem .In many cases I assume to maximize profit ?
zilog6128 - MemberDon't see anything in that last part that relates to cyclists, they aren't "drivers of large or slow vehicles"
"Especially", not "only".
I am not a road cyclist and have no experience of a sportive, however I once ended up within a mass of cyclists competing in a triathlon down the side of Ullswater. It was one of the worst driving experiences of my life. Whilst patiently waiting behind cyclists I was regularly overtaken and undertaken at the same time by cyclists. As they were racing they clearly did not feel the need to signal their intention. I would have been far happier if the road had been closed for this event, but don't know how practical this may be in most situations.
athgray
Try driving the Commissar a the back of a real road race. Dropped riders appearing on your back bumper at 35-40mph
Its bad enough being lead car trying to keep out of their way when you get held up in narrow bits !
I just wished race organisers would do the decent thing and take down all the bloody "temporary" (sic) road signs after their events. They litter roads, verges and BWs all around us.
Echo that comment for all events.They need removing after events otherwise they have little effect on the public if they are warning signs and left up all year
Lots of the usual knee jerk reactions from those who see cycling as a god given right.
Sportives are often races.
A winners time is given.
Stop that and it would help. Use a standard time instead and people would slow down and it would also remove the wannabe racers.
Hold on though, isn't that an audax?
Big ones are a bloody pain and give a bad impression. I'm the first to agree that drivers should wait their turn but big sportives put so many riders on the road, many who just won't give any other user a chance, that it is all too much. It's no good saying wait when the stream of bikes is 3 wide for nearly a mile on a bending hill. That's wrong.
The standard of riding is often shite. Riders don't think, "how carefully can I get down this hill?" but "how fast". Tossers.
Litter is always an issue IME and I include the signs. They don't need to be up the week before and the bloody broom wagon should have them down within minutes of the last rider. I have a lovely collection of Wiggle ones from the last event through the FoD and there are tons still about.
To naively say that they are good for the sport is wrong. They are good for lining the promoters pockets.
Sadly these events now need to be authorised in the way that vehicular events do. Not all but anything with a large number of riders.
Double standards here.
Sportives are not races. A race is a race, that's why you have sportives and races.
So during a sportive you are just riding, you are just traffic, you abide by the highway code.
Ahh but the STW sportive'ists say sportives are races, in which case you need controls and rules. Racing if that's what you are doing on the highway needs different permissions to a mass participant ride.
So make up your minds, are you riding a sportive and all well and good or racing illegally and kinda twisting the Highway Code to suit yourself.
BTW seen the massive cue of cars at a standstill when a football match is on?
We rode the Dragon Ride this year (8th time) and I saw at least 4 people being scraped off the road, and herself waited for 40 minutes for someone to be put into a helecopter on the last descent.
Not done a UK sportive, but that seems pretty much par for the course for Spanish ones. Even the long running, well-organised Quebrantahuesos for example. One thing that does seem to be different is the positive attitude of locals, and the road closing. (Has be said I don't think they'd run sportives every weekend in the same area here, that does seem a little stupid and risks antagonising the locals unnecessarily...)
