[Closed] So who is going to be trying to enter the Trans Provence tonight?

Same as yourself, was very keen to do it again but I can't justify 1195 Euros plus flights and spending money for a week in France. A great event with some fantastic riding, but that's too much spend for me.

Entries open 11pm UK time, so you don't have to be up too late tonight, and if you've got the money it's well worth doing.

straighliner, a shame i think. not sure why such a price hike

I'd like to just jump in here and apologise to anyone who is shocked by the 2010 price. We are sorry to those people who were excited about attending in 2010 but who will not be able to because of the price.

Over and above the costs of running a ‘static’ catered MTB trip, preparing and operating a week-long point-to-point mountain bike trek through wild terrain, run at a high level of service such as Trans-Provence, demands not only investment in vehicles and an extremely long list of specialist equipment, but also a very high ratio of staff to participants (e.g. 18 staff for 32 participants in 2009).

Additionally, in the case of T-P there are a number of totally unique aspects to the event which unfortunately represent additional costs. One of these is the provision of daily morning trailhead uplifts which are put in place for one reason: to maximise the amount of singletrack that can be covered in a day. Another aspect which is unique for a 7-dayer, is the fact that it’s multi-stage-per-day, which is the key ingredient in achieving the competition format and the ambience that make T-P what it is (i.e. a friendly, inclusive MTB rally where technical riding ability is at least as important as fitness and stamina).

Bearing in mind all of the above, and also the fact that Trans-Provence will only ever be a very small-scale event, we’ve arrived at the lowest price at which we feel the event is viable for us to run, long-term. If we could do it for lower, we would.

If anyone would like more detail on this, or any aspect of the 2010 event, please get in touch by email.

Thanks for reading,
Melissa

[i]not sure why such a price hike[/i]

It's only a "price hike" because the introductory 2009 price was very heavily subsidised.

Melissa

Melissa,

thank you for your explaination, I suppose it was not clear to some (like me) that last years price was heavily subsidised thus the surprise in the level of price increase.

I wish you all the best with this race, it does look amazing!

Did it last year and it was incredible, but yeah, can't afford it.

Great shame, trails and banter were awesome!

rip-off. did you lose money on this year's event? most likely not. did you manage a successful event? yes. why does the price need to jump so much then? what do you feel needs to be improved to make what was, by all accounts, a well-catered for and run event? surely with the stir that this years event created you should be aiming to increase participation levels. £100/£200 increase would have been understandable but i can't help feeling that you guys are just in it for the dollar now & have shot yourselves in the foot with the 2010 prices. you'll be lucky if you reach 32 participants again.

if there is specialist equipment/vehicles that you need to invest in, surely your plan should be to cover it over a three to five year period rather than asking your participants to take massive hits like this.

i was most probably in but now most definitely out. £1200 would cover my winter AND summer holidays for 2010.

"peachos" you will be offended, it's intentional, as your making my blood boil, but you are a pratt!
You would not understand the level of organisation required for this event how could you as you sit on your arse preaching.

I did the event last year, and I have no connection to the organisers, but I organise events myself. It was clear they lived and breathed this event for almost a year, there is no way on a cash per hour spent they will ever make any money on this event, and incase you forget they are a buisness.

It's not just a ride in the country, this is one scary collection of rides that on any one day could kill someone. It's full on downhill, this is no trail centre ride, people hurt themselves and in some very isolated spots at that. the organisers obviously realized they need much more medical cover to prevent a disastor.

People who did the first event did so with the understanding that it was a trial run and they as pioneers, would probably have to put up with some crap. As it was they were lucky in the fact that the competitors took the problems in their stride and rallied together to get through them.

The people who rode the trails setting out upto 70 miles each day all volunteered, and boy did we feel for them, they deserve to get paid too! would you get up at 5am ride up a hill in the dark to start marking out a course you'd never seen, then wait all day for the riders to pass before you could finally ride on to the next camp. Oh and do it all again for 7 days.

This event by its nature can never be a mass event, and its only with mass participation in any sport that you can bring costs down. Personally I even think 64 people will be a struggle to cope with.

The cost of all the vehicles and drivers required must be huge, the food was exceptional and apart from a few beers to ease your aching limbs you hardly spend any other cash, everything is provided.

What ever the cost it will fill up, this is one seriously demanding event, people will always pay for the best.

Jack.

I completely agree with Jack, in that we knew last year we were getting a discounted price to act as guinea-pigs, and that 2010 would be up to full price. Right now I can't justify that amount of money for a week away, but it's comparable to the BC Bike Race and Trans Rockies in price, yet you are getting an event with a different style, more uplifts and a better organiser/competitor ratio.

The TP will never be a 'big' event as the trails and the logistics just would not be able to cope, so their investment has to be met without the economies of scale available to some of the other events. As a week away riding, the trails and demands made of the rider are second to none, and anyone going will not regret it.

All I can say is good luck to all at TP HQ, you have a fantastic event on your hands that will only get stronger.

"peachos" you will be offended, it's intentional, as your making my blood boil, but you are a pratt!

hardly offended mate. i simply am asking for proper reasons why an event i was excited about has doubled in price. not quite sure why you're so outraged though. maybe it's something to do with you being a 'pioneer' that makes you have such strong feelings towards this event.

if any event doubled in price there would need to be significant justification. as it is no-one has provided any, apart from possibly medical cover - but what does that actually mean? more medical staff at checkpoints etc perhaps? would h&s legislation not dictate how many staff are needed based on the number of participants? if so, and if participants were covered this year, why would this price per participant increase so much?

as for vehicle & driver costs, i wouldn't say that hiring vans and drivers for a week would be such a huge cost and sponsorship deals could easily be arranged to help cover these costs.

I can understand that the figure is different from the first year BUT the first year was a trial run and the TP team invested into the concept. A bit like a 'proof of concept' and it worked!

I was involved in some of the riding for setting out the course 2 years before hand and know how much time Ash and Melissa put into setting up the route and actually riding it and worrying about safety and enjoyment of participants. This event is completely different to any event out there in that its a Ash's vision of what he considers mountain biking to be. So if you think they are in it for the money because you assumed that the first year was the 'true' cost then I can see why you might be shocked but that is not a true representation of the Trans Provence.

If you look at cost per day of riding and you compare like with like the Trans Provence is cheaper than any of the Trans races. Thats purely on paper but look at quality of riding.

If you compare prices with the likes of www.bigride.com you'll see that per day of riding its very well positioned:
BigRide: 200 euro a day
TransProvence: 170 euro a day

With regards to '1200 quid for a holiday in France' I challenge you to go anywhere else in the world and get better riding. You may have been to France but very few people will have seen these areas. It really is an incredible place to ride your bike!

All those who took part in the 2009 TP will come back to you with the same answer. Everyone loved it and they would have loved it for that price too. The memories of the riding and new friends will stay with me forever. To call out Ash and Melissa as 'in it for the money' really is unfair as its a one week event and they put over 2 years effort into it. Should they just break even? Should they make a profit? Of course they should.

Peachos,
I apologise that you seem to feel that we've gone about things in an unfair manner.

For the 2009 event we decided, for promotional purposes (and with some capital that we had saved up and therefore had freely available to us at the time), to subsidise the cost of entering the event very heavily, to the extent that we were operating at what one would call a considerable "loss" per person. We prefer to see this as an investment in the brand of our event, and event that one year ago was completely unheard of to the 32 people who bravely took part as guinea pigs. For better or for worse (and, in retrospect, I do admit that we could have managed price expectations for 2010 somewhat better), this is how we chose to get Trans-Provence off the ground.

As it is, in the long-term, we would prefer to make a slight profit per person rather than a considerable loss and the 2010 price is, we truly believe, the lowest it can be to allow us to do this. Please trust me that the margins are much smaller than what you appear to think they are, and the list of costs and incidentals is quite simply staggering. Also note that the price is on a par or lower than many other international 7-day point-to-point mountain biking events, yet with T-P you have what we believe to be a more interesting (certainly more original) event in terms of both route and format than most of the others.

If you still aren't satisfied with my answers, I would be more than happy to continue the discussion but I would prefer to do so outside of a public forum, so please send me an email and/or a phone number and I will get in touch with you.

Thanks,
Melissa

it was made perfectly clear to me from the start that this year was an introductory price, i'm just gutted that i didn't do it this year.

good luck with next year Mel/Ash, one day i'll be able to afford the time to do it

The people who rode the trails setting out upto 70 miles each day all volunteered (snip) would you get up at 5am ride up a hill in the dark to start marking out a course you'd never seen, then wait all day for the riders to pass before you could finally ride on to the next camp. Oh and do it all again for 7 days.

I did that ... and in answer to the question YES !!
and I'm going to do the same again next year. I don't work for Ash and Melissa but I worked WITH them on T-P 2009, I spent time with Ash while he was agonising over setting the price for 2010 and I know that it's not that the price has doubled but that the participants last year got a bargain. Melissa explained why above.

Roll on T-P 2010 :O)

Hi all,

The latest: half of the 60-odd places now sold, so please don't delay if you're planning on [url= http://www.trans-provence.com/ ][b]registering[/b][/url]!

Melissa