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[quote=thecaptain ]Maybe but some people were saying a sportive isn't a race and some were saying riding one is just the same as the London marathon. statements which are not simultaneously correct.
For the reasons I just pointed out there is no contradiction - most people run the London marathon rather than race it (most fundamentally they're not trying to compete against anybody else).
The are dates in the calendar a fixed point. I did the Tour de Mon on Sunday with my son. Tied it in with a weeks holiday, and met Terrahawk. What's not to like.
great to meet you too mate.
and met Terrahawk. What's not to like.
Well, I wouldn't want to share a seat with him in a tricycle...
Was just about to start a thread about doing my first Sportive on Sunday (Oulton Park one) but saw this thread. I'm regretting booking onto it now...
You will have a fab time mcnultycop. Ignore the miserable cynics 🙂
I mainly race, but probably do a couple of sportives a year because people ask me if I'll come along. Some have less appeal than others, the UK ones for me are just social ride's with mates really, usually followed by a night out somewhere which is all good in my book.
I enjoy some of the foreign one's a bit more; I did the gran fondo stelvio santini back in June and enjoyed that, had about 5 days out there and did other rides on other day's. I enjoy a couple of the Norwegian sportives most year's as I have family out there so ride/ visit them.
I know I could save a bit of money by not doing them and just riding, but the money is no fuss and there is a social element to them I like, that is different to that of training/ racing. I can't understand why folk get so ****y about them, but i guess it's the same folk that don't get X, where X equals any hobby anyone else does that someone wants to patronise for some insecurity or another.
I've done a few. As smell_it says, it's as much a social thing as a bike ride. A group of us used to do the Cumbrian Cracker and stop over in Ambleside for a meal and a few drinks on the Sunday night. Not too bothered with the more local ones.
People out riding their bikes and enjoying themselves. What's the problem?
As the threads come back to life.
London marathon is a race. Sportives are not
Whilst this is largely true, something like the S.Wales Velethon is run on closed roads, your timed and those times are placed in order 1st, 2nd ect. So if not a traditional race it's very much a race of sorts.
I think sometimes entering a Sportive gives some riders an incentive to train/get out and do a route/distance they wouldn't normally do.
Harmless fun.
I did my first Sportive today. I enjoyed it. Well organised, nice route somewhere I wouldn't usually ride and cake. I'd do one again and as something to train towards I like the idea.
It was Oulton Park and getting to do laps of the track was a nice touch but would have been miles better if the wind hadn't picked right up at the end.
Did one earlier, brute of a day to ride 100 miles but you get plenty of camaraderie from strangers, marshals on all major junctions, decent feed stations and a challenging course.
All in all a good tough day on the bike in a part of the country I'd never seen before
Out on my usual recreational potter yesterday I found myself caught up in the middle of the Wiggle Mendips Sportive which was rather fun.
There seemed a real mix of folk from the deadly serious who shot past me (as I progressed up Cheddar Gorge on my 27lb+ steel hardtail) talking earnestly to team members on some sort of comms system, to the more social types who chatted to me as they went by. I even overtook a few on the way up and felt rather chuffed (until I looked up details of the event when I got home and realised that my usual twice-weekly route was about the distance of the their short route).
All in all it all seemed rather jolly.
Saw some folk out today on a "race numbers" ride, going the opposite way.
Assumed it was a wiggle sportive initially but they looked a bit casual. Still, they [i]were[/i] at the arse end of it.
On my way back home I caught a couple of stragglers and had a bit of a chat. They were on a Wessex Heartbeat charridy ride and neither had ridden a bike for several years. The second one was walking up a longish but gentle hill and I wondered if he'd had a problem. Apparently he had, if you count losing a lung a while back. Kept him company while he rode back to his finish.
... and then I [b][u]smashed[/u][/b] out a few more PBs* on #strava!!
[i]That's[/i] a proper ride
*(in the 16mph wind 😳 )
Don't need a map.
Easier to convince pal to ride a century.
It's for charity.
Not only do you get cake you get cake every 25 miles!!!
Agree about the Audaxes though, the people who ride them are a lot nicer to chat to and they're way cheaper than sportives, plus you get badges! And a mention in their quarterly magazine for your achievements.
I don't get it at all but it doesn't mean people are wrong to do it. I won't slipstream folk I don't know, I like to stop for picnics and I don't care about the speed I ride at only the fun I have riding. Some folk may have other things they prefer. so long as they don't act like dicks so what?
I did the wiggle mendips one yesterday. Was canny. But man some people do treat it as a full on race. I got shoulder barged by one chap on a single track road as he tried to squeeze past about 20 riders. why he didn't say coming through baffles me still!
Brother in law rode the Mendips Sportive yesterday. It was hard and he has a great sense of achievement - not a natural climber and coming from mtb. What's not to like?
Meanwhile, I raced the Welsh National Circuit race championships to modest acclaim. I'd probably have preferred the Sportive to be honest!
Bump Nath's thread and give us a write up please TiRed 🙂