[Closed] Surrey Hills Sportif - oh dear riders

Pass the biscuits....... 🙄

Shall I put the kettle on?

Despite having ridden in the Surrey Hills for just on 20 years I now look to see if there's yet another sportive being run on a Sunday and if there is I go somewhere else as the standard of riding and riders is on the whole so poor.

Get over it, it's a bunch of cyclists in a prime cycling location. For every twunt cyclist you show me, I'll show you a dozen twunt drivers.

Local council are holding a meeting soon to discuss the mtb / road cycling "problem"

I would be genuinely interested to find out where you heard that?

Can someone help me out here - Sportive riding is basically paying someone to ride somewhere you could already right? Whats the appeal?

[quote=benpinnick ]Can someone help me out here - Sportive riding is basically paying someone to ride somewhere you could already right? Whats the appeal? Site: http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum enduro

I can see the day the Sportiv's will be required to have dedicated marshals if they are to have permission to run the events. They can try and hide behind the language but these are races / time trials like any other.

Where is this Surrey place you speak of?

Congratulations on finding your way out of the classifieds.

Your trolling needs a bit of work though, sorry.

Well it least they pay for using the site I guess..

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Mr P, if ever there was a need for the second and third words to be swapped, that's it! 🙂

There's 'hills' in Surrey? B@{]$#1t

cha****ng - fair shout!

slimjim - toys going back in pram...am over it!

Grace how's the shoulder holding up ? How's the new ride ?

There's 'hills' in Surrey? B@{]$#1t

There's two things you need to know about Box Hill.

1. It isn't a hill
2. See #1

A friend was doing some work down on the south coast and contacted a local club to go out for a ride. All through the ride they were talking about some hill coming up. Eventually my mate stops and asks where this hill is - "You've just climbed it" was the reply. "God help them if they come up here" was his verdict.

Whats the appeal?

Sense of occasion.

How is it trolling?

I know some on here seam to think that cyclists should be beyond criticism, but living in the area I agree with the OP. There appears to be organised events most weekends from Easter onwards, sending 100's or 1000's of riders up narrow single track roads.

It's all very well saying "boohoo, you live in a busy part of the world, suck it up", but all these events and poor riding standards make us (cyclists) very unpopular with others, and I can often see their point.

As someone who rides more than they drive I also know that there are lots of crap drivers on the road too, but that wasn't the OP's point.

CaptainFlashheart - Member

Mr P, if ever there was a need for the second and third words to be swapped, that's it!

Obliged (if anyone knows where .png files can be uploaded, flickr renders them on a black background)

[url= https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8689/16969416042_500bbccaf3_o.pn g" target="_blank">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8689/16969416042_500bbccaf3_o.pn g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/rRwGbE ]le sportif coq[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7614571@N05/ ]thisisnotaspoon[/url], on Flickr

Ooh, that's good! (Any chance of changing it to Sportive as well?) You may be on to a winner here! 😀

Re sportives in general, as above, they can hide behind all the twaddle, but they're races. Races ridden by people who don't know how to race on the road*, and from the monthly or more that come through my way, they don't really know how to ride on the road either. After every one, the local lanes are full of gel wrappers, as well. Asshats.

Put that sort of mass ****tery in a place that's already got problems with the huge numbers of people coming out from London to enjoy what is, it must be said, glorious countryside, and you have a problem.

There will come a time of much, much stricter regulation. Sportive organisers would do well to try and pre-empt the worst that this could bring.

* I don't either, I should add. Only ever raced off road

Any chance of changing it to Sportive as well?

That would require actual work, and according to wikipedia

Cyclosportive is short for the French term randonnée cyclosportive (the spelling cyclosportif is sometimes also used but cyclosportive is correct as randonnée is a feminine noun in French).

Re sportives in general, as above, they can hide behind all the twaddle, but they're races. Races ridden by people who don't know how to race on the road*, and from the monthly or more that come through my way, they don't really know how to ride on the road either.

Maybe for the first 100 or so at the front, for the other 900+ it's just and excuse to go ride somewhere different without needing a map.

Agree with the general standard of riding and f***wittery though.

actual work

Sod that for a game of soldiers! 🙂

There's two things you need to know about Box Hill.
1. It isn't a hill
2. See #1
A friend was doing some work down on the south coast and contacted a local club to go out for a ride. All through the ride they were talking about some hill coming up. Eventually my mate stops and asks where this hill is - "You've just climbed it" was the reply. "God help them if they come up here" was his verdict.

Box Hill is about the easiest climb on the North Downs. It's a very nice climb. But it's by no means tough - big ring in the saddle job. There are tougher climbs. there aren't long climbs, but I do more climbing without trying than some friends who live in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

+1

Follow plenty of riders from more hilly places and my road rides have similar amounts of feet climbed.

I do sportives when the other half is away - nice to know someone will sweep up the pieces if it goes wrong on a hundred miler. Haven't done Surrey - prefer the dales and the lakes. Plus they're nearer. I also race but women's races are a bit short...

The ****s per square km ratio is higher in London than anywhere else in Europe. And with the increase in the popularity of cycling, there's obviously a good chance some of them are going to find their way onto the public roads on a push bike.

Gutting to say the least, but there's not much you can do about it, other than move.

No hill is hard if the gradient is less than about 15%. You just stick it in a gear your comfy with and tap out in zone three all day long. Any hill is hard though if you climb it in zone four or five. i can ride box hill in as much pain as say Winnats Pass if I try hard enough.

I've hosted a few riders from the "North" who've regretted not giving the South Downs Way a bit of deference.

As an aside, I've never really got this whole "we've got proper hills up here" chip on the shoulder thing. Made them did you? Carved them out? If not, then it's an accident of birth or postcode, get over it.

I've hosted a few riders from the "North" who've regretted not giving the South Downs Way a bit of deference.

Highest point Butser Hill, 270 m (890 ft)[1]

Lol, 270m! Where I'm from, the highest point is over three times as high as that. And I have to climb it carrying this massive chip on my shoulder!

Best description I ever heard of the north and south downs was that the climbing will break you 'by stealth', as in no one hill gets you but you're cumulatively knackered. When I first rode in the peak district (my furthest north at the time) I was surprised at how few climbs a ride contained. They were chuffing enormous to my mind then though!

Total ascent of the south downs way is 3600 meters. Would love to be fit enough to do 110 milesand that climbing in a day 🙁

As an aside, I've never really got this whole "we've got proper hills up here" chip on the shoulder thing. Made them did you? Carved them out? If not, then it's an accident of birth or postcode, get over it.

Have you been to the grim North? It's obvious there's little else to crow about apart from the terrain, let the poor bastards have their bit of fun.

So we've gone from the OPs point about some cyclists not helping "the cause", as it were, and are now just squabbling about who has bigger hills?

No, the northerners waded in and did the 'hills in the South?! Hahaha!' Thing. Personally i really wish we had more shit desolate moorland down here. No, wait, I dont.

Yep. That's STW.

On the original point there are a minority of dicks on these rides but, as usual, they're only really causing danger. To themselves.

I came across an event on the top of Ranmore/White down last year when I was driving against the flow. Despite crawling at well under 20 mph I still had to break sharply a couple of times for riders who felt the need to overtake other riders as I reached them. Still, it was the car in front revving it's engine and accelerating hard between groups that was the real problem and road danger.

On the original point there are a minority of dicks on these rides but, as usual, they're only really causing danger. To themselves.

Trouble is that it isn't so much danger and the negative public opinion and ill feeling their behaviour drives. We all get tarred with that brush.

It would appear that those in the south haven't heard of jokes 8)

Back on-topic ...

Yes there are some prats in all walks of life and they let others tar the rest of that group with the same brush.

It would appear that those in the south haven't heard of jokes

Eh? You mean your anecdote was a 'joke'? Hilarious, bet you're a hit at parties 😐

[i]It would appear that those in the south haven't heard of jokes[/i]

The flat cap and whippet defence?

I was on a Sky ride last year and I was utterly gobsmacked at the standard/consideration of drivers to us around the Macclesfield/Jodrell bank observatory bank area. It was beyond contempt.

At one point in a tight spot a bloke drove AT us spinning his wheels presumably to make a point.

The others were drivers pulling out and going for an overtake clearly when theres a car oncoming already too close. Plenty of those.

Maybe in the OP's situation/description people fall into an subliminal assumption that they are in some sort of agreed rolling closed road event.

I've encountered road rage (towards me) from a group of road cyclists when I was driving in the Surrey Hills. I patiently waited up a climb, round a bend (all too dangerous IMO to overtake on knowing the road), a good while later they bunched up and out and still blocked the way- eventually I got passed and beeped once which triggered an element to get lairy (it felt like they were goading drivers tbh). Maybe I shouldn't have beeped (once) but then they knew I was behind them for a longtime too being intentionally blocked.

The UK north vs south hills one-upmanship must be quite amusing to those from countries with actual mountains.

I read an article recently about how roads and tracks were formally used by everybody as public space and the first cars were something of an intrusion on those. Soon after, heavy motor industry lobbying and paid journalism changed the public subconscious to: "roads belong to cars" and any other users began to be thought of as "guests" on the roads or somehow in the way of motorists. Quite sad really.

Actually the anecdote was told to me by a London policeman so not a northern dig at the south.

[quote=njee20 ]Trouble is that it isn't so much danger and the negative public opinion and ill feeling their behaviour drives. We all get tarred with that brush.

In the same way all drivers get disrespected because a few of them go round driving dangerously and killing people? Oh wait...