Do all sportives get this kind of hammering by the locals?

It’s a race if it wasn’t there would be tea and cake stops every 10km.

To be fair – the one’s I’ve done did have tea and cake stops – but only every 30-40km or so.

An event with 600-700 riders might create minimal negative press locally and be welcomed back year after year but only mediocre profits. Organisers unchecked might well put 2000 on the same route to maximise profits even if it does royally piss off the locals.

Anywhere else and you might have a point.

This is the New Forest though. The nimbyest place in the universe.

If I see one of those posters in my village, I’ll be sure to start taking photographs of all the cars that speed through at 50-60mph in a 30mph limit.

Then again, I might just get a life and enjoy riding my bike.

It’s laughable how all these curtain twitchers get so uppity about a few cyclists. They really need to get out more. But in some ways I’m glad they don’t.

Local support?
No chance of that, this is the latest in a long running saga. Move to a beautiful area then expect to have it to yourself all year.
Don’t even talk about off road access, horse riders can churn the place up as much as they like, but put a wheel off piste and they will spout about how the Royals gave them sole rights hundreds of years ago….er yeah, before bikes were invented.

That poster needs a facepalm picture.

I’ve never done one, so didin’t know, but figured it was like track days in removing the competitive edge.
ie. no stopwatches or racing others.

There’s a difference between someone orgainsing a race, and people racing one another on a “event”, shirly?

just sent that vizzit lot a message via their site.

I’m a fairly regular visit to the New Forest for weekend camping.

I would say that my family and I typically spend £300 over the course of a visit.

We always bring bicycles and make use of both the off road and on road cycling opportunities.

I have become aware that there appears to be a resentment of cyclists using the local area and that, currently, this is focused on (but not limited to) the Wiggle organised sportives.

Given your apparent support of cycling within the Forest being further restricted I wondered how you can reconcile that with the amount of income that it brings to the area from families such as mine. Surely as a company that exists to promote the area you would be keen to increase visitor numbers, not discourage them.

My biggest problems to date have always been the amount of car traffic going through Lyndhurst (almost to the point of stopping us visiting the area at all) – it would seem to focus your efforts on addressing this rather than attack cyclists?

Thanks

Clearly the nimbiest members of the community will have incomes that aren’t reliant on tourist traffic but there’s clear economic benefit from cycling there that needs to be recognised.

but figured it was like track days in removing the competitive edge.
ie. no stopwatches or racing others.

There’s a difference between someone orgainsing a race, and people racing one another on a “event”, shirly?

Stop calling me Shirly….

The difference is in a race there would probably be less people and a rolling road closure to keep the course clear, in this event there will be people racing (yes there will be) and those plodding along on open roads. Still a massive number of extra riders on the roads, not saying they shouldn’t be there but if they are getting locals backs up them time to sort it out not just plough on

Where do they get the estimate of 6000 from? Wiggle has the maximum number of places listed as 1,500 which I assume is a per day figure.

I’d never thought of it as a race. I thought it was an easy way to ride in an area where i otherwise wouldn’t with the minimum of planning effort required. other people may be racing, I won’t.

There are two of us doing the ride, but we were going to rent a place for twelve and make a bit of a family long weekend of it. But this sort of thing puts me right off that idea, seriously considering just driving down and back on the day instead.

WCA and PeterPoddy would do an excellent job of PR. 😉

To be fair, when I helped organise running club events we used to get flak from locals who were unable to get off their driveway. Nearby houses all got leafleted to warn them but it also helped that a considerable amount of money went to charity.

I still maintain that these events are too big.

and results are printed in order of fastest to slowest

wrong

It’s a race if it wasn’t there would be tea and cake stops

wrong

the New Forest though. The nimbyest place in the universe

maybe – I’ve not seen objections to other sportives

asterix – Member
and results are printed in order of fastest to slowest
wrong
It’s a race if it wasn’t there would be tea and cake stops
wrong

It’s how the ones I have done have been organised… if its a pootle then no timing at all.

maybe – I’ve not seen objections to other sportives

apart from this one of course…

Though even there the reports call this etape a “race” with a winner.

It amazes me you can legally hold a huge road races on open roads (in a good way).

Don’t even talk about off road access,

The verderers and the forestry commision had a falling out about this issue. Long story short, Forestry commision wanted to extended the off road network, verderers said “no”, forestry commision said “up yours then”. Since its the forestry commision that polices the forest, the no off road rule no longer enforced by the forestry commision.

Forest local too, most of the objections to people using the forest seem to come from those that have just moved there.

I’d never thought of it as a race. I thought it was an easy way to ride in an area where i otherwise wouldn’t with the minimum of planning effort required. other people may be racing, I won’t.

This is what I was meaning.

By puting in small print to deter “racing”, they don’t have to pay for insurance to cover racing along with disclaimers as per motorsport informing you you will almost certainly die.

Since its the forestry commision that polices the forest, the no off road rule no longer enforced by the forestry commision.

Do the verderers have any legal powers beyond ‘I say old chap you really shouldn’t be here you know!’ ?

“most of the objections to people using the forest seem to come from those that have just moved there”.
…apart from the miserable sod from Sway sitting next to me at work as i type this..

I do quite a few sportives but actually I think a licence for an event with over say 1000 riders is probably a wise idea. They can be pretty disruptive and with a fair few idiots on them dropping litter or riding like they have sole use of the road can leave a bad impression on locals. Given sportives are, in the main, run to profit the organiser then that should come with more responsibility. The trouble is ofc it would be open to abuse (local councillor gets held up behind a cyclist and ends up denying an event a licence through personal bias etc.).

British cycling are very clear about results

4.8 Publication of ‘Result’
The only “result” issued shall be a list of riders who have completed the route within the specified time. Organisers must not publish a list of riders by finishing times or indicate the order in which riders finished. The appropriate format is alphabetical name order. Electronic timing facilities are to enable riders to compare their times rather than provide a finishing order; they provide a degree of safety as well since it allows the organiser to easily count the riders in and out.
The awarding of prizes cannot be given on placings. The use of a podium would indicate that the event was of a competitive nature, so should not be used

I did this event a couple of times in the last few years and agree it is too big.
One day would be sufficient and maybe a few less riders.
Also seen a fair bit of litter (gel wrappers etc) dropped by riders.
This would be certainly lessened if they didn’t dish out a bag full of them to most starters before the event. There are food stops with bins, if the food isn’t enough, at least shove the wrappers in your pockets.
No doubt there is probably some stupid riding done by some Strava boys pinning it trying to get a time in, but as a whole most riding i’ve seen has been reasonably sensible.
Tricky one i suppose, it’s the whole discouraging sport and exercise side of the complaints that bug me, and if you’ve had the pleasure of going within 10 miles of Lyndhurst during the summer, a few bikes are the least of their traffic problems.

Do the verderers have any legal powers beyond ‘I say old chap you really shouldn’t be here you know!’ ?

In truth i don’t know, i seem to recall there being a fine of something like £500, but i don’t know of anyone that has had it issued to them. Nor am i aware of any rangers that have issued it, my wife certainly didn’t when she worked as a ranger.

My bike commute to and from work includes part of this ride (near Brockenhurst).

I support the idea of more cycling, only thing that pi$$es me of is the huge amount of gel wrappers that appear that weekend. If you can carry it halfway round, don’t bloody drop it after you use it! And there seem to be shed loads within 5 miles of the finish, where it is too late to have a major effect….

But the local hysteria/vitriol amazes me, when every day riding too and from work someone will usually drive too close/ force me off the road/ swear at me… Maybe I should take photos?

The route last year came straight past my house as do several other sportives, we’re not near the start admittedly but there was a steady trickle of riders for a few hours, no bother at all.

NIMBY’s with nothing better to do than try to ruin others enjoyment for no real reason, they’re just making stuff up to invent a reason to stop it. It’s just sad!

Rusty where’d you see the poster, the pub in Sway?
We’ve been in there plenty of times over the years on night rides, clearly off road and never had any bother

NF local also. Never had any issues riding off road cheeky trails.

A few surprised looks perhaps but everyone seems happy enough!

It’s 2000 riders over 2 days so 1000/day and there’s 3 different routes and a 2 hour window for starts. I can see you get groups forming but I don’t think it’s like a peleton going past for 5 hours.

Not that big, really – but running over two days with staggered starts? Seems almost designed to piss off the locals.

I do quite a few Spanish sportives, they’re always well supported and if there’s any local opposition I’ve yet to hear of it. They’re a lot bigger than this event, too – the one I’m doing in July has 9000 riders… But it kicks off at 8am, with rolling road closures, and no pretend-this-isn’t-a-race crap.

I don’t understand why rolling road closures would be less impacting than some dispersed cyclists on the roads after staggered starts.

agree’d it doesn’t sound like a massive event, the dragon ride has 4500 riders all riding the same day.

@waswas – great response to those fools, I am all over them on twitter!

Should be promoting the area

I don’t understand why rolling road closures would be less impacting than some dispersed cyclists on the roads after staggered starts.

Basically you can advertise the times and possible alternative routes, and you don’t get people stuck in a car behind one group of cyclists after another, and getting all worked up about it.

What is it with this country and NIMBYism? Pretty sure if this was most other places in Europe then locals would be out lining the streets cheering on the passing rides, probably making a day of it with beer and bbqs.

Don’t know where the posters were, it was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago.
I’m over in Poole, so not really local, my rides over that way are usually part of loops i do out of here.

Do you think the charity ride that Jens Voight is doing here in 2 weeks or so will raise as many complaints? Paying cyclists set off in groups for him to ride with (and presumably attack each group of MAMILs whilst shouting ‘Shut Up Legs’ as he catches the group in front) will be bigger bunches for motorists to aim at drive round and curse

and now MTB’s are too quiet?

only allow riders with Hope Hubs ??

Having seen that vizzit site and being an occasional visitor to the areas i’m considering a mail or two to their advertiser wightlink highlighting the campaign to drive tourism away. Given both WL and Red Funnel market to cyclists that may get some traction

I am not a fan of sportives they need to be sanctioned as other events are.I run a time trial and that has enough red tape never mind a road race and all that involves .These only cater for a 100 or so riders not the many hundreds being spoon fed a route at great expense.

Looks like the twitter page has been pulled

I do quite a few Spanish sportives… no pretend-this-isn’t-a-race crap.

I imagine there isn’t quite so much in the way of red tape crap involved in running something as a race there.

6000 people on an event on open roads? Sounds like a bad idea really, They can close them for marathons and fun runs so why not bike races (a sportive is a race)

It’s not 6000, it’s about 3500. Over two days, so <2000 per day.
Closed roads – depends, it can cost an astronomical sum of money and you need to weigh up the benefits to the event and the inconvenience to the locals.

And a Sportive is NOT a race. The fact that cyclists on a cycling website are saying this really isn’t helpful cos it’s one of the things that local NIMBYs trot out on a regular basis to attempt to get the events closed down. The fact that some people try and ride them as fast as possible doesn’t make it a race. I walk to the shops as fast as possible but I’m not racing!

The “danger” apsect is pretty laughable given how many of their treasured New Forest ponies die each year after being hit by cars…

Whining shitbags who don’t want to share the forest roads.

On a bank holiday 100,000 cars go to the forest, so what is the problem with 2,000 bikes? I don’t hear them complaining about the 5 mile traffic jams through lyndhurst.

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