Presumably you’d be happy if somebody organised a car race with 2000 entrants using public roads?

there’s a London to Brighton every other weekend durign the summer;

there’s even quite a large cycle ride;

There’s always a few whining in the local paper but most people see it as both part of the fun of living in a place others like to visit and part of the pleasure of living there.

Oh, and there’s a marathon this weekend. 12,000 runners to frighten the horses plus approx 100,000 spectators.

Marathons are different as they use closed roads.

Good to see the universal support of all open road races, regardless of format. 🙂

Marathons are different as they use closed roads.

So Mrs Vizzit would be happy if Wiggle got the roads closed for the day?

Good to see the universal support of all open road races

Except, bar the marathon, none of them are actually races.

Just people enjoying their hobby on a Saturday or Sunday.

No idea. It does amaze me you can organise a race without closing roads. I’m all for it, but it is really bizarre in our nanny state.

It does amaze me you can organise a race without closing roads.

a) it’s not a race, it’s a Sportive.
b) every weekend up and down the UK, there are dozens of proper road races, almost all of them run on open roads (admittedly there are marshals, NEG motorcycles, Lead Car, etc creating a “race bubble” but basically, it’s an open road.

Even the Tour of Britain runs on a rolling road closure.

I’ve concluded that 5thelefant is trolling on this thread.

So Mrs Vizzit would be happy if Wiggle got the roads closed for the day?

Nope.

If you look at the link to anorak, you’ll see she has also complained about cross country runners causing ponies to stampede.

She also said she has never seen anything like the stampede before, so I’m assuming she somehow manages to miss the drift, where all the Forest ponies are rounded up.

I live near a start point for another one of Wiggle’s sportives and generally the issue’s with the traffic trying to get in or out rather than the cyclists themselves!

Doesn’t bother me in the slightest though and I’m not about to pickett the event just because it takes me an extra minute or two to get anywhere. I just wish there were more localish off-road events.

Why did everyone have to go and get so intolerant? There’s much more important things going on in the world than a few people getting together and riding their bikes around for a bit.

As for the race / sportive mix up seems someone needs to read up on their definitions and besides with the likes of Strava every ride is potentially a ‘race’ and therefore you don’t even need a timing chip – they’ll be getting that banned next!

Nope.

If you look at the link to anorak, you’ll see she has also complained about cross country runners causing ponies to stampede.

I should have put a 😉 in my post.

😉

Great work, whoever made this.

I did a lol.

Please put those up that’s ace.

It does need a bit of give and take and the most obvious bit of public opinion seems rather anti. Of course I doubt anyone here is interested in all those who live I the New Forest who are not complaining. That would be the thing to be seen doing would it? Nope , we are only interested in those who whinge.
I do see the point to some extent of the objectors. We get the Forest Classic?? sportive round here and the riding is bloody awful. Many of the riders seem to think that they are immune to traffic laws, common sense and courtesy. Its hard to complain about objections when the riders do themselves little good.
Comparisons with other activities are pointless.
I am not convinced that the supposed money that reaches the local economy is of value. None reaches me and I doubt little goes into the pockets of those who really need it.
Like I said it takes give and take and most sportives in my experience give very little. Sad really.

Mr A – that’s excellent !

Just been out with my daughter to watch the ride (in the car, we’re not daft).

G.R.I.M.

All riders looked thoroughly miserable (but were polite & moved over as we came up behind and many waved thanks for us waiting before passing)

No sign of NIMBY encampments – presumably too wet for them 🙄

(must admit, mattsccm, the idea of wiggle putting up a feed station within 100yds of a pub – which is how it looked according to the signs I rode past on Friday – isn’t going to endear them to local businesses)

Why, because sportive riders are otherwise going to stop at the pub?!

Events like this do bring money into the local economy. Entrants need somewhere to stay, somewhere to eat afterwards. Some of them will bring their families with them and make a weekend of it. Study after study has shown this, whatever the opinion of grumpy sods on the internet.

Why, because sportive riders are otherwise going to stop at the pub?!

I would – not for a couple of pints and a pie, but a quick sit down and a bag of crisps. More significantly, the perception of the local pub & shop owners could be massively improved if they could at least put up a sign saying “pub and shop 100yds this way”. Christ, they could have invited the local shop to set up a table at the feed zone flogging pop and cakes (must admit, I don’t know what feed zones provide but I assume it’s a powerbar and a sachet of jizz)

I think it’s more about keeping the locals happy than helping out cyclists

Christ, they could have invited the local shop to set up a table at the feed zone flogging pop and cakes (must admit, I don’t know what feed zones provide but I assume it’s a powerbar and a sachet of jizz)

Not sure what the exact arrangement is with Wiggle but they have sponsors who provide gels, bars, food ect. They have an arrangement with the Farmer’s Market at Brokenhurst (in fact, the Farmer’s Market was tweeting about how welcome everyone was and what the riders could buy there) and I know some events actively promote local produce/local businesses.

As I say, not sure of the exact arrangement in this instance. It may be that the pub specifically doesn’t want 1500 wet cyclists traipsing through but they’re happy to hire out some of their land for a feed station? Maybe? I’ve seen that before.

Well the local rag really struggled to blow it out of all proportion, and only managed this abysmal bit of non-journalism (with pics from a previous year judging by the dry roads – they couldnt even be arsed to go out in the rain to photo the swarms).

Report here

The pics in the link hardly show any dead ponies, scared locals or even a tsunami of cyclists. Disappointing.

Actually, traffic in the East of the Forest has been horrendous, nothing to do with cyclists but because the Motorway access to Southampton was closed for roadworks (with a home match against West Ham too) sending everyone our way.

Great work, whoever made this.

Thanks but obviously as a respectable businessman I can neither confirm or deny anything or be seen to be associated with wiggle.

A village in East Yorkshire toyed with the idea of roadblocking the Milk Race a few years ago. They asked the police what would happen. “You’d be arrested for obstructing the public highway” was the reply.
There’s always some nimby with an axe to grind. The village in question hated Humberside County Council and was a regular hotbed of arseyness.
When I say ‘village’, yes, probably all of the residents!

From echo newspaper comments:

Took part in the event this morning and it was a terrific success. Vast majority of drivers / walkers / observers were really friendly, offering support to cyclists with punctures etc. There was a small group protesting with a placard near Rhinefield and while I don’t support the objections I do respect that sort of protest. It contrasts starkly with the small minded minority who had damaged signage or changed the arrows and so on. Didn’t make a jot of difference to the event and simply generated more litter in the forest which was a shame on a number of levels. Police and marshals were terrific also so well done to all of the organisers.

What did the protesters have on their placards?
“Down with this sort of thing”.
“Carbon kills ponies”
“god invented saddle sores because you are evil”.

Best thing is to not engage with these nimby types there just a bunch of good for nothings with an axe to grind about nothing in particular, I mean as if an event thats held for just one day is going to disrupt their sad lives. pathetic.

From echo newspaper comments:

What did the protesters have on their placards?
“Down with this sort of thing”.
“Ban the Lycra pony killers”
“god invented saddle sores because you are evil”.

😉

From their twitter it looks like there may be problems with field that parking is in. Hope it still goes ahead.

Looks like tomorrow has been postponed

That will please the campaigners. Until they realise that 2000 riders will be back in 6 weeks. 😉

Tomorrow’s ride has been postponed.. the car park field was pretty **** and wouldn’t have recovered for tomorrow – we spent a while helping push people out and getting pushed out…

The weather wasn’t too bad early on (just misty spray) but later it really set in, made worse by the wind on the more open sections, and there was a lot of standing water.

Ironic that it was the CAR parking that stopped the event.

Just found a few things out…

Anita gresham hale is Collecting advertising revenue from bike shops and bike hire businesses, whilst campaigning against cycling.

And….

“[report] [news] Thursday 21st March
Pah. Silly old cow. She lives in a village that barely existed until the 19th century, yet bangs on about ‘damage’ to the new Forest.

Does she live in a pretty thatched cottage that has been there since before records began? I hear you ask.

Why, no. She lives in an architecturally bankrupt BUNGALOW, on a cul-de-sac, in a post war estate that was, ironically, built on her beloved Forest. Height of hypocrisy if you ask me. The Forest is a constantly changing thing, which over the years has been used for everything from a Royal Hunting Ground to the site of 10 active airfields and a bomb testing range during the war. It has seen changes from re-forestation during the reign of William the Conqueror, to extensive tree-felling during WWII to support the war effort.

The poor woman would probably explode if she was transported back to the site of her home in June 1944. Tens of thousands of vehicles, hundreds of thousands of troops, all ‘destroying’ the forest while they waited to embark for Normandy. Add to that the active airfields to her East and West, both operating ‘heavies’ in support of the D-Day invasion.

She is a selfish NIMBY who couldn’t smell her own hypocrisy if it took a dump on her top lip. She is as much part of the problem of ‘too many people asking too much of too little infrastructure’ as anyone else.

Sway, in 1872, had a population of <700 people living in 150 houses. Now it has 3311 (2001 census) and there are probably more than 150 houses on her stty little estate alone. What has she done to reduce the impact she, and her family have on the Forest? Why, I’ll tell you shall I? She’s ripped up a perfectly lovely front garden and covered it with gravel, on which she parks 3!!! cars. One of them is a ‘gas-guzzling 4×4’ (OK, it’s just a Freelander, but she started first with the generalising/demonising).

The worst of all her crimes is her ****’ website. Despite all the extra wear and tear caused to her precious narrow lanes, which, by the way, are entirely unsuitable for large volumes of traffic, she actively encourages droves of muppets grockles tourists to trek there by car, choking up the roads, and driving so close to the edges of the surfaced road that the tarmac crumbles away. These evil holidaymakers drive at speed around the lanes, mowing down pedestrians and livestock left, right, and centre. And she is worried about the presence of a couple of thousand emissions-free lightweight bicycles for a few days a year? She is a joke.

Still. One good thing has come of this. I’ve checked googlemaps, and there are no parking restrictions or charges in force outside the house and it’s in prime curtain-twitcher territory, so my car will be safe when I leave it parked there to go cycling in the New Forest come the summer. I wonder how she might react to seeing me haul my bike out of the boot of the car, right outside her crappy (and land-hungry) bungalow. Hell, I might even wear my tightest, thinnest, most ‘anatomically obvious’ Lycra, just for a giggle.

So, Anita Sibley/Anita Gresham-Hale, or whatever you currently call yourself. Take your Hypocrisy, put it in a biscuit tin, then shove it where the sun will never find it.”

And according to her (somewhat outdated) twitter feed, she raised money for charity by – you’ll love this – riding a charity bike ride round the forest.

40mpg – Member
And according to her (somewhat outdated) twitter feed, she raised money for charity by – you’ll love this – riding a charity bike ride round the forest.

Really, she is incredible:

Goes on charity bike rides
Takes money from NF businesses to promote NF tourism, and encourage some of the 13.5 million tourists
Campaigns against cycling events with 2000 cyclists spread over 80 miles of public roads.

Looks like an own goal for someone running a tourism business.

I wonder if the other locals on her estate think she is a bit of a silly old Doris. I certainly would, if I lived around the corner…

Loads of folk still riding the route today, despite the fact its postponed.

But weather much better today and if you’ve made the effort to come down for the weekend you may aswell ride, as it still signed.

Shame for them, that I switched some of the signs last night! 😉

Had a long road ride planned for today, and went for it despite a killer headwind.

Anyway at about 90 miles I came across an Evans feed station, they offered me food and drink, I explained I wasn’t on their ride but they insisted anyway.
So thank you Evans, I still had 40 to go and was dying, your High 5 drink, bars and gels got me round

Just wanted to say like 😐

Odd that there is such animosity towards “cyclists” in the New Forest. It’s quite obviously marketed as a cycling destination. My abiding memory of living there was the number of bimblers/pootlers/families for whom riding a bike was something you did once a year on holiday because the roads were mostly flat and the scenery was pretty, and the number of bike hire places making a killing from them.

I don’t find it that odd. A lot of the locals treat tourists of any type as a massive inconvenience. Even the people who moved there recently have something negative to say. I live in a touristy place and sometimes the fact I can’t park, can’t drive home and have to deal with crowds and events all the time pisses me off, I just don’t make a point of bleating to newspapers, websites etc about it.

Unless you’re a farmer in the NF and tourists piss you off that much, move away. Southampton, Bournemouth and all the places inbetween are close enough to commute in and like it or not, it’s rammed with tourists all year round.

http://www.vizzit.co.uk/who-we-are.html
Vizzit is a company who offer web design and media stuff, franchises of Vizzit to other areas etc. Antia ‘whatever her real name is’ is co-director. All contact details are here – http://www.vizzit.co.uk/news/49-general/174-vizzit-media-on-the-move.html

It sounds like she needs to listen to someone else’s PR advice when it comes to tourism and managing conflicts of interest.

Well its all kicked off now:

Pitchforks a-go-go

Nearly national news

Protesters blocking the route? “What would Hinault do?”

Ahh the good old days.. the bloke with his hands in the air always makes me laugh when I see that pic )

A lot of the locals treat tourists of any type as a massive inconvenience.

As a Malvernite, all I have to say on the subject is local hills for local people. I’m fairly sure that the majority of aggro cyclists get on the hills is from grockles.