It’s just a bit of fun man.

You’d better win it then hadn’t you. The honour of STW is at stake.

I’m doing it. Currently at 450km and just need to knock off the final 50km tomorrow.

Oh, and I don’t own any pink kit.

Top Tips for Festive Ride Happiness:

1. Get off Strava

2. Stop buying into Rapha’s marketing BS

3. Go ride your bike – have fun.

The end.

each to their own you mog.

I’m new to road cycling and signed up for an incentive. I would have never gone out in weather otherwise but I thought why not? I am 66% through and unlikely to finish it tomorrow but I’ll give it a go and I am fitter. No worries.

You think the Rapha thing is ‘pompous’- the OP in this thread comes across way more pompous than the Rapha thing in my opinion.

I thought the OP came across as amusingly ranty (or at least trying to be so, humour is subjective) about a trivial issue, a vein of comedy I “get” and as practiced by the likes of Rhod Gilbert. Rapha is so completely pompous they’d choke on the irony if they had a sense of humour. Hence the terrific spoofs.

In regard to some of the comments on here I really dont get how some totally arbitrary marketing idea motivates people to ride more, or how that can make them feel smugly superior to their friends who might have spent Christmas dealing with other commitments? Sounds really shallow and insecure to me.

i did it, don’t care about the rapha thing so much, my bike is worth less than a full set of their kit but it was good motivation to get out in the shit weather and burn of the xmas excess, of course not everyone can be pleased by such activities, theyd rather not ride and moan on here instead

http://chris-noble-mtb.blogspot.com

I think it’s a great idea – had it not been for a huge amount of travel up and down the country to see family, I definitely would have given it a go.

The OP overlooks that there are endless motivations to ride bikes – for some it’s “clearing their head”/solitude (tbh I don’t understand that), some it’s speed/thrills, some it’s competing against yourself/a target/others (I fall in this category).

F500 is just a bit of goal based fun to encourage people to put the miles in and push themselves a bit at a time when it’s easy to slack, whilst also gaining some more interaction between brand and target market. Nothing wrong there.

OP you don’t have to stop at 500 you know. Last time I looked there were folk with 1500+ logged. Or maybe even that’s piffling for you 😉
Just got 80 to do today to finish, quite pleased as I missed 4 days of it. Couldn’t care less about Rapha, if it weren’t sponsored by them it would be some other company I’ve no intention of patronising anyway.

Can’t believe some people still get so worked up about Rapha!

Can’t believe some people still get so worked up about Rapha!

Just wait until their Team Sky kit comes out, it’ll be like Armageddon on here…

It’s something to do, challenge your mates… I joined in….

… But with work, family, Xmas, and weather I have done47km… 9%. But I have all afternoon left to do the rest.

I was riding in Taiwan last month when the Rapha Continental ride was going over Hehuanshan (sea level up to 3275m over 50-odd miles), they did it the day before the other way in rain, sleet and high winds. They’re not all just posers!

Was tempted to put in a few hrs today to make up the 500, just to say I’d done it too and wind up the grumps / suprise a couple of people I know that are ‘challenge doer types’. Already got 2 x 100 milers in by riding home n back for Christmas.
But I don’t have a GPS or do Strava so no-one would believe me.. It’s the alienation of technogrouches from the brand experience that makes me feel alienated. ( 🙂 )

How I spent my days.

345 miles in the Festive week, happy with that and a little surprised as I only had a few days off. Luckily the boss let us go half day and half days equal short afternoon rides.
My road legs had become non existent after four months of cyclo cross and midweek turbo sessions at the club house. So rather than try and force myself back in readiness for my first road race of 2013, I opted for daily 50 milers. The idea being I’d be good for a block of heavy training in late January?
So the rides. Thankfully the snow and ice stayed away, but in it’s place came wind and rain, suits me; I don’t do heat. Sundays ride, and my first club ride in ages was partly a disappointment. The cross had given me something, but it wasn’t top end or endurance, however I did feel light and strong. I knew we had race specific coaching the following month, which I hoped would give me some top end, and it was up to me to put in the miles.
Next was a solo 62 miles on Christmas Eve doing Luton CCs reliability trial route in reverse. A gloomy day, but mild and still. 62 miles always seems a doddle on your own.
The Boxing day ride is always a bit of a social, and a chance for all abilities to have a ride together. We didn’t put much thought into this years route. Instead we just followed our noses which in turn means all the classic spots. First is Ivinghoe Beacon, the classic route out of Leighton Buzzard, and up onto Ashridge, a popular mountain biking area. As we rode through I couldn’t help notice how bad the trails were up here. And all the trail heads seemed to be occupied by mountain bikers busily altering their ride plans. Then it was off the ridge and down past the castle and onto the A41, along Berkhamsteds mock pavé and into the beautiful horse country at Wiggington. From here we crept up onto Aston Hill for a round of coffees in Wendover Woods, another popular as it was that day mountain bike area. After lashing out twenty six quid on coffee we hooned down Aston Hill to head for home. We said farewell to the majority of the group and three of us set off for a few more miles.
Thursday was a work day, and I had planned to take the ‘retro’ bike out in the afternoon, but I caved in and instead turbo’d away in my garage listening to Amy and planning races in my head for 2013.
Friday was an inter club ride with us LBRCC -Solgar, Twenty3c, Team Corley and Spirit racing. I was feeling a bit cheeky when we set out, but at 20 miles a club mate had a series of punctures and a ruined tyre. After a very long wait the group set off, leaving myself and another club mate to escort the stricken rider home. I was a bit gutted to see all those different jerseys disappear up the road. Though we made up for it by just chilling on the way home.
Saturday was a group 1 ride with some of the new club members. These were the guys that had joined us to race for 2013 which is to be our first year with a sponsored race squad. I had no illusions of matching these guys being the most senior racer in the team, but I was happy to work and do my bit. However after a show of strength on Winchenden Hill the group split and confusion ensued. We turned off in the stunning Eythrop Park and cycled fast along the side of the flooded streams and rivers. The ride wasn’t tough, but we couldn’t escape the wind and rain no matter which way we turned. We took an extended loop home that would include some good hills before finally finding that tail wind. With that behind us we further extended the route just for the hell of it and soon came upon the fast boys. We joined up and set off home, I was now begining to feel something back in my legs.
For Sunday I decided to take it easy as I still had a cross race the coming weekend. So I did my chairman’s bit and rode with a G2 intermediate group. I was a bit taken aback by the pace at first, but noticed everyone was pushing their big rings, which was okay until we hit inclines and it all slowed down. This is why I’m a big fan of standard chainsets, the 39 offers a great all day gear; who want’s to ride in 34? Without wanting to sound patronising I thought everyone was doing well, and had certainly come a long way. The day was also very windy and I thought of the G1 guys out doing 100 miles, not the day for it I thought. With just ten miles remaining we had a series of punctures that started to extend the day. I was now starving, not tired just hungry after not having eaten for five hours. At fifty miles I stopped for food and said goodbye to the others. With no one at home I pointed my bike the other way and solo’d a few more miles.
New Years Eve. There were no plans for any club rides, so awake at 5.30am I got up, ate some porridge, fitted lights and set off for a final 100km’s of 2012. It was okay but hellishly windy. And I’d run out of jollop so was riding on Robinsons Summer fruits and a few buscuits. No one was out, but after a while I found my mojo and began to enjoy the terrible conditions. Though my motivation was fully tested when I was about to hit Redbourn. I really really didn’t fancy the stint through the housing estate, so I did a sharp left into the narrow lanes and fought the wind home
So that’s it, a pretty good week. I’ll be administering some TLC to the bikes today, take a good rest and look forward to the first ride of 2013. Which starts 8.30am New Years day.

I thought the OP came across as amusingly ranty (or at least trying to be so, humour is subjective) about a trivial issue, a vein of comedy I “get” and as practiced by the likes of Rhod Gilbert. Rapha is so completely pompous they’d choke on the irony if they had a sense of humour. Hence the terrific spoofs.

Fair enough about the Rapha thing, I don’t know anything about Rapha but regardless, I think it’s fair to say that people would still be doing it whether it was Aldi or Rapha? The fact it is so popular is mainly just because it’s on Strava and anyone with an account and a GPS can participate.

In regard to some of the comments on here I really dont get how some totally arbitrary marketing idea motivates people to ride more, or how that can make them feel smugly superior to their friends who might have spent Christmas dealing with other commitments? Sounds really shallow and insecure to me.

We’re definitely gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. I really don’t see how a group of like-minded people setting a goal to ride 500miles between Christmas and New Year makes them ‘shallow and insecure’ 😕 Certainly they are not the ones casting aspersions on like 10,00 people (or however many are participating). Maybe it’s a shame it’s originated from a marketing stunt but separating the marketing BS from the enjoyment of riding a bike seems to be an unfortunate daily neccesity of cycling to me.

So oldgit – not riding the New Years Day Madison at Herne Hill tomorrow then?

So oldgit – not riding the New Years Day Madison at Herne Hill tomorrow then?

What’s my motivation 🙂

What’s my motivation

I’ve heard they’ve made roundels.

Just finished, 508km & 5600m climbed in 4 days. All solo, which equates to around 18 hours inside my own head 😐

Am I missing something here? Can’t for the life of me work out why some corners of the STW userbase have an issue with Rapha (or anyone else) marketing their business, after all, they’re in business to sell stuff.

This was a really good little campaign by Rapha – they encouraged people to ride more, and grew their audience and in turn potential customer base. That’s a win win situation from where I’m standing……

Kids like badges.

http://minipips.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/rapha-festive500-day-8-wet.html

Brilliant.

That hill looks familiar? even speaking as a Southerner.

Brilliant.

That hill looks familiar? even speaking as a Southerner.

Maynestone Road, just below Peep o’ Day. 😉

Am I missing something here? Can’t for the life of me work out why some corners of the STW userbase have an issue with Rapha (or anyone else) marketing their business, after all, they’re in business to sell stuff.

Tricky to explain really, but first I’ll say I think the gear is good.
Anyway; ………no still blank.
Something to do with the clash of the Rapha (good quality) the mock history, the soooo seriousness of it on one hand combined with the pretty girls in high heels on fixies on the other.
Sorry hard to explain.

Sorry hard to explain.

No it isn’t, it’s called “marketing”. 😉

To be honest it’s one of the less blatant marketing ploys on Rapha’s part., given their whole name and logo is just a rip off of a french 1950’s road team.

Rapha (good quality) the mock history,
the soooo seriousness of it on one hand
combined with the pretty girls in high
heels on fixies on the other.

They sell expensive roadie costumes. More roadies are men than women. Majority of roadies I have met in real life are a bit “serious”.

So a “serious” style to appeal to target market, coupled with pretty girls in not many clothes (come on guys, you might try and be all serious, but who can resist this?) and a high-end visual appeal to their branding (in keeping with product price point) – absolutely perfectly executed branding exercise!

I did my 300 plus miles in an Aldi jacket, I do smell of wee though.

I had 300 strokes in the same period, does that count?

I thought it was a great idea…I would probably not have gone out other than doing the normal commuting miles. I’m inherently lazy. I managed just short of 470 miles and every ride began or ended in the dark and all but one day it was chucking it down. The wind…well we all know how horrible that has been. In fact perhaps the best weather is today when the challenge has finished. Unfortunately I just want to chill, clean my bike and wash my clothes. I didn’t go out on Christmas day and I had to work 4 of those days so what ever the cynics say it worked for me. I mapped out a nice 90 miler route which I’ll start using as a regular run out and some nice extended commutes home. There’s a lot of positives which I’ll take out from my experiences over the past week.

470 miles in four days is a good steady week, but really, the Rapha thing got you doing 470 miles you wouldn’t have done?

Yep…what can I say….I’m lazy. I saw this as fun, hard work but I enjoyed cycling through flooded brooks and screaming headwinds after work which I would otherwise have done my best to avoid. I saw another element to cycling which I would most likely not have experienced if this challenge hadn’t been created. I usually just cycle my daily 25 mile commute and a bit of mtb’ing over the weekend if the weathers nice. I don’t like cycling through soggy clay as it is round my area at the moment. For some reason this challenge inspired me as I’m sure it has for thousands of others cyclists. On the 24th when it started I thought 310 miles would be well beyond me given the state of the weather but I’ve now realised what my limits are and the limits of my bike’s components which will be important for a tour I intend to do later in the year. I’m not thinking of the branding, don’t even care for the Roundel, just the challenge. The data’s recorded and so when I need to inspire myself again when my ebb is low I’ll just check back and see what I accomplished on my own with no assistance and use that to pull myself up and get riding again.

Which is brilliant, but it was always there for the taking and always will be.
Another thing, although the weather seemed bad it was mild. And it was a joy to embrace the wind, the rain, the floods and grime and everything this season brings with it. Maybe I’m odd.

I can see both Raggatip and oldgit’s points of view TBH. Like you Raggatip, I wouldn’t have gone out every day if it wasn’t for the challenge – I had a few mates doing it as well so a bit of a competitive thing although I too don’t care if I never get a roundel. It was a bit of fun that we wouldn’t have been organised enough to do without the formality of the Festive 500.

Equally, like oldgit, there have been times when I’ve deliberately gone out to ride in extreme conditions – riding round the Lakes the day after torrential rain throgh all the floodwater. I did that yesterday to finish off the 500 and it was great. Posted a pic on instagram of my bike in the middle of a foot deep flooded road. 🙂

But when the other option is lying on a sofa watching TV and eating christmas cake, I’d probably have gone for that!

For me, Raggatip sums it up perfectly with his posts. And well done with your 470 miles!

Thanks Crazy-legs….I reckon Oldgit will have a crack at surpassing everyone’s distance next year…even if he says he won’t 😉

There’s no harm in having something a bit artificial to spur you into action. Now that I’m a dad, I do one big charity ride each year which makes sure I put a pile of miles on in the first half of the year and keep fit. It’s often still hard to fit in but at least there’s something to focus on – without that, it’d be too easy not to find the time. (And, being a dad, 500km over the festive period – much as I could, and happily would, do it quite easily if I was still a bachelor – is just not feasible).

After all, as long as you understand that it is what it is, there’s not a huge gulf between the more open willy-waving of actually doing the Festive 500 and the slightly passive-aggressive willy-waving of being dismissive of it 😉

Thanks Crazy-legs….I reckon Oldgit will have a crack at surpassing everyone’s distance next year…even if he says he won’t

No I won’t. I’m not overly bothered with the amount of miles, though I do like a minimun’ish amount.
For example I wouldn’t set out to do a 100 miles, because I’d just be thinking I need to save myself just so I do it. So I’ll say to myself if the day is going well, and I’ve done about 60 miles I’ll add more miles as I go.
It’s not willy waving at all, we just don’t need Rapha for us to have a ride, if you’ve reached the point where your looking at the likes of Rapha then you probably don’t need them as an incentive.
I wonder how attitudes would differ if it was Macdonalds promoting the festive 500?

Why would McDonalds promote something that they’ve got nothing to do with?

I want an Aldi sponsored event.

“It’s not willy waving at all, we just don’t need Rapha for us to have a ride“

In fairness, I think opening with “don’t be a patronising bunch of twonks, a medal for a bicycle wicycle ridey widey” is dismissing it as being a facile task, which – since the clear implication is that it’s way too easy for you to think a challenge at all – is willy-waving.