I’ve ridden on parts of event routes when they’ve used the some of the same BWs as the ride I happened to be doing. I made a point of letting the marshals at the gate know that I wasn’t part of the event as at that point I was going in a different direction.

One point not covered in the replies so far is that the marshals may be counting the number of riders through for safety reasons. Let’s say as you go past a marshal they are slightly distracted and don’t notice you haven’t an event number on the front of your bike but mark you down anyway. A little further back one of the tail enders has gone wrong, taken a wrong turn and come to grief. The “last” rider (plus possibly a sweeper) comes through and the marshal radios in that all have gone through. The rider who’s had the accident is left behind, no-one knows they are there.

If you think the above is far-fetched then think again, it happened to a runner in a fell race. Sadly he died. He would probably have died anyway but because of the “numbers” being correct it was several hours before anyone realised the guy was actually missing.

Rule #1 Don’t be a dick!

If you want to ride “the route” then pay up and take a number. If you can’t make it then tough.

^^^^^^

I didn’t think of that and certainly didn’t know it had actually happened.

Pay and take a number or go for a ride somewhere else, nearby perhaps, and have a pint with your mates afterwards.

there is a big difference between public trails and public rights of way (bridleways)

public trails can be closed by the landowner (consent to ride them withdrawn), however bridleways can’t be closed for a race, even with a TRO racing cannot take place on the bridleway (hence why the Commonwealth Games at Rivington had such a limited course)

Insurance isn’t an issue

if it isn’t a “race” and on PROW then “don’t be a dick” applies but wouldn’t worry about riding the course

if it’s “public trails” then I would be  having second thoughts

if it’s a “race” then go and spectate, don’t ride it because that would make you a “dick”

Fundamentally this comes down to wheter you think of your self as an individual or a member of society.

As an individual, you’re doing no harm.  However if everyone did this there’d be no event for anyone to enter.

I once rode past a feed station when i was hungry on a solo training ride.  I bonked a bit later and spent the slow hour home wishing i’d just gone in and asked!

 Would you turn up uninvited at someone else’s wedding, or funeral for that matter?

Again, the answer to that would depend on the venue – if someone held their wedding on a public bridleway, then yeah, I’d happily ride through the middle of it. Private venue, different kettle of worms.

You’d actually set out deliberately with the intention of riding through it? Well it takes all sorts I suppose.

If its Evans or Wiggle and its a ride to swell their bank balance and / or promote their brand – And its on public roads and bridlepaths then i see no reason why not – I actually resent the idea that just because some business enterprise has decided to put some tape along a public path that means you should feel bad about being there. Just don’t take food and if any marshals are counting riders then just be clear you are not part of the event.

If you think the above is far-fetched then think again, it happened to a runner in a fell race. Sadly he died. He would probably have died anyway but because of the “numbers” being correct it was several hours before anyone realised the guy was actually missing.

Being brutal, but if you’re relying on counting heads coming through a checkpoint on a public right of way to ensure safety of participants, then you’re going to be in a pickle regardless. If it’s that important, record entry numbers which are compared against the start list and can’t be confused by an extra person joining the route. I’m not saying this would have saved anyone’s life, but every marathon event I’ve attended has made very sure that the start list and finish lists match up and if they don’t, you can expect phone calls to be made…

One point not covered in the replies so far is that the marshals may be counting the number of riders through for safety reasons. Let’s say as you go past a marshal they are slightly distracted and don’t notice you haven’t an event number on the front of your bike but mark you down anyway. A little further back one of the tail enders has gone wrong, taken a wrong turn and come to grief. The “last” rider (plus possibly a sweeper) comes through and the marshal radios in that all have gone through. The rider who’s had the accident is left behind, no-one knows they are there.

If you think the above is far-fetched then think again, it happened to a runner in a fell race. Sadly he died. He would probably have died anyway but because of the “numbers” being correct it was several hours before anyone realised the guy was actually missing.

If you’re referring to the Buttermere one in 2012 then that’s not what happened – they correctly counted how many finished but there was confusion about how many they were expecting to finish (double counted an early drop out) – no members of the public out on the hills contributed, going on the reports of the inquest evidence.

If you’re running something on public rights of way then the onus is on the organisers to factor that in to their planning – if they **** up the count because of members of the public being where they have a right to be, then that’s not the fault of those members of the public.

This isn’t quite the same as riding your local trails when there happens to be an event taking place. The reason he’s riding it is because of the event. Pay & take the hit is my view.

If you’re running something on public rights of way then the onus is on the organisers to factor that in to their planning – if they **** up the count because of members of the public being where they have a right to be, then that’s not the fault of those members of the public.

Yep, this!

When marshalling a local event we had a list of numbers to tick off and runners have to display it prominently (including stopping to show it if wearing a jacket over etc).

If its Evans or Wiggle and its a ride to swell their bank balance and / or promote their brand – And its on public roads and bridlepaths then i see no reason why not – I actually resent the idea that just because some business enterprise has decided to put some tape along a public path that means you should feel bad about being there. Just don’t take food and if any marshals are counting riders then just be clear you are not part of the event.

Whoah there! Before you ride off into the sunset on your high-horse, the Evans rides in particular (I can’t talk about the Wiggle ones) are actually well run events and have introduced me to riding that I would never have thought to do and I’ve since re-ridden their routes (which tend to always be 100% public rights of way) with friends and thoroughly enjoyed them. They don’t “tape along a public path” (although they do stick some signs up) and the entry fee (typically less than £20 for both myself and my son) is well worth it to me for the support, feed stations, maps / GPX and, for winter rides, knowing that someone rode it the day before and pronounced it rideable!

I don’t work for Evans, but my understanding is that they don’t aim to make much money on them but use them to advertise their brand and provide some decent rides around the country. I’ve never had anything to complain about with them and the team that support them (who are the same year in, year out) are friendly and cheerful.

Of course anyone is free to ride the course whenever they want, on the day or not, without paying but I’ve never considered the cost or corporate element to be an issue to me. They are just well run events.

 You’d actually set out deliberately with the intention of riding through it? Well it takes all sorts I suppose.

Devil’s advocate… yeah, possibly. If someone knew there was a right of way but wanted to “deter” people from using it, whether that’s by putting a load of tape along it to make it look like a private event track, parking a wedding marquee in the middle of it, or (what more often happens in the real world), ploughing the **** out of it, then I might well deliberately go out of my way to use that right of way.

@edlong – yes, I should have said “something similar”. The FRA race rules are different now because of that incident.

People make mistakes, deliberately riding an event route when you aren’t part of that event is just going to increase the likelihood of mistakes regardless of whether you’ve a right to be there or not. Putting extra responsibilities on the organisers for no other reason than “I can’t be arsed” is frankly stupid.

If the OP wants to ride the route during the event then he should pay up, otherwise grab the GPX and ride it some other time.

I don’t believe that these events make any attempt to deter people from using PROW. Certainly I’ve never come across this myself. Finding yourself intersecting with an event that’s taking place on a PROW is a very different matter from deliberately going out on a ride with a group where you are not invited. Neither is illegal but the latter is generally pretty rude.

what is also forgotten is that these organised events effectively close bridleways for horse riders as the long chain of riders going through stretched out make it difficult for them to progress along,

This causes a lot of upset in that community which organisers need to be mindful of

If your happy with everyone else around you thinking your a dick then crack on.

Yeah, but do they? I’ve not encountered that kind of arseyness on Evans/wiggle/BHF rides or sportives (although I’m never in the early starting bunches)…

Like I said, I’ve paid to go on a few of these sort of events, and while I appreciate the stuff they lay on (for a fee) the photos, the timing the cakes, etc I’d happily ride the same routes without all of that cobblers TBH… It’s nice, certainly not a necessity…

The routes are always along PROWs so there’s nothing really wrong with following the same route that a bunch of other people on bikes happen to be riding along also…

If you actually encounter someone who, having paid extra for some cake and a number board, really has enough of a chip on their shoulder that they think they’re also somehow more entitled to the actual road and berates you accordingly, then who’s the actual “Dick” in this (hypothetical) situation?

It is Tour de Moor, in Dartmoor – organised by St Luke’s Hospice, so definitely not a commercial-type ride. I’ve never done the “free ride”, hence my question 😉

Paying in advance means the worst case scenario is that a hospice gets 25 quid of your money for nowt. I could probably live with that.

It is Tour de Moor, in Dartmoor – organised by St Luke’s Hospice

If you do ride then donate £25. Easy.

It is Tour de Moor, in Dartmoor – organised by St Luke’s Hospice,

Im sure you can just turn up and ride then put the cash into the collection bucket they are bound to have on the day.

The map is downloadable now, so why not do it this weekend, rather than on trails this crowded?!

A cycle helmet, t-shirt, ID chip and ID number must be worn whilst on the route on your tshirt. You will not be able to take part without these.

From the T&Cs…. This makes it interesting

PS – Its for a frigging hospice. give ’em £25 anyway.

You can view the “cake and eat it” the other way around too.  The organisers are making use of public trail network in order to provide an an event that would otherwise be restricted in views, appeal and geography and potentially (no idea tbh) more expensive to secure.

The other side of the coin is that they’re still public trails with many access points and they have to allow for the fact that people other than the paying participants will want to use them.

Edit – hadn’t refreshed to see the OP’s latest.

Enter now. Worst case is that you’ve given £25 to a hospice, and missed a bike ride with your mates.

Enter now. Worst case is that you’ve given £25 to a hospice, and missed a bike ride with your mates.

Yup, given that it’s a charitable event, this is a no-brainer to me. I definitely wouldn’t consider freeloading on such an event – don’t think I could sleep at night if I did that.

Is this local ground?  Just using a bit of your local area with no use whatsoever of facilities offered isn’t to bad. However making an effort to ride fresh stuff , thus benefiting from route marking etc is being greedy.

You chose either to pay and risk it or go else where in my opinion.

The no entries o the day is the organisers choice. They can be a real pain to deal with as you can’t predict numbers.

You’re expected to wear a nasty event T-shirt if you’re on course. (Cotton?) Autumn, on Dartmoor – that’ll be comfortable.  And the little promo film almost gave me epilepsy. 😂

You’re expected to wear a nasty event T-shirt if you’re on course.

Aren’t they usually handed out at the end? That’s been my experience.

Anyway, it’ll be mandatory like the organisers want everyone to wear hi-viz tabards at the HSBC City Ride events (formally “Sky Ride”) – my son took one look at it, and said “no thanks” to the nice lady offering it and she didn’t bat an eyelid. To be fair, we had just arrived straight from a CX race and he was still in his bright orange skinsuit, so he wasn’t going to be easy to miss already 🙂

Aren’t they usually handed out at the end? That’s been my experience.

No, it says that everyone should be wearing one. See that pic up there. ^^^^

As it’s a charity do (and looks from the website like they’re actually managing it themselves, so all the surplus after running costs will be going straight into their coffers unlike some commercially organised “charity” events where the charity gets a cut, after the company running the show take their profit), and £25 is a sum you can drop without worrying about it, I’d be inclined to register anyway – think of it as a donation to charity, with the possibility that you might get an associated bike ride out of it if you’re lucky.

I’d probably feel a bit tight personally, tagging along on a fundraiser without contributing, regardless of rights of way issues.

Really? All this to save donating 25 pounds to a hospice to sort your own personal admin issues? I invoke the dick rule again.

Is it definitely all public trails though ?  The Viking Challenge for example is 90 % public but some parts go through private sections not generally open.

I think ink you pays yer Monday and don’t be a dick to the people, marshals, officials etc that have done their bit for your mates to ride !

If your not doing it for charity, not sure why you’d do the tour de moor. Awful choice of route with thousands of people on. I think last year they went up the widow maker. Twice.

Where is it going to be held as I too am in similar predicament which is looming and not sure if I can 100% make it or cba to wake up for an 8:30am start from the starting point

Aha Jam bo – I was thinking bout doing this tour de moor but am expecting to go to someone’s 70th do.

can I just sign up without necessarily donating an amount of monies except I’d probably give a nominal amount.

I cannot remember which widow maker is but remember coming down a rocky bed from Princetown to Burrator then partly back up the rock bed but then said **** this as I got tired of pedal bashing the odd rock.

maybe I should’ve used that fancy lockout or trail switch 🤣 which actually would be handy from now on.

I can’t even see a route for this tour de moor…!???

Strange but true

If you injure someone else, good luck paying out instead of the racing insurance.

Aha just seen the route can be viewed on their site.

looks like I might go… 😬

I’ll be the one at the front if I get up early enough then flailing towards the end haha

Charities are easy to rip off, just let them have all the hassle organising the route, marshalls etc, turn up, don’t pay and just point out that it’s public land 🙂

Save yourself £25 easy peasy, you could do it for lots of other events (runs, bike rides etc) year after year………………

Having looked at the route, it’s not all public rights of way, it takes a loop through the buckland abbey national trust site which isn’t usually open to the public.

You could miss that section and join them for the loop up from sheepstor to nuns cross and back down the old railway.

Or you could go and ride something good in the area and meet them at the pub afterwards.