Cancelled: The Cymru MTB Classic, (Not) New for 2022

There cancellation statement, what a load of guff.
You can’t race on public bridleways, and they do call it a race. You can host an individual challenge ride, and if there’s a list of times that the riders completed it in….
Money grabbing nonsense.

British Cycling for the legality of the stuation. I’m ex Powys Highways BTW.

British Cycling sanction a regular race that goes over bridleways, they may be trying to circumvent with landowners permission but its not in line with the law as understood.

Not sure how gbduro got away with it either.

Not sure how gbduro got away with it either.

GBDuro isn’t a race, it’s as a scrappy rolling picnic through Britain’s ever changing landscapes.

“You can’t race on public bridleways, and they do call it a race.”
I spoke with one of the course designers about that at the time – he reckoned that because there was so much local government involvement in the event (presumably due to the international status of the organisers and the promises they made to make Wales famous) that there was a real chance of getting BW racing allowed. I can’t say I believed him on that…

Unsurpising.

£900 just to line up & kip in a tent? BONKERS.

It probably is possible to get to race on Bridleways. BUT – I suspect it would require an Act of Parliament to temporarily remind/ over-rule other legislation.
That’s what was needed in the past for the Birmingham Grand Prix (Formula 3k) using streets, and also required on the Isle of Mull when the Tour of Mull road rally went formal ‘closed roads’ in about 1990 (rather than an open road event that just happened to get informal road closures by everyone there, as had happened for the previous 20-30 years.

For those, it wasn’t the actual road closure that was the problem- those could easily be obtained. But even then other traffic law remained in place, inc. The ones related to not racing on the public highways, average speed limits of 30mph, still legally required to drive on the left hand side, stop at stop lines, etc).

No local councillor is getting that done – it costs a huge amount of £££.
(It’s like BoZo thinking the law doesn’t apply to him and his Eaton mates – except that the police in Wales will follow up on illicit push bike racing, whereas the Met is as corrupt as those in and around No10 so don’t want to bother investigating the uncomfortable truths)

. I can’t say I believed him on that…

They couldn’t do it for the Manchester Commonwealth Games, why do they think they can get it to work?

It only takes one stakeholder nevermind a landowner to object. The rambling and horse riding groups will go mad if they think their priority will be impacted.

GBDuro isn’t a race, it’s as a scrappy rolling picnic through Britain’s ever changing landscapes.

LOL

The ride consists of 4 timed stages (~500km each); lowest aggregate time over the 4 stages ‘wins’… nothing.

It’s a timed ride with published results, aka a race. Which is how the participants describe it on various YouTube videos.

You can cleverly claim it’s a ” reliability ride” but it’s not. No-one “wins” an Audax in the UK

This sounds like a race for a Rhys, Gareth, Fergus or Alys.

It’s a timed ride with published results, aka a race

How’s Strava fit into that analogy?

Every footpath, bridalway & road timed section then becomes a “race”.

If I’ve got it right the “wins” concept of GBDuro is your own personal achievement of accomplishing the events trials and tribulations. Its a bit of a dig and ridicule of the whole palava of other “winning” type events (TdF). Its low key, grass roots, pack your panniers full of food to get you from Lands End to John O Groats and get a train to the start.

At the inagral event Lachlan competed, went home and left an open tab for the others finishers party. There was no “win”, just an end of the road & a cold beer & peers.

he reckoned that because there was so much local government involvement in the event (presumably due to the international status of the organisers and the promises they made to make Wales famous

Interesting that the organisers are from outside of these shores. I work in regional business news publishing and some years ago a big, successful American business news publisher decided to target the UK by launching in our region.

At first we were concerned, but once we got a look at their rate card – and word filtered through about their entitled and borderline aggressive sales tactics – we realised that they had completely misread the market and weren’t worth worrying too much about.

They lasted less than a year. Seems many non UK businesses fail to understand the differences in the way we operate and the way in which we perceive value..

If I’ve got it right the “wins” concept of GBDuro is your own personal achievement of accomplishing the events trials and tribulations. Its a bit of a dig and ridicule of the whole palava of other “winning” type events (TdF). Its low key, grass roots, pack your panniers full of food to get you from Lands End to John O Groats and get a train to the start.

There’s a results table for the event on the website, find one for an audax

I don’t confess to knowing the detail. But based on the fact that local accommodation (not just the race hotels) were all fully booked during the event, I doubt that lack of entries was the issue. I’m aware that there was a lot of international interest in the event. With this in mind I’m prepared to take the official announcement at face value, and assume that permissions for temporary closures were the sticking point, despite buy-in from the county council.

Personally I think it’s a massive shame that this isn’t going ahead (even though admittedly I hadn’t entered). It would have been a huge opportunity to showcase Wales as a MTB holiday destination. The Epic series has a strong media output, and would have helped promote the region to foreign tourists who do have money to spend. I guess some “locals” weren’t so convinced of the benefits, or would rather maintain the status quo?

Yeh I got in touch with them again. They replied saying the respective PROW officer had signed it off: and so I quoted the law at them, about 6 weeks ago….. A bunch of donuts I thought but as they were foreign, how could they know? However the Council idiot really ought to know the law. That’s his job.
You can apply to run a car rally on a bridleway. You can’t apply to run a test of speed for cycles. That’s the law and no one in the last 30 ears has managed to change it. And they all thought it was going to be oh so easy to do so.

I still maintain that it’s a missed opportunity for the area. (In this case, Wales’ loss will be Andorra and Croatia’s gain)

Anyhow, I’ve found an outfit that’s organising NOT a race (more of a 3-day guided riding type thing) on the same trails/bridleways/PROWS etc. Significantly cheaper than the MTB Classic, but I guess this won’t fall foul of the access issue.

https://dirtshenomad.com/product/the-journey-north-wales-150-2/

It’s not a missed opportunity if there never was one in the first place, unless one happens to believe that pigs can fly. I’ve run/set up events and I’ve always had to be mindful of the law.

As the law stands you are correct. However (quoting UK Cycling about racing on bridleways), “this is an unreasonable anomaly, and the law needs to be modified to allow appropriately organised events to take place on this type of way”.

Alternatively, the bridleway sections could have been untimed transition stages.

Yes well CTC /UK Cycling have had some 25 years to deal with this. It’s all very well them bleating but they’ve done nothing to change it: just like BC before them. BC told me over 30 years ago that they were getting it changed within a few months. I replied they weren’t. Cycling UK are hapless. Their take on the 25 year rule was hideously laughable, in line with their consistent offroad record of window dressing, appearing to be doing something useful without committing any resources or planning to get it done. Their ambition stops at garnering new members. Insurance great, just forget anything else beyond Gravel/RoughStuff routes.
To change the law one needs to offer BHS something in return, and we don’t have a single bargaining chip.
One could argue that the ruling classes hold is weaker on the Socialist Welsh Assembly, but their track record on delivery is appalling.

On the point of transition stages that depends on the number/length of them. One would have to drag numerous heavy and expensive transponder equipment out to those sections and use staff with very spotty mobile coverage, and the only access to the points would often be by um Bridleway or Footpath. That requires Army levels of rehearsal & planning, well not the Russian army obviously.

As what constitutes a test of speed, well some have been sailing very close to the wind.
One certainly cannot give out prizes based on quickest times: or indeed set out courses away from legal routes on land without permission, or use BC event [not race] insurance when actually running a race, without invalidating one’s insurance.
BC stated that if the results were not listed in order of time it did not constitute a competitive event. That one could realign the file at a touch of a button seemed not to concern them.
It did me so I made no distinction between short and long routes, so one couldn’t compare.
I got a bit of stick for that from riders.

Bit late I know but, how, like that silly London event, can you call it “classic”? In cycling terms that denotes something that has been around for decades or more and is a foundation of the sport. LBL is a classic. Something knocked up this century can’t be.

The Real Ale Wobble is a Classic. The longest running MTB event? Very well run these days too.