Are they having a laugh ?

[400bhp]

Just a few interlopers doesn't diminish. I just don't like people refusing to pay for some benefit that others are paying for whilst at the same time enjoying that benefit.

If someone doesn't want to pay and participate that's fine....but why not ride the route another day on their own?

But you wouldn't know would you?

 

[nickyboy]

Whether I turn up or not and ride the route on PUBLIC roads as the same time as people that have paid some company to do the same, get a time chip, energy drink and cheap cake makes no odds to the company or their profits.

So ride it the day before or the day after. Why do you have to ride it on that specific day? Or is the reason that you like the idea of the sportive but are just too mean to pay the entry fee?

 

[nickyboy]

But you wouldn't know would you?

Well, if I was doing it I would know and I wouldn't do it. Doesn't feel right. If I like the route, I'll ride it another day on my own

 

[400bhp]

Back in August 2012 I and a few other bods rode overnight from Pompey down to Studland Point and back to Bournemouth. Most of us then rode back home, when we found ourselves sharing the road with some participants of the New Forest Rattler sportive. Some of them drafted us for a bit, though we had twice as many miles in our legs already as they were going to do all in. Could we have charged them for the privilege, or felt entitled to have said 'oi mate, give us one of your free gels'? Nope. Why should we? Same principle. And 'camaraderie' in a mass ride? Depends on the ride and the participants. In something like the British Legion's Pedal to Paris, definitely- there was most emphatically an all-for-one spirit, even with nearly 300 riders. A common cause and the way the ride was organised helped there. That, and it was a charity ride with the emphasis on charity, not profit. Sportives, even the good ones? Nope. The really big charity rides? Nope. And as for the Dun Run......

Similar experience to me mate. Coming back from a saturday ride (80 miler) on my todd. Got "overtook" by a rabble (15 - 20 odd), no hellos and a very close pass by a couple too. I say overtook, because they they were perhaps travelling 1mph faster. I sat on the back for 1/2 a mile, no -one was talking to each other. They pissed me off no end (for riding so farkin close) so cycled past and dropped the lot of them (I wasn't hanging around that day anyway in terms of average speed).

Knew it wasn't a club run so had a look around the web afterwards - some manc-chester-manc "sportive"

 

[400bhp]

Well, if I was doing it I would know and I wouldn't do it. Doesn't feel right. If I like the route, I'll ride it another day on my own

How would you know if another rider had paid/hand't paid the same fee as you? Do you have to wear a badge?

 

[50000tears]

How would you know if another rider had paid/hand't paid the same fee as you? Do you have to wear a badge?

Usually a number.

 

[400bhp]

Usually a number.

But not a given.

 

[jayonabike]

So ride it the day before or the day after. Why do you have to ride it on that specific day? Or is the reason that you like the idea of the sportive but are just too mean to pay the entry fee?

I can't ride the day before or the day after due to work commitments. I'm not to mean, just don't see why I need to pay to cycle on public roads. I don't mind skipping the time chip, stale cake and a bag of crap.

 

[50000tears]

The examples of forum members ending up in a sportive without knowing it was on is fine and not the issue here. What is the issue is if you deliberately set out to join in with a sportive for whatever reason whether it is the test yourself, camaraderie or just the fun of being with so many other riders, then you should pay the entrance fee. The fact that you wont have a timing chip or join the food stops does not mean that you are not benefiting from the event. The fact that you decided to join in means that you felt that a benefit was to be had in doing so, otherwise you would have done something else with your day.

 

[400bhp]

The examples of forum members ending up in a sportive without knowing it was on is fine and not the issue here. What is the issue is if you deliberately set out to join in with a sportive for whatever reason whether it is the test yourself, camaraderie or just the fun of being with so many other riders, then you should pay the entrance fee. The fact that you wont have a timing chip or join the food stops does not mean that you are not benefiting from the event. The fact that you decided to join in means that you felt that a benefit was to be had in doing so, otherwise you would have done something else with your day.

That implies that there is a gate to a private space. There isn't.

Emperor's new clothes.

 

[snorri]

I'm not to mean,

Not too mean, just a little bit mean then, it's all a question of degree.

 

[400bhp]

Well, they could pay everyone a fee to forgo their right to use that bit of road.

I know, let's get all those drivers of vehicles to pay an entrance fee to drive on the roads.

Oh, hang on, already done.

 

[jayonabike]

The examples of forum members ending up in a sportive without knowing it was on is fine and not the issue here. What is the issue is if you deliberately set out to join in with a sportive for whatever reason whether it is the test yourself, camaraderie or just the fun of being with so many other riders, then you should pay the entrance fee. The fact that you wont have a timing chip or join the food stops does not mean that you are not benefiting from the event. The fact that you decided to join in means that you felt that a benefit was to be had in doing so, otherwise you would have done something else with your day.

Pay the entrance fee to what exactly. As far as I know I don't have to pay to cycle on the roads ( well that's what umpteen car drivers shout at me from their car windows)

 

[StuAff]

The examples of forum members ending up in a sportive without knowing it was on is fine and not the issue here. What is the issue is if you deliberately set out to join in with a sportive for whatever reason whether it is the test yourself, camaraderie or just the fun of being with so many other riders, then you should pay the entrance fee. The fact that you wont have a timing chip or join the food stops does not mean that you are not benefiting from the event. The fact that you decided to join in means that you felt that a benefit was to be had in doing so, otherwise you would have done something else with your day.

If one happens to be riding on the same roads at the same time, without partaking of the services the paying customers are using (and that includes the cardboard arrows, there are usually these things called 'road signs' at the same junctions anyway, I pay for those as does every other taxpayer), there is no 'benefit'. Unless you call being close passed by a load of numpties in club kit, etc, a benefit. I certainly don't. I've done a few sportives in the past, good ones, and on all of them I came across cyclists who clearly weren't doing them (the lack of entry numbers was a clear indicator there). They were perfectly entitled to be there.

 

[50000tears]

If one happens to be riding on the same roads at the same time, without partaking of the services the paying customers are using (and that includes the cardboard arrows, there are usually these things called 'road signs' at the same junctions anyway, I pay for those as does every other taxpayer), there is no 'benefit'. Unless you call being close passed by a load of numpties in club kit, etc, a benefit. I certainly don't. I've done a few sportives in the past, good ones, and on all of them I came across cyclists who clearly weren't doing them (the lack of entry numbers was a clear indicator there). They were perfectly entitled to be there.

You quoted my post without reading it it seems. If you happen to be there then no problem. But if you specifically go there to participate in the event without paying then that it not on.

Technically yes, if the roads are not closed for an event then any road user can be there. And technically they have done nothing wrong, but from a morally a low thing to do to take for free what others have paid for. If there is no benefit then why did they go?