so you paid £63 for "a friendly, gentle ride in the countryside"?I've signed up to this. I'm seeking a bit of advice
Never having done anything like this before, can someone give me an idea what an event like this is like?
For the record, I would class myself (currently) as a leisure/commuter. This distance would be by far the furthest I've ever cycled. I do not own a road bike but I could probably lend one from a friend.
- What sort of level of rider do you get, is it everything from complete novice/leisure rider up?
- Would it be possible to do this on something other than a road bike or would that be regarded as rather odd?
I have entered in the bottom group, i.e. 'more than 5.5 hours' to do the event, which calculates as having to maintain an average of about 12.5 mph in order to finish with some dignity!
When I entered this I thought it would just be a friendly, gentle ride in the countryside, now I'm seeing the word 'race' bandied about. I'm not overly worried but is this going to be a stretch for a newbie like myself?
Looking forward to it whatever.
I guess I didn't regard the price as equating to 'value' of any kind, A: having never done anything like this before and B: I imagined most of the fee would go to Marie Curie charity and, as I couldn't be arsed fund raising myself, I thought it was a good way of making a contribution whilst doing something active, and C: it's close to me geographically so it's something I can do that isn't going to involve staying away anywhere. Simple as that really.so you paid £63 for "a friendly, gentle ride in the countryside"?
I guess I didn't regard the price as equating to 'value' of any kind, A: having never done anything like this before and B: I imagined most of the fee would go to Marie Curie charity and, as I couldn't be arsed fund raising myself, I thought it was a good way of making a contribution whilst doing something active, and C: it's close to me geographically so it's something I can do that isn't going to involve staying away anywhere. Simple as that really.
not 1p of the £63 goes to the Marie Curie charity - you will need extra sponsorship for thatI guess I didn't regard the price as equating to 'value' of any kind, A: having never done anything like this before and B: I imagined most of the fee would go to Marie Curie charity and, as I couldn't be arsed fund raising myself, I thought it was a good way of making a contribution whilst doing something active, and C: it's close to me geographically so it's something I can do that isn't going to involve staying away anywhere. Simple as that really.
anyway, like you say, what's done is....Okay, thanks, wish I'd seen that report before signing up. A promo piece in the local rag and the name of the event not unreasonably led me to believe that at least something would go to the charity. Fuc*ers. What's done is done, unfortunately.
Like and Agree, same thing happened with the now oh so trendy sport of Triathlon - I simply can't afford to do these things any more, so much for Sport For All - well, SFA (as long as you can afford it!). And although this might start a huge rant, I bet there's a few out there making VERY good livings organising this sort of thing (and some that maybe aren't).If you compare the cost of some of these sportives, to that of 1960/70s rock gig reunion concerts, you will see a similar trend
Both are aimed at middle aged people that are generally 'finanically secure' and the charges increase massively annually and continue to do so until the events are no longer 'sold-out'
if the ride sells out this year for £63, expect it to be £83 next year...and so on......