Too many cyclists?

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classic33

Leg End Member
But as I have said. Marshalls will not be able to do anything apart from say they cant have a free banana or gel or get a metal trinket. That is all.
Bring the "policing" of the event down to organisers.
If they, the organisers, can manage to stop people on foot, on the public roads, they should be able to stop a cyclist.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Bring the "policing" of the event down to organisers.
If they, the organisers, can manage to stop people on foot, on the public roads, they should be able to stop a cyclist.

They can't stop people on foot on the public roads unless it's a closed road event.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
They can't stop people on foot on the public roads unless it's a closed road event.
You were pulled out of the event and as you said not allowed to collect a metal trinket.
How do they manage the same situation then when average times/speeds need to be kept to?
Don't meet them, they pull you out. Most local one for me was the Tour de Yorkshire ride. Some on here, taking part, were bothered about being stopped.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
You were pulled out of the event and as you said not allowed to collect a metal trinket.
How do they manage the same situation then when average times/speeds need to be kept to?
Don't meet them, they pull you out. Most local one for me was the Tour de Yorkshire ride. Some on here, taking part, were bothered about being stopped.


I wasn't pulled out of any event. :wacko:
If people were stopped then they agreed to be stopped of their own accord. They could have carried on cycling the route if they wanted.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Never meant that you were pulled out. You, as a person taking part in the event.

Sorry yes.
Righto, they can pull me out of the event and take back their timing chip, but they couldn't stop me continuing along the route with the other riders.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Bottom line is. Unless there are marshalls stationed all along the route then there is no way that Sportives can be policed in a way to stop anti social behavior happening. The only way they can be policed is if the riders policed themselves and as we know cyclists can be a selfish bunch sometimes so that ain't going to happen either.

The only other way that they could be policed effectively is to run Sportives on closed roads/courses. That will definitely not happen for every Sportive.
 
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classic33

Leg End Member
Sorry yes.
Righto, they can pull me out of the event and take back their timing chip, but they couldn't stop me continuing along the route with the other riders.
Maybe then its the attitudes that need to be addressed. On all sides. After all, I'd paid to enter the road race, and knew that I could be pulled out if I went broke any of the rules.
 

ianrauk

Tattooed Beat Messiah
Location
Rides Ti2
Maybe then its the attitudes that need to be addressed. On all sides. After all, I'd paid to enter the road race, and knew that I could be pulled out if I went broke any of the rules.

As per my post above.
 
[QUOTE 3709801, member: 76"]Today was day one of the Tour of Wessex. The day that took in Cheddar Gorge.

I drove up the Gorge on the way out at about 9.30, and I was left wondering if we as cyclists do ourselves PR harm at times. Clearly I drove carefully, but at times there were groups of 30+ cyclists taking up the whole road, both sides! Then when they met cars coming down they started with the abuse, I had the window open and heard three drivers called a c**t by three different cyclists on three separate occasions! Each time by a rider who was on the wrong side of the road and had to dive over. Before I got into the Gorge I saw lots of riders cursing pedestrians too.

On most sportives I have done the riders have been staggered through the start, but it didn't seem to be like that today, literally hundreds of cyclists seemingly taking no account of the impact they were having on everyone around them. I even had two sprint past me on the last of the climb, then immediately sit up and slow to a bloody crawl, christ knows how I missed them! Car drivers were getting frustrated and making rash moves, it was awful.

So, I suppose I don't know how I feel about it all, pleased to see so many cyclists, but overwhelmingly sad when I think about the negative impact they will have had, especially to the Daily Mail reading, Jeremy Vine listening 'they are all lycra louts brigade'

Should we think again about some of the bigger sportives?[/QUOTE]
Yes, Sportives are the devil's work. The actions of the few drag us all down.
 

TreeHuggery

Senior Member
Location
brinsley
only way I can see round it - and this would be a bureaucratic nightmare - is to have a shared database of races/racers and "offenders" banned from racing for x amount of time - not sure how it would work in practice - bound to add cost to races, and wouldn't work if people re-entered using different details ....
 

jazzkat

Fixed wheel fanatic.
Are sportives still that popular? I know some of the bigger events may be. But a few up here have had very low numbers and one or two not gone ahead at all.
Last week I had organised to go for a ride with my friend who is pretty new to road cycling. All the routes I had planned around here were on the routes for the trio of "Wrynose or bust" routes (inc bay dash and Silverdale sling). My heart sank as I thought that whatever way we went there would be pretend racer numpties along the way. I was incredibly cheered when I saw that the entry list for all the rides was about 40 riders! We saw two groups of riders all day - result.
Don't get me wrong I know a lot of people who ride sportives are good riders riding properly, it's just that I've seen/heard so many bad stories, I'd lose no sleep if sportives disappeared overnight.
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
only way I can see round it - and this would be a bureaucratic nightmare - is to have a shared database of races/racers and "offenders" banned from racing for x amount of time - not sure how it would work in practice - bound to add cost to races, and wouldn't work if people re-entered using different details ....
A 'Sportive' ain't a race, it is an event. If the 'competitors' were any good the they would be racing not dressing up and pretending.
I'm not knocking sportives, they are good things to take part in but there are always numpties who act inappropriately.
 
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