When is a race not a race?

[zizou]

I would have thought that leaves them open to legal challenge should there be an accident, i doubt their insurance would cover such a "racing" element.

A proper mass start race needs to have marshals at junctions and NEG outriders etc. The commissaire can also disqualify riders for taking excessive risks and dangerous riding (like going on the wrong side of the road - although in practice such disqualifications dont happen often enough IMO). Even an out and back open TT needs marshals, some sportives have them too - but most just have an arrow on a lampost.

A bit of informal competition on a sportive,or other sorts of rides like reliability trials is natural, but if the organiser wants to formalise this then they really ought to do it properly.

 

[smutchin]

If this is a race, then Pru Ride London is a race. And we all know that's not the case, don't we.

RideLondon is a bit of a special case because it's on closed roads. Most sportives aren't.

I'm not generally in favour of more regulation for sportives since such would probably affect audaxes too, hence would affect me. If there are problems on particular sportives, or flouting of the rules, it's up to the authorities to crack down using existing legislation, which already covers most eventualities.