A wet sportive...

Anyone who's the ridden the 52 mile route on the Great Manchester Cycle will know that the front of the event looks an *awful* lot like a race. Last year the pointy end was about 50 riders averaging 24mph (and was about 3mph too quick for me to hold onto it), with different groups and clubs surging and taking turns on the front to keep the pace high. Those taking part do so because there is no other local event which provides a closed 13 mile circuit on wide, properly surfaced roads.

@Matt Eaton

I'm taking part in my first audax at the weekend. This bit is part of the appeal
devoid of timing chips and energy gels; and with more tea and cake or even a pub stop half way round.

though I will miss the closed road of the Sportives. Guess you can't have everything...

First up, my understanding of the Ride London is that it was on closed roads... therefore could legally call itself a race. Infact there was coverage of the 'winner', who being someone I know, will receive some tongue in cheek banter about 'winning' a sportive. So.... its all a bit grey with regards to that particular event.

However, english sportives are not races. If people insist on saying that they are, and acting like they are, then they will end up being legislated accordingly.

The current stance of 'greyness' is only a short-mid term thing... within ten years there will be a clear split between events more or less as they are now but more clearly defined as non-competitive, and more continental style sportives... these are run much like the mass participation races you commonly see for large scale running events (as highlighted above).

The point is, you can not currently race on the open highway unless certain parameters are met/adhered to. English Sportives do not adhere to these, so by 'racing' them you are effectively breaking the law.

So yes, half the perceived snobbery out there may well be about racing cyclists reacting to what they see as delusional talk of racing a sportive, but the other half is about protecting a fun pastime from far stricter legislation that will change the face of sportive riding.

The 'problem' I have with sportives is that they support and mentor an attitude of entitlement in riders... in as much as those 'competitive' sportive riders feel that they are entitled to turn up to any event and feel competitive. This only becomes a problem should they wish to take up organised racing, and they expect to turn up and find a level of racing for them, rather than accepting that its up to them to reach a minimum fitness standard in order to compete.

This is compounded by the fact that the type of fitness required for sportive riding is very different to that required for racing... ultimately this puts off too great a percentage of competitive riders away from competitive cycling.

Perhaps it's the use of the word 'sportive' that's to blame? Sounds too close to 'sporty'. If Ride London was described as a 'noodle' then everyone would know what to expect!

Maybe they should cut out those who estimate a fast completion time and hjust leave the less competitive to enjoy a gently ride?!

Enjoyed it. I too saw lots of people chucking away wrappers- littering arseholes. Even if it wasn't wet, surely you're washing your jersey afterwards anyway? If it hadn't been wet it would have been sweaty, so why worry about a little gel dreg?

The other reason for lots of punctures (I escaped) is that the rain washes stuff off the side of the roads.

4:34:50. 0637 start. Pretty happy with that, went a bit quick (for me) early on and struggled in the last ten miles

For those that weren't there, this bridge was "interesting", and there were other full-width, well over the rim,

"slow down" called the marshals. "I would if I had diskbrakes" was my thought as I plowed through magically missing any submerged obstacles.

I saw a lot of riders just chuck wrappers. At the stations where they were being handed up though a lot may have just been mis-caught, and they did have people sweeping this year those points.

On the haters: in Chelsea, a chap leaning out of the passenger side of a lorry at a crossroads where we went right (the other two arms were open and connected) ranting away, heard the words "fucking wankers" which just caused me a bout of giggles.

On a sadder note, the organisers have announced that a chap's heart gave out on Newlands Corner. RIP.

As others have said soggy but not cold so not a great problem, unlike the Etape 3 weeks before now that was brutal.

A shade under 4:50 for me which I'm happy enough with as a) it wasn't a race, b) the conditions meant a bit more care had to be taken, c) a puncture in the last 20 miles, and d) got to the "can't be arsed anymore" mentality point about 10mi from the finish.

Little anecdote to all those that take pleasure in smashing round events like this thinking they have more rights than anyone else. About 3mi from the finish some pratt came between myself and another guy, going like a bat out of hell but with the whole of the right half of the road available, which was a bit startling an uneccesary. I'm coming down the mall up to the finish hearing the announcer telling riders to keep left due to a finish line incident, and can we all guess what happened next? Just after the finish I passed the above said pratt being helped away by first aid and someone else wheeling there bike away. Didn't see what happened but I suspect they belted across the line with arms in the arm and crashed on the timing mats straight after. Made me grin.

Kama's a bitch ain't it

Wow what a day. Moving time of 4:22 for me but waiting for 2 team mates to fix punctures gave an official time of 4:39.

I agree with the above comments regarding gel wrappers. Totally unacceptable, only area i can understand the litter is Wimbledon where they were handing them out on the move. I was looking down and huge numbers of the wrappers on the floor had the tops still on, clearly unused and burst when run over.

A few other observations:
1. Some slack marshalling and barrier building in central London. We were keeping right for more space and due to lack of barriers/ marshalls found ourselves on a footpath then on a corner of an open junction. (i'll check the gpx later).
2. Group riding skills of some riders. I had to suddenly change course a few times due to riders swinging out without checking their shoulders. Conversely while holding a tight line found riders squeezing up on the right of my team without a shout.
3. General spacial awareness. If you have a puncture tuck yourself in to the side of the road or try and limp to a layby/turning/driveway/footpath. Try not to sit on the road, and don't sit on the right hand side of the road where the quicker moving riders are going to be.
4. Pedestrians. Particularly through London there were several near misses (observed not experienced) of people meandering over the road and not clearing on to the path quickly enough.

On the whole though it was a fun experience, totally different to 2013. Made even better by my girlfriend having progressed to an ability that she can now hold wheel in the team and complete that length of ride at nearly 20mph average.

As a footnote i still find it very funny to see the macho ego's trying to resist taking a battering when they see my missus cruising past them (and another female in our team). The girls commented on the amount of guys that tried to force them off the teams wheels or pushed on in a huff only to blow a lung about a 1/4 of a mile down the road.

Oh, another annecdote:

Feeling a little drained and thirsty, but with half a bottle of over-strong energy drink (opaque bottle +5am, oops), pulled into the drinks station for a refill with water of my other bottle and to grab a gel. Instead, they were offering/thursting bananas. I stopped, put my feet on the ground and had my bottle whipped away to be filled whilst the banana was peeled for me. It was like having a pitstop crew. Superb service. And the banana was exactly the right choice. Brilliant pick me up! Could only have been bettered if they'd held me upright on the bike with my feet still clipped in!

I was in a quick group and must admit it felt like a race out of London with a green bit in the middle where the pace eased (Newlands Corner perhaps, I'm not sure) before a further sprint back in to London for a 3:37 finish (~39kph average!). What I couldn't understand was why some of the riders I was with didn't use the right side of the road more and kept swerving around slower riders and hugging the left shoulder. I think many of the riders we passed would've been rightly peeved as there was soooo much room for all of us. I also saw a couple examples of 'suck and chuck' gel technique which is very bad form imo.

I was in a quick group and must admit it felt like a race out of London with a green bit in the middle where the pace eased (Newlands Corner perhaps, I'm not sure) before a further sprint back in to London for a 3:37 finish (~39kph average!). What I couldn't understand was why some of the riders I was with didn't use the right side of the road more and kept swerving around slower riders and hugging the left shoulder. I think many of the riders we passed would've been rightly peeved as there was soooo much room for all of us. I also saw a couple examples of 'suck and chuck' gel technique which is very bad form imo and rather irritating.

I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the conditions and would recommend it for the closed roads.
The conditions were just crazy at some points - I saw a guy go down hard going up new lands corner because he got out of the seat to climb and lost traction in the flood water coming down - ouch !
As usual there was your usual sportive reckless riding and my sole goal was to get down new lands corner well away from numpties. I was lucky but I do recall having the brakes full on and still doing 24mph down the steep bit. Going down it I was really glad not to have to do another descent.
The littering was terrible and the number of dropped bottles was shocking, especially with some riders just ignoring them and not pointing them out.
I saw one guy crash hard at a corner, the marshalls were yelling at him to slow down and he ignored them and went down like a sack of spuds.
I finished in 4:29, mainly because I was so wet I just wanted to get it done and I didn't see the point in stopping.
All in all a real experience and I fear as I did not get to ride the full 100 I might just have to return....

Yeah would seem obvious for slower riders to be more on the left and faster on the right but alas some don't think it is obvious. On the last feed station a number of people were moving over to it on the left when a fast chap came through swearing on the left side ignoring the empty right hand lane and nearly taking out those slowing down.

One other nasty smash I saw was someone pulling out from a feed station and a fast rider crashed into him - not good form gunning through the feed area and I am not sure if the guy pulling out knew what hit him.

They could really do with coming up with a better method of streaming the riders so the quicks go 1st etc. Perhaps based if you are a Cat racer or club rider or if you've ever ridden that far before?

I know they wanted estimated times but the amount of riders (I left at 07.12) who were simply pottering along was amazing and I passed 1000s and I'm not fast by any stretch. A better way of shifting may make the experience better for all.

Perhaps in the lit' they send out they could also explain to people about how to ride in mass participation events so quicker riders can get passed on the right and to check over shoulders before veering across the road! I nearly got wiped out when 2 riders whacked their anchors on and veered left to right down Newlands.

I'll be in the ballot for next year regardless :).

I'm not really sure how they could get the waves better - I think my estimate was pretty dead-on, and a decent group formed up fairly quickly from a lot of my wave.
Maybe they just need to be more insistent about the importance of estimating your time correctly - but unless you've ridden the terrain before, how are you to know?
I kind of like your idea about putting Cat riders in together, but I've got no racing licence and came in the top 400 fastest times, so that wouldn't quite be fair on me.
I guess in the end the road sorts everyone out.

Agree, I thought the wave organization worked as well as it could. I ended up with 3:41. The water wasn't nearly as much a problem as the standard of riding - lots of the 'everyone else can go f* themselves' attitude discussed above, and some woeful group riding from people who really ought to know better, whether descending, climbing or on the flat. Aside from those hairy moments, it was a lot of fun. I'll definitely be back for more, even if the weather is the same next time!

Perhaps there should be a penalty for those who are more than 30 mins outside of their estimated time?! For those that put faster than say a 20mph average anyway. OK, this would never happen.

Dare I say it but how about using services like Strava to estimate riders times for them?

If the organiers could get data about a riders average speed and the average length of thier rides they could do a relitivly simple calculation to estimate their time over 100 miles. They could add in elevation data etc. to get a really accurate figure but this is probably overkill. There seems to be a lot of data out there that could be used in this way if it could be gathered together. Even if they could provide a way for riders to do the calculation themselves it would be better than just taking a guess.

The problem with sportives is a huge majority treat them like a race, and therefore ride like dicks, as thats what they think is needed.
The fact that I saw on twitter RL allegedly had a podium sums it all up, and many cynical tweets with a 'finish line' shot of a sprint titled, 'number one sportive-ist' too.
The sooner people treat a sportive for what it is, which is a bike ride with a few thousand other people where someone else has planned your ride, signed it all for you, and provided feeds so you don't need to worry about anything but riding the route the better.

Re the faster/slower riders thing - while the wave organisation may well have been pretty good what you had there were huge numbers of people puncturing so finding themselves "out of group" and then trying to chase back on or to make up for lost time hence (potentially) charging through slower groups.

To be fair, the vast majority of riding I saw was pretty decent and certainly on the Newlands Corner descent (which we hit right in the middle of a torrential downpour) everyone eased up and used the full width of the road, lots of calling "on your right", "on your left", "passing" etc which was good.

Although early on in London some idiot riding a full on TT bike tried to join our paceline and we had to tell him to sod off. Not sure how he'd got the bike past the marshals - the literature was very clear that tri-bars etc weren't allowed.

Wasn't having a guy down on his tri-bars in a paceline at 28mph in the rain, no chance.

Echo the comments above. Club riders in a paceline passing amateurs at close quarters are asking trouble, and putting new people off the sport. A miserable day all in all, one of the many reasons why I don't enjoy sportives. Well done all. Some great RideLondon flood shots here, self promotion ahoy: http://humancyclist.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/ridelondon-100-training-86/

They're races for people too scared to enter a proper race.
Not everyone goes to a sportive to race, and that's why people racing at then are bellends.