New Forest sportive base moves to Dorset to escape NIMBYs

The New Forest is ruined for months of the year by tailbacks of cars 10 miles long. Lyndhurst is nothing but nasty little one-way system.

The area has so many car-related problems yet no-one in autority makes the slightest effort to address them.

Fatalities among animals are common, and not unknown among walkers and cyclists, all of them car-related.

I can't comment on the impact of the sportive, but I know there's a massive elephant in the room that these people aren't interested in.

Time horses were brought under control in the New Forest! A tragic event

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10961989.Motorcyclist_killed_in_crash_wi...

Rhetorical question alert: may be 5000 riders is too much for the New Forest event?

I did the Fred Whitton last year. The ever was limited to 1600 riders and the locals were great. No problems.

I was out riding up Blissford Hill (the 25%er in the New Forest) and the chap, who presumably lived at the bottom of the hill, shouted a few choice words about a race going on. I was riding in the opposite direction so my reaction was a "uh what"?

Got home and did a search on the net. The "race" mentioned by the local was the Rattler, rider limit less than 200. Moral to story...

Nimby: See bike...moan (nothing you can do)
Rider: See horse rider...smile and wave

I can see the problems caused by several hundred cyclists on, let's face it, very popular roads, many of which are narrow with many car drivers thinking they have the right of way, causing frustration not being able to get past for starters, cyclist not indicating, ignoring the rules of the roads etc.
I also see problems with riders going too fast and too close to horses.

I have been on these events and say, in the main, that people are well behaved and respect others. But it only takes a few idiots to spoil it for all.

The key word here is RESPECT.

Well, some reports have stated 5,000 but I accept the numbers may be less than that, especially if they reduced them from previous years. Either way, it's a big event. Surely people understand that many cyclists drive to the event as well, so vehicular congestion also.

I do understand also that the New Forest may have it's particular brand of second-home-owning NIMBY's, but to brand everyone who objects as unreasonable Nimbys from London is unfair!

The point is, they've moved the start out of respect for people who live in the area, which is not a bad thing, but so nanny of these events are organised without thinking about the consequences and I strongly believe there should be some regulation or central approval coordinated by the authorities, to ensure they're sensibly run.

The alternative is a worsening in relations between road user groups. There is already evidence of lack of understanding of vulnerable road users even on this very forum topic! I had wrongly assumed everyone who cycles would understand to go slowly and considerately around horses..

I rode the Wiggle Spring New Forest Sportive last year (http://humancyclist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/wiggle-super-series-new-fores...). Just this week the missus was asking what sportives I wanted to do this year, and suggested that I do one in the New Forest as we made it into an enjoyable family weekend last year. Last year we spend in the region of £300, which all went into the local economy - B&B, pubs, cafes, LBS, wildlife park.

Some of the locals (and local businesses) might want to campaign to get *more* events like this held in the Forest, as they're a licence to print money. To give an example, in Brockenhurst I saw a pub with a sign outside saying "sportive cyclists welcome" and it was absolutely heaving with people who were obviously cyclists. That sign probably earned the landlord 10 grand.

I rode the autumn equivalent last year, and I am very sorry to have to say, a significant minority of the riders taking part were extraordinarily lacking in road sense and consideration for other road users, including faster cyclists.

Some of the things I came across from people sporting event numbers:

-someone fiddling around with something who wobbled right across the (single lane) road in front of me.
-many people riding four abreast down a nice long descent at a very low speed. Not only was this spoiling other participants' fun, it was making cars coming the other way stop completely unecessarily.
-going up steep hills in the wrong gear, grinding to a halt and stopping in the middle of the road when there was plenty of space to pull over to stop

To UKCE's credit they do remind all riders at the start line not to drop litter and to obey the highway code, and mention that anyone seen disregarding this will not be allowed to continue in the event.

Now you can guess what I think of the saboteurs etc, but to be frank, with the way some of these people were riding, I'm not surprised if the locals get a bit cheesed off.

As others have pointed out, the stuff about protecting livestock is irrelevant to cycling, but I am disappointed that so many cyclists don't give animals more room, including some on some of UKCE's previous promotional videos for NF sportives. There's no need not to give them several feet at least.

I had a much better experience on another (smaller scale) Wiggle sportive in the South Downs earlier in the year. Is there something funny about the New Forest that either attracts loons or turns sensible people into loons? (Be they cyclists or residents!)

PLEASE people, if you ride in events like this that are very sensitive in terms of the image of cycling generally, please keep your brain switched on!

A pedant notes: As far as I can tell, none of the National Park is in Dorset. There's a short bit of common boundary near Bransgore though

@700cc get your numbers right please!
As I understand it, it's 1800 (20% cut) over 2 days over 3 routes (with common bits), with a staggered start, that does not make 5000!

Other than within a mile or two of the start it results in a broken but steady flow over a few hours, it is not the M25 at rush hour as many would have you believe.

please give me a genuine concern from a local

"Perhaps someone who does like the events there could give their opinions."
I'm local and have no problems with the events at all. I live in a small village which a number of sportives have passed through over several years. A couple have gone right past my house. I've never seen any problems at all personally. I've never done one but have been out on my bikes (Road and MTB) when some have been on, and been out and about in the car too. My son was born the day a large sportive came right past my house. No problems at all getting in and out\to the hospital.
The vocal types are just a bunch of, "old hate everything, except what I do" types, you'll never win an argument with them it's not worth wasting your breath. No logic or reason will work, they'll not be happy until the events are banned
They do themselves no favours at all with their sabotage and by campaigning on their utter nonsense reasons which vary from wild exaggerations to utter fabrication e.g. danger to people\motorists, wildlife, environment, "their historic way of life", an alleged human poo on a village green a month after....but fail to mention to their real problem! “I had to wait behind some cyclists and it cost minutes on my journey. Oh the injustice of it, ban them all!”
As I see it there are a couple of small problems, road traffic is impacted slightly (a few seconds\minutes here and there) and a small amount of litter (accidents and perhaps an inconsiderate few). The traffic impact is not a patch on many other non cycling and commercial events held in the forest and the litter as I've seen (one or two gels, quite possible not even from an event, lots of local\visiting cyclists pass though), it is a tiny percentage of the volume dropped\thrown from cars every day, by looking in the local verges, beer cans, energy drinks, sweet\crisp wrapper and the usual McD, KFC, Costa etc. 70 animals a year killed by cars (many local drivers), by bikes 0.

Half the forest is crippled every year by the new forest show and a few others events, Beaulieu can be bad. Lyndhurst and Brock' in the summer can be a nightmare at the best of times in a car. Dogs mess at every car park and path all over the show, was that a “ban dogs” I hear, no I didn’t think so.

The ponies on the forest don't bat an eye lid at very much at all tbh, yes people need to pass horses at a safe distance but unless your Mark Cavendish on a sprint or going down Ornamental drive (which I never seen a horse rider on) I think the speed point is nonsense, just pass wide and announce yourself with a cheery "good morning" as you approach and you'll have no trouble except from the odd horse which was going to jump at the sight of a leaf\crisp packet in the wind anyway and you simply can't do anything about that. Any car passing will be doing 15-20+mph, just so long as you announce yourself and aren’t going warp speed just roll on.

Wiggle\UK cycling events seem to be doing everything they can meet the nimbys demands, they'll ban any dangerous and inconsiderate riders that are reported they apparently do very detailed briefs and have cut numbers, extra toilets.....

NIMBYs and Bigots you'll not win, just try to have a nice day everyone who's doing it, and make sure you give any locals you do see a cheery Hello. Your jolliness will no doubt infuriate the NIMBY’s sadly amongst us even more.

Sorry for the length, and thanks if you stuck with it. 1st post too, been lurking for ages now.

Depressing, but not surprising, how some on here just cannot see the POV of the locals and their legitimate concerns.

We are not talking about the few 'anti cyclist' NIMBY's - (who will hate you cycling wherever and however you do it.. ).

We are talking about locals who have legitimate concerns about 5,000 cyclists turning up, many from outside the area, to ride together in an unregulated event on narrow lanes with the minority riding inconsiderately as we know will happen (and a minority of 5,000 is still quite a lot)

Re-organising the start of the event to reduce disruption is a sensible action - and will take away the argument from the NIMBY anti cyclist brigade.

Imagine if 5,000 motorcyclists, horse riders, or car drivers turned up and did the same - I'm sure cyclists would be pretty peeved to be sharing the road with that lot, no?

These events need some sensible regulation and organisation with consideration to avoid damaging the reputation of 'cyclists' as a whole among the non cycling public - and to make sure we can keep on doing them!

There is a minority of NIMBY's, (e.g in the new forest or elsewhere), and a minority of die-hard cyclists (e.g on this forum or elsewhere) who will always hold entrenched views and further the 'them and us' view of different road user groups.

Well, I'm doing this ride with my brother, and looking forward to it. No horses will be harmed in the process.

Mmmm Ousaveard. Good usual educational point using extensive sums!
My point though is the possibly biased reporting by RoadCC doesn't perhaps reflect the other locals who don't mind. Yep I'm sure some have holiday homes. I have one in Cornwall (I'm fairly local in Devon) but it's a better pension investment than investing in the city through the likes who buy New Forest holiday homes. Gosh I've gone off topic.
Perhaps someone who does like the events there could give their opinions.

I've given up on riding in the NF and certainly won't be camping/stopping/eating etc. there as I have in the past. There is far too much good cycling elsewhere where locals are appreciative or at least not bothered.
NF - bye, bye

Ok, editing the film to exclude all traffic is to be expected in this sort of promotional video. But it's really inspiring stuff, isn't it? It just makes me want to head down to the New Forest and start riding. Fabulous.

But although this vid is carefully edited to get the adenaline pumping, it can't avoid showing riders on the wrong side of the road, riders overtaking other riders without a safety check over their right shoulder, riders passing horses far too fast, riders of apparently vastly differing abilities travelling too close too one another and, possibly worst of all, riders on the wrong side of the road in wooodland, where the dappled light on the road would inevitably increase the risk of colliding with another road user. Bonkers coverage, especially if the worst of the "naughtiness" has presumably been edited out.

As a regular veteran of the L2B since 1980, I know that all these things are to be expected on mass participation rides, and aren't too terrible in the grand scheme of things. But, on roads open to other traffic, this isn't ideal when part of a profit generating event, especially when this situation is occurring repeatedly in some popular areas.

The solution is for local agencies to host events on (and this is the important bit) closed roads, with vast numbers, just once a year for each area, such that no resident or business is inconvenienced any more than once annually, and for ALL "profits" to be ploughed back into the local community for the common good.

There has to be change, because it simply isn't fair for ordinary cyclists to get "punished" on the road, and for our efforts to get cycling more universally accepted delayed, through this proliferation of events by organisers who either don't realise the damage they're doing, or know what they're doing but are quite prepared to carry on doing it.

A well organised and good decision by the organisers. Leave the locals alone to their sleepy quiet life. The income by local businesses i'm sure will be missed. Let those would want to round up ponies do their stuff in peasce and cycle elsewhere where others might appreciate the huge income from participants.
I for one won't ever risk cycling in a hositle area like the New Forest.

With the base moving out I doubt this will stop the antics of the NIMBY's throwing tacks and ripping signs down if they are fighting to get cycling banned altogether. I guess only time will tell. Are they looking to ban motorbikes following last nights tragedy near Ringwood?

Loss of business for the locals will serve them right. Let's ban horses whilst we are at it. FFS!

It's totally unrealistic that the only cars seen on the video are in the event car park- highly selective editing. A foal is seen very near the riders, and two horse riders also near bikes doing 20mph; these are really not suitable roads for Wiggle events, and I speak as a regular rider in the New Forest. Purbecks are much more suitable, and actually have some hills.