Live blog: Club cyclists accused of riding London to Brighton sportive route without having an entry - Oxted CC Chairman responds + more

Found this on the Guardian-

How they built cycling tunnels under the Tyne by hand – in pictures

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2019/apr/02/how-they-built-cy...

Seperate tunnels for cyclists and pedestrians.  Could be completed in the Summer.  Which could of course happen any month now.

It would appear they have a Cycling in the City bit which seems to be seperate to their Bike Blog and neither featured the Offroad thing from a little while back.  Anyone know of another bike thing hidden somewhere?

I rode a sportive recently but didn't read the small print about having to wear a helmet and so didn't get an official time. Still helped myself to the feed station. It's a leisurely ride with others, not a race. 

Tough ,roads are free for anyone to use .  It’s like the idiots who pay for these cycling holidays to ride alp d huez etc . Just book a flight use air bnb etc etc and you save a sh&£ load of money and ride when you want to .   It’s a total rip off.  Just go ride your bike . 

One if the biggest jokes is "commercial" sportives hijacking the names days and routes of longer established club sportives. Or clashing routes. Many of the charity sportives I used to consider entering demand an entry fee and sponsorship; so I tend not to bother now.

I don't think it is at all.

Why take a Sportive down popular roads for cyclists... Oh yeah!

Do we know how much of the route they travelled on and if it's a path well trodden by them, they may be the ones that suffered by having the fair weather brigade around and about them...

Ouch. That's a cringeworthy response regardless of the rights or wrongs of their members' actions. Probably best not to try and defend nor offer 'yeah but ...' rationale.   

I think that if they're open roads then technically it's fair enough to ride them, but why would you choose to take a club run down a route that's going to lay yourself open for criticism like this? Very odd.

The “we do lots for charity” line is a favourite excuse of rich people who avoid paying tax and like to justify obnoxious stuff. Look at how all the fat old men who got caught at the Presidents Club the other year defended their behaviour. 

There are are plenty of other roads out there to ride on - if you haven’t got a place and you decide to crash the route then you are probably the sort of person who likes to think they are doing good but in reality everyone else thinks you are a scum bag. 

Bet the the guy from cycling club quoted in the article is an estate agent. 

I've done it a couple of times as a charity entrant, although the most recent was about 10 years ago.  Even at 6 am in Clapham, the route was packed with all kinds of cyclists, and whilst I enjoyed it, I haven't felt the need to do it again.

On Ridelondon, you get clubs (with some hangers on, probably) with whistles blowing to get slower lesser mortals out of their way, desperate to set fast times.  I hope none of that was going on!

Tell them to shove it up their arse. BHF hijacked the event anyway. When push comes to shove ( up your arse or not ) it’s mostly an open road route. Just don’t use their stop points, or bag any bling / swag, and divert around the closed road bits, and what can they do?

Three times now I've ridden roughly half of the L2B route all three times as part of a club ride. Never have I used the feedstops and each time I've set off at 7am to avoid the crowds. This year there were two British Heart Foundation volunteers collecting donations on the seafront. I was surprised to find they could only take card payments. The fiver I had in my pocket couldn't be taken. 

On a separate note I'm not sure I'll ride the route again - certainly not if the weather was like this year - as each year more and more of the route is open to cars and it's less clear where roads are open to traffic. The run in through Brighton is full of people busting to get a 'good time' through live traffic and over road crossings bit too stressful for my liking. 

I'm not sure how long L2B is for this world. Given that RideLondon seems to have surpassed it as 'the' charity ride in the South East/London.

So I pirated the London to Brighton a few years ago - I joined a group that already had entries but I was too late and entries were closed. I donated the entry fee to the Charity independently, didn't use any of the feed stations and set off at stupid o'clock to avoid the crowds. Feel free to lambast me.

That is the first and last time I will ever ride it. Despite the early start, there were too many cyclists not used to riding in large groups - nor in these kind of events - making sudden, unexpected manoeuvres riding unsuitable bikes (badly maintained shopping bikes) and I felt uncomfortable for pretty much the whole ride - dodging sudden dismounters on the Beacon was particularly frustrating.

You won't find me riding the Marmotte either - for not totally dissimilar reasons - though I have attempted it on a different day to the organised event (and failed - some unfinished business there...).

But let me be clear, I have no problem with others treating L2B as a challenge and I always support the encouragement of cycling in (almost) all its forms - this is my personal view and I have made my personal decisions.

As for Clubs pirating these events, I agree that is really not the right spirit and they should take a careful look at themselves and the message they are giving.

I don't really see the appeal of doing this.  Surely the whole point of participating in such an event is the 'raising money for charity' thing.  Otherwise I would have thought it would be far more pleasant to do it on some other day when the route isn't packed with other cyclists (including, I would imagine, a lot of unconfident novices).  Not sure a few bits of closed road would outweight the crowds.

Personally that day is a day I remember specifically deciding NOT to cycle to Brighton. 

Really not on - it’s a charity event! Especially bad if they used feed stations. It also reflects badly on their clubs. As others have said not a lot you can do, I hope they contact the clubs to complain though. If they wanted to do it, do it a different day

Rocking up and joining someone else's paid-for event without paying is seriously bad form.  

Following the same route outside of the event is fine as it's public roads but not a (semi) closed road event with all the benefits that go with it.  Even if they don't use the feed stations there are many benefits; liaising with the authorities to close the roads, marshalls, emergency services, etc.

I'm sure the individuals considered are feeling pretty smug but they, and their clubs should be ashamed - they are not a good advertisement for the cycling community who, on the whole, tend to be decent human beings (despite what the anti-cyclying lobby might say)!

Hijacking a sportive is not something I would do (having a fully functioning conscience and all that), but I can't see what you can do about it. Even stopping those without bona fide sportive numbers (helmet, front of bars etc) at feed stops would be tricky, given they are mostly staffed by unpaid volunteers who understandably wouldn't want to get into an argument over a few flapjacks.

The cycling community, although we like to think otherwise, reflects the wider society we live in - ie there will always be a fair share of dicks.

As long as they didn't use feed stations, who cares? Public roads and all that.

Not sure about this specific sportive, but, if handcycles aren't permitted?

Fuck 'em, if I can and want to, I will. Start allowing handcycles in and then we'll see, but otherwise I'll just chance my arm - it's literally the only way I might get to participate!