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Vélo Birmingham & Midlands - where did your money go? We speak to the people who lost their cash and take a closer look

Amid anger and threats of legal action organisers cite loss-making past editions, this year's one covering costs at best among the reasons for not offering refunds following cancellation...

Last week, we asked our readers whether they had entered any UK sportives that had been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and where they had not been given a refund, or only been offered a partial one. The response was overwhelming and in the nearly 200 replies we received, two events from the same organiser cropped up again and again – Vélo Birmingham & Midlands, and sister event Vélo Essex. Here, we take a closer look at both.

Those two Vélo Series events accounted for around 95 per cent of replies, with many of our readers questioning how, with three months to go until the first, Vélo Birmingham & Midlands, no refund at all was being offered by organisers Active Sport & Entertainment Ltd (ASE) and asking where the money had gone, pointing out that many of the costs of staging it would not yet have been incurred.

Subsequently, ASE has disclosed that the two previous editions of the event both lost money and that in the best-case scenario, the event in June would only have broken even – an admission that while presumably aimed at justifying the no refund policy, only serves to confirm the suspicion held by many that their entry fees have been swallowed up to cover the organisers’ losses on the previous editions.

Many of the readers who wrote to us vowed that they would never again enter the event, although that may be a moot point, with ASE also revealing that it is “almost certain” that there will not be a  Vélo Birmingham & Midlands next year.

A petition calling for a full refund of entry fees for the cancelled event has so far gained more than 2,700 signatures, while an associated Facebook group now has more than 800 members, some of whom appear to have been successful in obtaining refunds via their credit card providers.

Comments on both the petition page and the Facebook group show that there is a lot of anger and frustration directed at the organisers, something shared by many of the readers who got in touch with us and we are aware that some are considering legal action if refunds are not forthcoming.

One reader told us: “I have had other activities cancel on me such as concerts and shows and all the providers have given me a refund even though it’s unlikely their insurances will have covered them for such an unseen pandemic event.”

Another said: “I entered both Vélo Birmingham and Vélo Essex. Vélo Essex offered a partial refund but chose to ignore those who had paid a fast track entry premium like myself. That premium should have been their extra profit and fully refunded as clearly the standard fee was enough for the event to make a profit.”

A third reader told us: “The organiser’s justification for refusing any refund is illogical. Yes, there would have been some costs incurred already, but an awful lot of their costs were variable and not incurred in advance, eg stewards, security, site costs, signage etc. They also have their profit.

“Also, for those who paid for fast track entry, they don’t have any costs, so should refund that element. It’s pure profit for them.

“I for one will not enter one of their events again. It’s appalling.”

And one reader, who entered the event with her husband, told us: “They claim the costs have already been spent, but have provided no evidence of this.

“Their cancellation was three months before the event, and I suggest the vast majority of the costs would have been incurred on and around the event date (June 21st) and not beforehand.”

She added “I feel that this is disgraceful behaviour by a profiteering company. Especially in these times, the nearly £200 my husband and I spent is really needed for living costs.

The cancellation of this year’s edition was announced on 21 March, three months to the day before its scheduled date of 21 June. Although no refund was offered to entrants, some of whom had paid in excess of £100 to secure a priority start time, they were offered free entry to the then newly launched Vélo Essex.

> Vélo Birmingham sportive cancelled with no refunds

But 10 days later, on 31 March, that event too was cancelled, despite there still being almost six months to go until what would have been the debut edition on Sunday 20 September. Entrants were offered a refund of 45 per cent of their entry fee.

> Vélo Essex cancelled – but entrants will get less than half their money refunded

Reasons stated for the cancellation of Vélo Birmingham & Midlands included:

  • Business interruption and event cancellation insurance policies not covering COVID-19
  • Loss of forecast revenue for next three months and
  • Unrecoverable “pre-paid staging, logistical and staffing costs” already committed.

“Put plainly, refunding participant entry fees now is not something our business could absorb," ASE said.

However, a subsequent post on the 18,000-rider event’s Facebook page revealed that it had not sold out. That, together with the admission when Vélo Essex was cancelled that there were still “a considerable number of entry places left to fill” has led many to accuse the organisers of using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to cancel both events.

The cancellation of Vélo Essex was also reminiscent of that of another event in the organiser’s portfolio, Vélo North, due to have been held last September in County Durham but scrapped explicitly because not enough tickets had been sold. Yet another event, Vélo South, had been cancelled the previous year due to an extreme weather warning from the Met Office, and has not returned.

That same Facebook post sought to provide further information on why Vélo Birmingham & Midlands had been cancelled, with organisers insisting that “In no way was the decision made to enable us to benefit from the unprecedented situation the whole country now finds itself in.”

They said: “An event of the scale of Vélo Birmingham & Midlands costs a great deal of money to stage and involves a significant team of full-time staff working on event planning, delivery and marketing for over a year.

“At the point the decision to cancel was made, the number of entries was below final capacity and it was clear that in the current environment, further sales could not be relied on.

“The entry fees collected to date fall short of covering the costs incurred and in common with the majority of businesses, our cancellation insurance policy sadly excludes any claims arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of the significant outgoings committed up front, none of which are recoverable and with no potential new income likely, we are simply not able to make any refunds or to allow us to guarantee an event in 2021, which we very much regret.”

They revealed that the previous two editions of the event, in 2017 and 2019, had “lost a significant amount of money, and at best this year’s event would have only broken-even,” but despite that  they had taken “a long-term decision to invest in Vélo Birmingham & Midlands as we always believed that the event would grow to a size that would render it commercially sustainable.

“To date, we have invested over £2m in Vélo Birmingham & Midlands so any suggestion that this decision was taken to enable us to benefit from the unprecedented situation is simply not correct.”

The statement concluded by saying: “It is almost certain that Vélo Birmingham & Midlands will not return in 2021, which makes things even more upsetting for everyone who has supported the event over the last few years.”

When it was launched in 2016, the event was owned by CSM Active, a division of CSM Sport & Entertainment, whose executive chairman at the time was Lord Coe. In August last year, a controlling stake in CSM Active was sold to a member of its management, Richard Relton, who is the sole director of the business, since renamed ASE.

More than a month on from the cancellation of Vélo Birmingham & Midlands, it’s difficult to argue that the decision to cancel it was the correct one, with no indication as yet of when the government may start easing lockdown restrictions.

Assuming a further three-week extension of current rules happens, that would take us to less than a month from the scheduled date, and it seems unlikely that an event with so many participants would receive the go-ahead as the country emerges from the crisis.

The anger and frustration expressed by many regarding the lack of refund however is perfectly understandable – indeed, several people who contacted us said that they had entered with their partner, meaning an outlay of getting on for £200, money that some, in the current environment, could ill-afford to lose.

And other mass participation events have pledged to guarantee places on future editions, or to offer refunds – the Tour de Yorkshire Ride, which had been due to take place this coming weekend alongside the four-day professional race, says on its website: “When we announce the new date of the event, anyone who is unable to make the date or following year will be eligible for a refund.”

The coronavirus pandemic is of course unprecedented in our lifetimes and creates unique challenges across society, and it’s impossible to predict when, if ever, life will return to how it was before – including not just the staging of mass-participation events, but also the appetite of people to enter them in the first place.

We suspect that even in the absence of the crisis provoked by COVID-19, Vélo Birmingham & Midlands and of Vélo Essex faced an uncertain future – the first because, by the organisers’ own admission, it needed to sell out simply to cover costs, the latter since, as the experience with Vélo North last year suggests, the plug may well have been pulled anyway had sales of places remained below expectations.

With a finite pool of people prepared to pay the best part of £100 to ride a sportive in the first place, closed roads or not, and the reputational battering that the organisers have taken on social media in recent weeks, it’s difficult to see how the business can recover – something underlined by their own comment that Vélo Birmingham & Midlands is unlikely to return next year.

One thing is certain – even if it does reappear at some point in the future, many people who might have been attracted to the event, and who would have formed part of its target audience, will decide instead to hold onto their cash instead.

We have contacted organisers for their response and will update this article when we receive a reply.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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17 comments

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Chris Hayes | 4 years ago
1 like

Expanding on my point below, I think that the solution to this broken model is for the organisers to use their own capital / equity to purchase a comprehensive cancellation policy for each event - covering severe weather and as many other adverse events as the insurer will accept.  

There will probably be a first loss that the consumer (read cyclist) will have to absorb, but until someone is offering this type linked product (for which they may need financial regulation), then I'm not parting with ANY money in advance EVER. 

Let's face it: if these companies went under and entrepeneurial cycling clubs had to scale back their rides (looking at you Catford CC) no one would care - they would be out riding anyway.  Cycling existed before 'sportives' and will survive its demise. 

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Awavey replied to Chris Hayes | 4 years ago
1 like

Id argue though this is the prime example of how that wouldnt work in practice, Velo almost certainly did have a comprehensive insurance policy (I think by law as organisers they have to have some insurance) covering severe weather and as many other adverse events an insurer would reasonably accept, though no insurance company would ever give you a pay out in all circumstances policy.

and yet we are here precisely because no-one could say or have believed 6months ago, there would be a global pandemic virus which effectively forced the cancellation of all mass participation events caused by a virus no-one had heard of till then.

if anything the business model of company run sportives is almost certainly completely broken now anyway, because insurance will be be practically impossible to afford to cover cancellations such as this, and the numbers pre booking will be a fraction of what it used to be because why would people risk losing money in the future even if things went back to exactly how they were.

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Chris Hayes replied to Awavey | 4 years ago
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You are missing my point.  All sportives have been cancelled due to C-19 (along with most commercial activity), but many are cancelled for other reasons - protests, adverse weather, etc.  C-19 would be a force majeure exclusion under most policiies...or at least will be once the insurance policy writers start to add such events as specific force majeure events.  

It is for the latter that event organisers should be compelled to insure. Two examples spring to mind: a sportive around Goodwood last year that was cancelled due to bad weather, and the Hell of Ashdown in Feb.  However, on both occasions the weather was bad in the run up to the event, but fine on the day... 

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BadgerBeaver | 4 years ago
1 like

I entered Velo Essex and took out Cancellation Insurance. However, I didn't get all my money back as the insurance didn't cover cancellation due to pandemic. 

Honestly I feel a bit foolish paying in advance for a sportive. I haven't ridden on a sportive event for years, fo a number reasons, the main one being that it felt like a bit of a rip off. The Evans events used to be great value - cheap enough to abandon, priced at exactly what I would pay for a flapjack and water in the middle of nowhere. 

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sapperadam | 4 years ago
4 likes

I have two major hobbies, cycling and board gaming (and I own a board game shop too).  Another major event in the board game calendar, the UK Games Expo is held in June at the NEC.  It is now the third or fourth largest expo of its kind in the world and as you can imagine, it also has some not insignificant costs involved.

Obviously, this is also cancelled.  The organisers have been completely open from the start.  They initially postponed to August and when they did so, they said that anyone who wanted to could get a refund but if no contact was made, tickets would automatically transfer.  Last week, they announced that UKGE 2020 would not happen at all, probably because their venue is currently a Nightingale Hospital and won't be ready in August.  Thing is, they immediately offered FULL refunds to everybody.  Traders, exhibitors and attendees all.  Exhibitors pay thousands to attend these shows, I know because I've looked into doing so.  They did say that people could change their entries to 2021 and did say that anyone doing so would be helping them to make sure they can keep going.  Like I said, they seem to be being completely open about this and the financial hit they are taking.  And I compare this to what Velo have done. 

My local sportive, Dartmoor Classic, also cancelled, and have offered a 50% refund if you don't want to enter next year, but unlike Velo, they have at least transferred all entries to next plus it's more understandable as it is run by a club rather than a big company and the event is next month!

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Chris Hayes | 4 years ago
3 likes

I've been a 'pay-on-the-day', 'happy-go-lucky' customer since I started doing UK sportives... and I'd never consider doing it any other way - too many variables to  book a bike ride months ahead.  

I fully understand that if everyone behaved like me that there probably wouldn't be any sportives, but the model is clearly broken and has been for a while as 'entrepeneurs' have tried to scale it up to make a living from it and corporates have sought to do the same.   As a result it is not uncommon to be asked to shell out GBP40 on a supported ride.  This a hugh amount of money to ride through the Ashdown, which is something I do most weekends regardless - ditto the New Forest - and no amount of jelly babies will make it up.   

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BadgerBeaver replied to Chris Hayes | 4 years ago
0 likes

Absolutely, 100% agree.

I used to think Sportives we like reliability rides for people who didn't want to map read. With phones and cycle computers now advanced enough to make riding in a new place easy and fun, is there any point to a paid-for sportive, as opposed to a club event?

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Awavey replied to BadgerBeaver | 4 years ago
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you dont get a medal for riding a club event, call me shallow if you like but I like the sense of achievement for completing a sportive with the reward of something shiny & physical I can hold from it,that I can look back on later and say yep I did that, I was part of that. Ive done sportives without medals and you just dont get the same feel from them, they are just a bunch of miles that blur into nothingness alongside all the other miles you ride and end up holding no special memories.

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kevvjj replied to BadgerBeaver | 4 years ago
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Actually, yes. Closed roads sportives are fantastic fun. No Stop signs, no traffic lights, ride in any lane you like, get fed along the way. I've done Ride London and Velothon Wales. No matter how good a route you plan on your GPS it will never have the flavour of a closed roads sportive.

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PRSboy replied to kevvjj | 4 years ago
1 like

Agreed. I did Velothon Wales and it was absolutely brilliant, despite being a wet morning at times. One of my best events on a bike.  Closed roads made it feel very special, and I was able to get a great average speed as you never have to stop unless you want to. The lovely Welsh folk were out in force and very encouraging, no ill feeling directed at the riders. The only anticlimax was the finish... while everyone else seemed to have an adoring family with ' well done Daddy' banners waiting at the line for them, I sat by a wheely bin eating my bag of salt and vinegar crisps. My family were sensibly parked by the indoor pool at the hotel! 

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nickW1 | 4 years ago
2 likes

Its a matter of choice yopu pays your. money and you takes yopur chance as the old saying goes, I happily Entered the Hell of the ashdown this year cancelled due to the 50MPH winds, they organised took their costs and then gave the rest to the nominated event charity, no refunds but no complaints by me , more than happy its a. non profit making event run by a club, Iocally there is a small company that runs stripped down events for £15 no " goodie bag" or other stuff but well run events, for the price of some of the big events I would rather save my money and head off once a year for a well run continental sportive.

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Secret_squirrel | 4 years ago
1 like

Sounds like the population of that petition and facebook page should be considering a joint complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).   They seem to be looking for a few bad apples to make an example of.

A co-ordinated letter writing campaign or the reciept of a truck load of printed and signed petitions to the CMA HQ will probably draw the right attention.

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Richard D replied to Secret_squirrel | 4 years ago
1 like

Secret_squirrel wrote:

Sounds like the population of that petition and facebook page should be considering a joint complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).   They seem to be looking for a few bad apples to make an example of.

A co-ordinated letter writing campaign or the reciept of a truck load of printed and signed petitions to the CMA HQ will probably draw the right attention.

In my experience, organisations like the CMA are less likely to be influenced by signatures on petitions or carbon-copy template letters than they are to take action due to the volume of contact they receive.

I would urge anyone lef out of pocket by the actions of the Velo organisers (ie thousands of us) to contact the CMA individually via the CMA's web page.  Takes about five minutes.

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cyclefaster | 4 years ago
1 like

I had paid to enter this year having ridden last years event. I really enjoyed it and there was a lot of great support from the locals who came out to support the riders.  I was disappointed but not surprised at the decision to cancel. I'm glad I hadn't booked any accommodation so it was only the entry fee I lost. 

I don't know if I will do one of these events again. I've never really liked the idea of paying to do a ride. One of the best things about cycling is you don't need to pay to get out on your bike. 

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barongreenback | 4 years ago
1 like

The worst thing about this was that the signs were all there.  I didn't sign up this year as the route seemed to be identical (and wasn't as good as the first year) but after the initial 'sell out' there were frequent emails about additional banks of entries becoming mysteriously available.  Very clear that this was marketing BS and they were trying to whip up demand.  You could also tell that costs had been massively cut in the second one: much more underwhelming finish, no event at the end, no goodie bag, fewer sponsors etc.  Despite the extortionate costs of entering, particularly with fast track, I think that an even higher price point may have attracted the same numbers.  A shame whatever though as people have lost out and there was decent support around the course from the general public.

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crazy-legs replied to barongreenback | 4 years ago
1 like

Quote:

after the initial 'sell out' there were frequent emails about additional banks of entries becoming mysteriously available.  Very clear that this was marketing BS and they were trying to whip up demand.

Standard practice across a lot of events, gigs, travel/flights etc. Tell everyone that tickets are selling like hotcakes, 80% sold, limited spaces left and it generates a bit of FOMO. 

Then you miraculously discover that actually "extraordinary demand has meant we were able to secure a very limited number of extra places, sign up NOW!"

This can usually be repeated 2 or 3 times before prospective entrants smell a rat.

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brooksby replied to crazy-legs | 4 years ago
1 like

crazy-legs wrote:

Standard practice across a lot of events, gigs, travel/flights etc. Tell everyone that tickets are selling like hotcakes, 80% sold, limited spaces left and it generates a bit of FOMO. 

Then you miraculously discover that actually "extraordinary demand has meant we were able to secure a very limited number of extra places, sign up NOW!"

This can usually be repeated 2 or 3 times before prospective entrants smell a rat.

Not just when selling tickets for events.  Watch how the Amazon algorith mucks about with pricing if you keep looking at something while logged in but continually don't add it to your 'basket'.

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