Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

feature

The stuff they don't tell you about sportives: find out about the hassles nobody mentions

Got a largely informal cycling event coming up? Find out about the niggles and annoyances that sportive event organisers don't mention

Sportives, we've missed them! Now the country is opening up and UK race calendars are starting to get populated again, you might have one in the diary before the end of the year. If it's going to be your first, here are a few things that people don't usually tell you.

Not all sportives are equal

There was a time in the early 2000s when virtually every organised road event was suddenly rebranded a sportive. It was the latest buzz word in cycling.

These days 'sportive' is used to cover everything from local charity rides that attract a few dozen people to closed road epics that cater for thousands. There's nothing wrong with that, but make sure you do a bit of digging to find out what you're getting for your money.

8 ways to get the best out of a sportive

Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 - riders passing a mill

You'll want to check the route, particularly the distance and the amount of climbing involved, but there are less obvious things to look out for too. How many feed stations are there? Is there mechanical support? Will you get a finisher medal or T-shirt? What about a sweep vehicle for those who have to bail?

Find out about sportives you can enter on the British Cycling website

Some of these things might be important to you, others might not. Make sure you find out ahead of time to avoid disappointment.

You might encounter lousy riding skills

Your caring, sharing road.cc doesn't like to do anyone down, but none of us were born with the ability to ride safely in a group; it's a skill – or a series of skills – usually developed by first riding with a few mates and/or on club rides.

Check out 6 tips for riding in a group 

However, not everyone goes down this route and in a big sportive there will always be people who have never ridden in a bunch before, and there's occasionally that one rider whose confidence far exceeds their abilities. They've seen Peter Sagan on the telly and thinks that their handling skills are of the same level. They're wrong.

Someone who rides erratically in a group is bad news for everyone's safety. On wet roads they're even more of a liability. If another rider makes you jittery, don't wait for them to touch wheels, get yourself out of there. If you can't forge ahead, drop back to find another group.

Velo North Launch 4.jpg

You could ride the route for nothing

One of the objections people sometimes have to sportives is that you could ride the route for nowt if you wanted. You need to work your way though a hell of a lot of flapjacks and energy drink to cover a £30 entry fee.

That's true, of course, but sportives offer you the chance to ride a ride an organised route, perhaps in an unfamiliar area, with loads of other riders and support if anything goes wrong. Although not common, you might even get to ride on closed roads (this always jacks the price up). 

Take a look at 23 of the best 2018 & 2019 sportive bikes

If none of that is important to you then, yeah, you could save a few quid by riding the route on your own.PWC Yorkshire Cycle Ride (CC BY 2.0 Allan McKenzie|Flickr).jpg

Audax is cheaper

Audax rides are generally cheaper to enter than sportives. With Audax you get a route and a time limit, and you have to get your brevet card stamped at intermediate checkpoints, but you won't usually get food/drink provided or a sag wagon to pick you up if it all goes wrong. Self sufficiency is highly prized.

Check out 12 of the best Audax bikes

Signage issues... Grrr!

Good sportive organisers get the signage right every time, others... not so much.

Admittedly, some signage issues aren't the organiser's fault. They can't help it if some halfwit goes out and rips signs down because they object to cyclists riding past their house on a Sunday morning.

I was on one sportive, though, where the organiser had stuck a large sign on the far side of a right hand turn, highly visible for a couple of hundred yards... until a car pulled up at the junction, when it became totally obscured. Off into the back of beyond we went, none the wiser.

Find out about 11 of the best 2019 sportive road bikes under £1,000

Make sure you're following the correct signs too. When road.cc sponsored the sportive at Mountain Mayhem the route crossed that of another sportive out in the Herefordshire hills, and one rider ended up following a wheel 50 miles in the wrong direction!

To avoid getting lost you can print out the route or download and follow it on to a GPS computer. 

They're nearly always on Sundays

You get the occasional Saturday sportive and some on bank holiday Mondays, but the vast majority are held on Sunday mornings. That makes sense for most people but if you regularly have something else you need to do on Sundays you're out of luck.

Velo North launch 3.jpg

You can't rely on support for everything

One of the best things about sportives is that there's some sort of support if things don't go to plan, but you still need to take personal responsibility for your welfare. You need to ride enough in preparation for the event, get your pacing right for the full distance, take on enough food and drink, have the right clothing for the conditions... If you're even wondering whether to take arm/leg warmers and a waterproof jacket, the chances are that you should.

Check out our guide to wet weather cycle clothing and gear

You can maximise your chances of having a good day by taking the time to prepare properly.

Find out how to get fit in 6 weeks 

Get your bike and accessories are prepared

If you've trained hard for a sportive you really don't want to be let down by your equipment, so check your bike over thoroughly in advance and make sure everything is working properly (get someone else to do it if you're not mechanically minded). 

Don't forget to charge everything fully: your mobile phone, bike computer and, if you have it, electronic shifting.

Find out what you should take with you on every rideZefal EZ Max FC CO2 Inflator.jpg

However well you've prepared, mechanical issues can still occur, particularly punctures, so make sure you have the know-how and the essentials you need to deal with them (usually a spare inner tube, tyre levers and pump) along with a multi-tool to tighten anything that comes loose. 

Find out about 13 essential bike checks you should make before you go for a ride

Sportives aren't races

The fact that sportives aren't races is something that may probably already known to you, but to first-timers it can come as a surprise. Sportives are non-competitive events that are timed. Some give gold, silver and bronze standard finishing times, but they're still not races.

Velo North launch 2.jpg

Fair enough, some people ride a sportive as fast as possible as a personal challenge, but if you want to race you need to enter a race. Find out how to enter a race here

Cafe wisdom: road.cc readers have their say on sportives

As well as our good selves, road.cc readers (particularly those who have plenty of sportives under their belts) are always a good source of knowledge when it comes to offering advice and sharing stories from their sportive adventures. Here's the pick of the best comments from a previous version of this article... 

sooper6 said: "I enjoyed them when I first got into cycling, when what they offered was of value for a poorly equipped novice. Now being a bit more experienced and kitted out with a gps computer, the only sportive offerings worth paying for is a closed road event."

wknight said: "Another reason sportives cost money is all the marshalls. I attend as one of those marshalls on a motorbike and we get paid expenses. Many of us ride hundreds of miles there and back to the venue. Its not a job anyone can do as you must hold an advanced motorcycle qualification and of course special training.  We often start around 6am and are still there when the last rider comes home. When you break down or have an accident, we are often first on scene to call for assistance with our radios and will stay with you until you leave the scene. We often carry tubes, pumps and tools to get you going and water on hot days. I have escorted many a rider on the Dragon home in the dark to ensure their safe arrival.  Just remember all of this when you ride for free and please when you are doing a sportive, let us come past as we are often on our way to to another cyclist waiting for our help." 

Judge dreadful said: "I've only ever done a couple of closed road sportives, and found a couple of open road sportives, on a ride I've been doing, which was nothing to do with the Sportives. I've done the closed road ones for charities, I wouldn't do a sportive for 'fun'. There tends to be too wide a range of experience and ability for it to be safe enough, in my experience."

nickW said: "I have done a few and then went over to holland to ride the amstel gold sportive run on the saturday before the pro races, have to say what a complete great biking weekend, ride a great route with some hills suprisingly, and then you get to watch the pros ride the course the next day, I did the 200km route and as me and my riding partner got to about 150km my partner began to feel the strain and she started to struggle a bit , we then got picked up by a ladies pro team out for a warm up for the next day, gave us a tow for about 30km, great ride and would recommend it, the overpowering smell of beer and fries as you start the cauburg climb with three kms to go was worth it!" 

Generally speaking said: "My first sportive was fairly local, the Matlock Top Ten, ten of the toughest climbs in the area including the famous Bank Road, however 6 weeks prior to the event I tore my quad and was unable to ride for a few weeks so had to hope for the best and then on the day we had torrential rain but I wasn't deterred and managed a reasonable time of 3 1/2 hours, I was soaked to the bone and absolutely frozen by the end (did I mention that it was October) but I still enjoyed it." 

peted76 said: "Another thing to note is that after signing up for a sportif, you might get an email saying you've got to be at the start line at 6am, which unless you live or are staying next door to the start line might mean you'll have to get up in the middle of the night!" 

The _Kaner said: "On a 120km Sportive, a route I was vaguely familiar with, I was behind another cyclist for about 10km... Before he turned into a drive way.
Turns out he wasn't in the Sportive, neither was I by that point.
I knew how to get back to the start point by heading out towards Trim (Irish Midlands). Ended up doing 148km. When I got back, almost everyone had cleared up, cleared off...I spent the next 30 minutes in the car fighting off leg cramps, until I was fit enough to drive home.
Moral: know where you're going, don't be afraid to ask if you don't... Pay attention to any road markings." 

efail said: "Sportives aren't races" until you go to France, where many are. They have podiums, prizes and position lists in all of the age groups through to 70. They are often linked to national/local championships. Many of them have a sit down meal, with wine, after the "race", and quite a few give a decent cycling shirt. The ones I have done, in the south, have marshals on every corner and junction. Their organisation is quite fantastic, especially when you think something like the Ariegoise has about 5,000 entries." 

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

Add new comment

13 comments

Avatar
Awavey | 2 years ago
0 likes

Sportives can be fun, though I think some of them the cost of has broken the model now, £40 seems a ridiculous amount for an open road sportive, i wont pay that even for a medal at the end, and there arent nearly as many events run anymore, even pre Covid impact.

My advice would be download a map of the route, the signs arent always as clear as they could be, you can miss them,people do move them, and even one time I'm sure I was following the same organisers route from a different year theyd left signs up for still and got completely in a muddle of where I was vs where I was supposed to be.

Always be self sufficient for food/drink, dont rely on food stops, they might not have stuff you like,want to eat at that moment, even some do run out.ive done rides too where you paid for the food at the food stop,ontop of your entry fee.

Same goes for punctures,minor repairs,be self sufficient enough & able to fix them on the road.

It's not a race,so dont ride like an idiot,pace yourself, give people room, accept its mixed abilities and be aware of other riders on the road and road surface. As well as all the usual stuff when riding on open roads.

Avatar
Polocini | 2 years ago
0 likes

As an event organiser I clicked on this wondering what stuff I don't tell people about. It seems to be that people can ride badly and don't always read websites. 

What I take an actual offence to is the following 'If none of that is important to you then, yeah, you could save a few quid by riding the route on your own.' 

If you want to ride the sportive and follow the arrows and be part of a mass participation event then pay the fee. If not ride the route another day with your pals. 

We once had an entire tri club pirate one of our rides and then come in at the finish and steal food. I've had people park in the event HQ I've hired and then have a go at me when I call them out for it.

I charged £25 for my rides when I started back in 2011 and if I run another event it'll be £25 max. I wouldn't consider paying more than that for a ride unless it was run for charity or by a local club. But what I wouldn't do is turn up and follow the arrows. 

Cheers

AL

 

 

Avatar
Polocini replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
0 likes

Nigel - we used to get loads of people following the arrows and then calling in at the end or the feed zone asking what's going on. Loads of locals will ride the route and we know that. But there are people who drive in, park on the street outside and ride the full event. They aren't breaking any rules but it's just bad form. The article that makes it seem acceptable to turn up and ride without paying.

AL

 

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
0 likes

Nigel Garrage wrote:

If you don't want others to be able to ride your route on the day, pay to shut the road. I've often been on a bike ride and randomly happened upon a sportive and followed it round for a bit - it isn't against the law you know, and it doesn't cause anyone harm.

But yeah nicking food and parking is just impolite and discourteous.

Don't you mean nicking food is criminal?

Avatar
quiff replied to Polocini | 2 years ago
3 likes

I don't think the article is suggesting you should gatecrash a sportive on the day (though I'm sorry to hear that happens), I read it as saying you could ride the same route another time for free. It says "sportives offer you the chance to ride a ride an organised route, perhaps in an unfamiliar area, with loads of other riders and support if anything goes wrong... If none of that is important to you then, yeah, you could save a few quid by riding the route on your own".   

Avatar
Steve K replied to quiff | 2 years ago
1 like

Yeah, same here - I read it as ride it on another day.

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to quiff | 2 years ago
0 likes

quiff wrote:

.. If none of that is important to you then, yeah, you could save a few quid by riding the route on your own".   

Indeed it wouldn't be 'on you own' on the same day as the sportive. Perhaps this could be clearer in the article.

Avatar
Awavey replied to wycombewheeler | 2 years ago
0 likes

I've ridden plenty of sportives and barely seen other riders on lots of them.

But I dont think its suggesting gate crash a ride to snag free food or benefits the entrants get, but how do you follow the route without signs to guide you round ?

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
0 likes

but how do you follow the route without signs to guide you round ?

Well most cyclists have a GPS device of some description. When I first started I would download them from other riders strava efforts so I knew where to ride and where cafe stops are. Easy enough to get the GPX from the official website or from a completed ride the next day. 

Avatar
EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
0 likes

Sportives were fantastic in my early years of cycling (2012 onwards).

It's a great feeling riding with hundreds or thousands of others, signs to stop you getting lost in an unfamiliar area...great atmospehere along the route and at feed stations and when you get to the end...yay!!.

Brighton was my first one, thoroughly enjoyed it though I've not seen a bigger range in fitness and abilities on any sportive since (not a criticism, just mention as you need to have eyes at the back of your head and not do anything stupid...plus unless you start early, it's impossible to ride up the hills as people just stop in front of you and walk). I'd happily do it again though. 

The only ones I've done in the last few years are the big ones like Ride London and Tour of Cambridgeshire - and it's not quite the same...just different (a lot more waiting at the start is the biggest pain).

I need to do some more. 

Next year without a doubt! 

Avatar
Shades | 2 years ago
0 likes

I just do my local Sportive with the start 5 min ride from my front door; usually run into a few people I know and there's a bit of a social afterwards.  The longer route gives me an excuse to get places I don't often get to.  The logistics for some other Sportives are just too much of a hassle, or sometimes a very early start.  Oh, and standby to meet some cyclists who take themselves WAY too seriously!  Nothing beats climbing past the person on the 5 grand Di2 carbon bike on your run-of-the-mill bike.

Avatar
dassie | 2 years ago
1 like

I gave up on sportives, in favour of DIY routes accessed by car/train/home, or occasional 100/200km Audax rides; riding solo or in small groups.  Fortunately I can generally be self-sufficient, for everything but a major mechanical.  Sportive 'closed road' sections attraction is really only necessary due to the often vast number of cyclists.  Sportives are often overpriced, I can source my own fuel, and don't need a medal category time either.  3 But each to their own...

Avatar
AidanR | 2 years ago
1 like

It makes perfect sense for sportives (and other events, e.g. triathlons) to be held on a Sunday morning, but as someone who doesn't have a car it can make getting to them impossible, as there often isn't a train running early enough.

Latest Comments