How do you get to sportives if you don't drive?

[1982john]

The majority of sportives start on Sundays however due to the unique way British transport is organised there is almost zero trains on a Sunday before 9am.

One of my goals this summer was to go to a sportive every month but it's very difficult if you don't drive. A regular sportive participant told me the only reason he drives is to get to sportives.

My options are bum a lift; book a B&B; camp close by or cycle there.

None of these is ideal

What does everyone else do in this situation?

[honesty]

not sportives but audaxes, still the same apply. I get the train, drive, or if near enough just cycle to the start. i'm lucky on the train side of things I think as I'm on a mainline and theres still trains every hour going up and down it.

[PH]

Audax rather than Sportive - I go up the day before, ride if possible, train if not, then stay over, camping or Travelodge (Or similar)
I can see that this might not be ideal for life reasons, it is ideal for the ride, get up, have breakfast and be on the start line shortly after, rather than having had to get up early and travel to get there.

due to the unique way British transport is organised there is almost zero trains on a Sunday before 9am.

What makes you think that's uniquely British? Don't you think other countries run reduced Sunday services?

[whoof]

I did an Audax yesterday but the start was reasonably close so I rode. I did one in April and rode there on Saturday night and camped, Sunday rode the Audax and then rode home. In may I drove and stayed in a hotel the night before.

As you have said the these are not ideal for you and there's no public transport to get you there on the day before the start you could try:

Public transport the night before and then after. Perhaps you have friends or relatives in the area you could stay with.
Befriend a sportive rider who drives and contribute to the petrol.
Only ride Sportives with starts nearby.
Expand Sportives to Audaxes which might give greater choice nearer home (especially if you include permanents).
If you want to do long bike rides make up you own routes.
If the thing you're after is riding in a group join a local club and go out on their club run.
if you want to do something competitive look at road races and time trials in your area.
Rather extreme but you could to somewhere where they have lots of Sportives.

[TrevA]

Also a quandary if you do drive. If doing an audax or sportive a long way away. Many start early so even if you drive on the day you have to get a up really early. I once did the Wild Wales Challenge which starts in Bala and drove over on the morning for a 9am start. Did the ride in 11 hours and then drove back. The next year, we stayed in a youth hostel nearby.

I was going to do a 300k audax that started at 6am in Gloucester. It's a 2 hour drive, so was looking at hotels nearby but you are looking at £70 a night. A B&B won't want to give you breakfast at 5.30am.

Camping is probably the cheapest option.

[PH]

I was going to do a 300k audax that started at 6am in Gloucester. It's a 2 hour drive, so was looking at hotels nearby but you are looking at £70 a night. A B&B won't want to give you breakfast at 5.30am.

Buddying up and getting a twin room halves the cost, Travelodges and the like are good for this, the rooms are usually big enough for each to still have their own bit of space and room for two bikes.
If you fancy doing that for any next year, PM me.

[Cyril Haearn]

Audax rather than Sportive - I go up the day before, ride if possible, train if not, then stay over, camping or Travelodge (Or similar)
I can see that this might not be ideal for life reasons, it is ideal for the ride, get up, have breakfast and be on the start line shortly after, rather than having had to get up early and travel to get there.

due to the unique way British transport is organised there is almost zero trains on a Sunday before 9am.

What makes you think that's uniquely British? Don't you think other countries run reduced Sunday services?

In Germany there are early trains on Sundays too, not so many as weekdays mind
Instead, when track or signals have to be renewed secondary lines are often closed completely for weeks, buses run instead, they may not take bikes, typically the journey takes one "Takt" longer (usually an hour). Each way
The main lines have two or four tracks and are rarely closed
There are some three-track sections too, not sure exactly how that works

[1982john]

Audax rather than Sportive - I go up the day before, ride if possible, train if not, then stay over, camping or Travelodge (Or similar)
I can see that this might not be ideal for life reasons, it is ideal for the ride, get up, have breakfast and be on the start line shortly after, rather than having had to get up early and travel to get there.

due to the unique way British transport is organised there is almost zero trains on a Sunday before 9am.

What makes you think that's uniquely British? Don't you think other countries run reduced Sunday services?

For some archaic reason, train staff are not required to work on Sundays, as such the only way you get Sunday trains is by paying overtime. This, I think, makes them uneconomical to run unless they are busy and hence they don't start early. And as they are private companies they don't seem to be under much pressure to be an actual useful public service.

For example, I live by Birmingham International (quite a big station!) and the first train to London is 8.40am. To me that is bonkers.

Is this the same in every country? Well, I did one check Lyon to Marseille and the first train is 7.20. So there you go.

[foxyrider]

I prefer to travel the day before where possible for anything over an hour away. I try to bum a lift as it's nigh on impossible to get to some comparatively close destinations without weird and expensive train journeys.

In the past i've ridden to events on the day - not ideal adding maybe 30km to a 200km event. Even a local event could be 15-20km to the start before a century and home after (I always ride the 'long' event, its not worth doing if you aren't stretched). I've flown and used coaches to get near to events, stayed with friends, conned relatives into doing the taxi bit and shelled out for hotels.

As much as anything it's logistics that restrict my participation to single digits when i'd happily ride every week if there was something suitable.i'm considering trying some organised foreign trips next year - it's as cheap to go to Italy as use public transport for an event in the UK!

[PH]

[
Is this the same in every country? Well, I did one check Lyon to Marseille and the first train is 7.20. So there you go.

I think there's some difference from saying it's not the same in every country to it being uniquely British. Though I haven't travelled anywhere which didn't have a reduced Sunday service and I doubt many of them would have transported you very far for the start time of a Sportive.

[landsurfer]

08.06 hrs on a Sunday from Sheffield ...

[Cyril Haearn]

[
Is this the same in every country? Well, I did one check Lyon to Marseille and the first train is 7.20. So there you go.

I think there's some difference from saying it's not the same in every country to it being uniquely British. Though I haven't travelled anywhere which didn't have a reduced Sunday service and I doubt many of them would have transported you very far for the start time of a Sportive.

I would like to support the LDOS, Lords Day Observance Society
It is better if as many people as possible do not work Sundays, including trian drivers

Anyone disagree?

[whoof]

[
Is this the same in every country? Well, I did one check Lyon to Marseille and the first train is 7.20. So there you go.

I think there's some difference from saying it's not the same in every country to it being uniquely British. Though I haven't travelled anywhere which didn't have a reduced Sunday service and I doubt many of them would have transported you very far for the start time of a Sportive.

I would like to support the LDOS, Lords Day Observance Society
It is better if as many people as possible do not work Sundays, including trian drivers

Anyone disagree?

Some people have different lord's days with different Sabbaths, many have neither.

[pete75]

Audax rather than Sportive - I go up the day before, ride if possible, train if not, then stay over, camping or Travelodge (Or similar)
I can see that this might not be ideal for life reasons, it is ideal for the ride, get up, have breakfast and be on the start line shortly after, rather than having had to get up early and travel to get there.

due to the unique way British transport is organised there is almost zero trains on a Sunday before 9am.

What makes you think that's uniquely British? Don't you think other countries run reduced Sunday services?

For some archaic reason, train staff are not required to work on Sundays, as such the only way you get Sunday trains is by paying overtime.

Quite right too.

[pete75]

Assuming teh OP means don't rather than can't drive why not hire a car. Not expensive for a day or two and likely cheaper than train and/or accommodation costs. Otherwise bike the day before and camp. It's the way folk used to do it. Even the likes of Ray Booty rode down from Nottingham with camping gear for the day before he did the his sub 4 hour 100 mile TT on the Bath Road course.