Cycling UK Forum

rareposter wrote:

FasterFerret wrote:And was put off by:

The many memories of being kept awake at night by people snoring on various camping trips
The unnecessary 5:30 wake-up calls - even my longest day didn't need me to get out of bed that early. On your own faff is kept to a minimum, you are on your own schedule not someone else's
The thought of being constantly damp/never quite dry - I got a few good soakings, but never had a problem with getting my kit dry overnight in a B&B. I don't think that's a problem unique to RAB, anyone who camps has to face the same issue. I don't mind it for a weekend, but when the route is challenging enough in itself it is something that I would rather not deal with.

The 5.30am thing is just something you have to accept and to be fair, everyone knows about it in advance. There were plenty of people on the ride who would leave at 7am and be in base camp by 2.30pm each day. You could argue that they probably didn't need to leave at 7, they could have had a long lie in and left at 10am but then that brings it's own problems with the wider ride logistics like broom wagon, mechanical support, how long each camp is "active" for before breakfast gets stopped and the crew move on to the next basecamp...
Equally there were plenty of people who would leave at 7 and take literally all day to get to the next basecamp and they required the full support of the broom wagon and chaperones. That's why it's all done within "windows" of activity - you've got to look at the overall picture.

Yep, fully understand. That's definitely something that you are signing up for and of course, there are a lot of moving parts to manage - ultimate flexibility can't be offered or expected. Nothing wrong with it per se, just not my cup of tea, so was one of the things that contributed me not choosing to go that way and to do my own thing.

rareposter wrote:
As you say though, some people like (and need) that, some people can put up with it and some folk would hate it!

So I guess that I am firmly in the latter category!

As I keep saying, the people I know and others that I have spoken to who have done RAB enjoyed it, and having ridden much of the route, albeit in reverse (and including the Lect and Glenshee in one day and all the way down to Edinburgh), I know that it is a good route.

But there were a few too many things that put me off, no great loss to RAB and no great loss to me.

Thread bump:
If it makes any difference to anyone, the 2019 ride starts this Saturday (7th) from LE and finishes on Sunday 15th. You may wish to avoid bits of the route if you're on it, know people who'll be driving on it or whatever. Or you may wish to go out and see them pass through.

But anyway - there it is. I think there's enough in the previous 7 pages for people to make their mind up as to whether it's a good thing or bad thing, they like it or hate it or whatever, I'm just flagging up that it's on again.

Oh dear!

https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/protest-at-john-ogroats-over-lack-of-respect-from-deloitte-organisers-and-cyclists-182757/

A thousand cyclist? That's a bit much for any community, maybe the organisers should cut back the numbers in order to present a more welcoming stance.

Not my cuppa tea.

However the prices in the tea shop aren't cheap not that RAB cyclists cannot afford it!

Cheers James

It refers to "charity" - I'd be interested in the honest answer as to how much is actually raised. It's, of course, impossible to know with any cretainty but I would suggest it's short of the claims with a lot of riders just treating as an expensive multi-day sportive.

The mind boggles at 1,000 riders at JOG with the necessary buses and trucks to get them away after the finish - the whole place is tiny.

Rob

charliepolecat wrote:A thousand cyclist? That's a bit much for any community, maybe the organisers should cut back the numbers in order to present a more welcoming stance.

It isn't 1000. They like to claim 1000 and they do the usual marketing thing of saying "limited places left, sign up now!" to try to persuade people that it's sellling out rapidly but it's actually about 750-ish and ultimately what happens is people drop out in the run up to it (illness, injury, family reaosns etc which is easy to understand given that you're signing up to something nearly a year in advance and anything can happen in that time) ad then people drop out en route - again, illness, injury, accidents, simply not being as prepared as they thought...

They do sell separate "legs" of it so you can either do the England Stage (LE up to Carlisle, 5 days) or the Scotland Stage (Carlisle to JOG, 4 days) so there's some people who go home and then some new ones who join in but I'd say it's rarely more than 700 actual cyclists who arrive at JOG. There's a bunch of coaches departing every 30 mins or so for Inverness from about 1pm (fastest riders will be at JOG by about 12.30pm, slowest arriving about 5pm usually).

So the limited crew that actually go to JOG (finish line, a scattering of showers and toilets and a few marshals) will be there from about 9am setting up. There's the (admittedly quite chaotic) scenes of dozens of riders queuing for the signpost photo and then packing bikes in the car park but it's all reasonably well contained. I've been sat down at the harbour and had the place to myself while 50m away there's dozens of riders all jostling for a signpost. The traffic is the worst aspect of it. Coaches coming and going, loads of taxis picking people up, some riders have family / friends etc meet them there. On the face of it, closing the cafe seems insane; they could make an absolute fortune running a basic menu and decent filter coffee although I admit there's the issue of people using the cafe to hide indoors if the weather is inclement.

The problem with the cafe's post was that, although they were actually quite calm about the whole thing, it did of course bring out the usual mouthbreathers threatening tacks in the road, blockades, protests and so on. They could just have quietly closed their doors and taken up their issues directly with the organisers rather than posting on Facebook. There is another background to it in that Deloitte (the sponsors of RAB) were the administrators brought in when Caithness Glass in Wick was put into receivership and CG employed a lot of people locally so there's bad feeling there that Deloitte were responsible for screwing all the employees over.

Oldjohnw wrote:Oh dear!

https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/protest-at-john-ogroats-over-lack-of-respect-from-deloitte-organisers-and-cyclists-182757/

I can't open this link.
I refuse to disable my advert blocker.

Here it is:

ORGANISERS of the annual Deloitte cycle ride have apologised for the lack of respect shown at John O'Groats during the completion of previous events.

The apology follows the recent decision by two local busniesses – Stacks Coffee House and Bistro, and Flavours, the ice cream and confectionery shop – to close their doors this weekend when the event is due to finish at the end-of-the-road site in protest at Deloitte's previous use of the facilities.

Complaints were made about the "consistently aggressive and rude attitude" of management and security staff, as well as litter left behind every year by some of those involved in the 980-mile charity cycle challenge which is due to conclude in John O'Groats on Sunday.

More than 1000 cyclists set off from Land's End on Saturday, September 7, on the Deloitte Ride Across Britain cycling challenge.

The end-to-end route is made up of nine stages over as many days and sees cyclists ride over 100 miles each day.
Deloitte Ride Across Britain cyclists celebrate after one of the events.
Deloitte Ride Across Britain cyclists celebrate after one of the events.

Karen Hannaford, head of event organiser Threshold Event Operations, said: "Threshold apologises profusely and we are ensuring all riders and crew members are briefed thoroughly about not leaving litter, and being respectful to the local area and community."

Threshold has contacted Stacks and will speak to Teresa Wymer, one of the owners, after this year's event is finished so that she can talk through the issues and work on a solution for next year.

Ms Hannaford said: "Although we will still be using the car park for coaches, we will try to move the bike packing and bike packing vehicles round the back. However, we cannot promise this at this stage. We have also offered to pay for all use of the car park."

In a post on Facebook, Stacks owners Teresa and Rebecca Wymer have put up a notice about their protest and planned closure – in unison with Flavours – and the reasons behind it.

They stated: "The charity aspect of this event is admirable, however the general lack of respect towards our little town and its community during finishing day has forced us to take action.

"After years of feeding this back to Deloitte it has fallen on deaf ears."

As well as the "consistently aggressive and rude attitude of management and security staff" and littering, the business owners point out that the complete takeover of the car park blocks access for "loyal locals" and visitors.

They also state: "Three years running event partakers have used local businesses as bus waiting rooms. We wouldn’t mind this, of course, if they were to put back into our economy.

"However, here at Stacks we have seen time and time again, cyclists buying one bottle of water between several customers and then taking out their own snacks and food to eat – using our supplies and space. Obviously, this does not apply to all, but unfortunately in our case the majority."

They conclude: "This has all been relayed to Deloitte every year we have been trading – yet no change has come about. Therefore, we will be shut on September 15.

"We wish them the very best of luck with their cycle and live in hope that Deloitte decide to change their attitude."

On Sunday the cyclists will set off on the last leg of their journey which will take them from the Kyle of Sutherland up to Lairg, through Strathnaver and on to Bettyhill and Thurso as they make their way to John O'Groats.

The 2020 event has just been cancelled due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Mick f will be pleased!

Bumping the thread to advise (or "warn" if you want to look at it that way...) that the event is running 4th - 12th September, LEJOG direction.

Stage info here:
https://www.rideacrossbritain.com/route/daily-stages/

I'm sure someone will be along to say that it should go here or shouldn't go there but whatever...

You may wish to avoid bits of the route if you're on it, know people who'll be driving on it or whatever. Or you may wish to go out and see them pass through.

As an aside, the Tour of Britain is actually doing a broadly similar trip upcountry over the same week
https://www.tourofbritain.co.uk/stages/

Again, posted so folk can either go out and watch or avoid all the disruption!

Thanks for the forewarning I’m going to be in the area of stage 8 that week. I’ll be staying clear.

I see it is going right through the centre of Bath, so that is going to be ... interesting. How many riders do there tend to be, and how many vehicles driving along in front and behind? Those roads will be very busy with pedestrians, so I may go to watch, just for the fascination. As it is almost at the end of the ride, I assume it will be mid afternoon, 3-4ish?

As it happens, the next week I will be up in north Wales, just in time it seems for the Tour of Britain to arrive there.

Jon Lucas wrote: ↑26 Aug 2021, 5:13am I see it is going right through the centre of Bath, so that is going to be ... interesting. How many riders do there tend to be, and how many vehicles driving along in front and behind? Those roads will be very busy with pedestrians, so I may go to watch, just for the fascination. As it is almost at the end of the ride, I assume it will be mid afternoon, 3-4ish?

As it happens, the next week I will be up in north Wales, just in time it seems for the Tour of Britain to arrive there.

Normally the ride finishes at Bath campus but Covid restrictions mean the uni is not hiring out the campus at the moment. So they had to find a campsite nearby which, entertainingly, means climbing Bannerdown last thing in the day. That might actually be preferable to the normal route of climbing it first thing on a Monday morning when it's busy with traffic and the ride is still very bunched up.

By the time it comes through Bath it'll be very strung out. Guessing first riders through will be 2.30pm or so, last ones probably 6ish. Very few vehicles. Couple of mechanic cars floating around, not a lot else.