Thinking about a new race format

Simon Brooke said:

I'm just in the final stages of getting ready for one of the events I run
each year, the 7/24, which is a 400Km event (for legal/insurance reasons a
reliability ride not a race) which includes both road and technical

Sounds great!
"The Hell of the South-West"

Simon Brooke said:

I'm just in the final stages of getting ready for one of the events I run
each year, the 7/24, which is a 400Km event (for legal/insurance reasons a
reliability ride not a race) which includes both road and technical
mountain bike stages, and is run as a relay by teams of four riders, so
each team only has one rider on the course at any one time. This is quite
fun and quite exciting, but I've been thinking of a different event
format...

We have in this region a lot of unmetalled roads, many of them forestry
roads, many of them over very lumpy hills. It would be easy to put
together a course for a day race of anywhere between 100 and 200 (or even
more) Km with about half on tarmac and half on unmetalled road. On such a
route you could use 'road bike' tactics - teams, a peloton, breakaways,
support cars - without nearly so much of an issue about road closures as
you get using the public roads.

This would be sort of Paris-Roubaix like, except the unmetalled sections
are more dirt than cobbles, and would be a lot longer (and with much
bigger climbs) than Paris-Roubaix. I doubt you could run road bikes on
this - or at least, of course you could run road bikes, but you'd have
equipment failures, and I think a team using cross bikes would outcompete
an equally talented team riding road bikes.

So: event format: one-day, classic-style, under road-racing rules, possibly
with start and finish in the same place, long unmetalled sections with
some severe climbs (and some really fast descents), no main roads, rolling
road closure when on tarmac, unmetalled sections closed to other traffic,
probably 120Km the first year, either longer or shorter in subsequent
years depending on how the teams feel about it. Obviously (at least at
first) this would be for amateur club teams. Do you think it would attract
riders? Would you want to ride it?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke)http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; have mercy on the slender grass

Sounds somewhat like the Birkebeinerrittet in Norway. It's actually a
91km mountain bike race, but it's so non-technical that there are
plenty of folks who ride with stiff forks. A road bike wouldn't work
because of a few rough sections, but 90%+ of the race is on paved or
dirt roads. If they got rid of the few short rough sections it could
be done on road/cross bikes. There are 12,000 participants so they
start in waves, but you still get all the tactics of road racing with
drafting, breaks, etc. particularly because it starts out on a long
climb up to a long flat wind-blown plateau where it pays to have help.
So you get climbers trying to distance everyone on the climbs, and the
others working together to catch them over the top.

If Norway can scrounge up 12,000 riders (it sells out in less than 1
hour) to ride this ride, I'm sure you'd get more than enough for you
proposed race.

I'd want to ride it.

Joseph

Simon Brooke said:

So: event format: one-day, classic-style, under road-racing rules,
possibly with start and finish in the same place, long unmetalled
sections with some severe climbs (and some really fast descents), no
main roads, rolling road closure when on tarmac, unmetalled sections
closed to other traffic, probably 120Km the first year, either longer or
shorter in subsequent years depending on how the teams feel about it.
Obviously (at least at first) this would be for amateur club teams. Do
you think it would attract riders? Would you want to ride it?

Just the sort of thing I would have liked to have done, before lard and
anno domini caught up with me.

--
Regards
Alex
The From address above is a spam-trap.
The Reply-To address is valid

Simon Brooke said:

Do you think it would attract
riders? Would you want to ride it?

dumbass,

yes, this would be an instant classic. as i mentioned in anohter
thread amateurs want interesting and/or epic events.

this event will probably not attract the "fun ride" crowd though.

Simon Brooke said:

I'm just in the final stages of getting ready for one of the events I run
each year, the 7/24, which is a 400Km event (for legal/insurance reasons a
reliability ride not a race) which includes both road and technical
mountain bike stages, and is run as a relay by teams of four riders, so
each team only has one rider on the course at any one time. This is quite
fun and quite exciting, but I've been thinking of a different event
format...

We have in this region a lot of unmetalled roads, many of them forestry
roads, many of them over very lumpy hills. It would be easy to put
together a course for a day race of anywhere between 100 and 200 (or even
more) Km with about half on tarmac and half on unmetalled road. On such a
route you could use 'road bike' tactics - teams, a peloton, breakaways,
support cars - without nearly so much of an issue about road closures as
you get using the public roads.

This would be sort of Paris-Roubaix like, except the unmetalled sections
are more dirt than cobbles, and would be a lot longer (and with much
bigger climbs) than Paris-Roubaix. I doubt you could run road bikes on
this - or at least, of course you could run road bikes, but you'd have
equipment failures, and I think a team using cross bikes would outcompete
an equally talented team riding road bikes.

So: event format: one-day, classic-style, under road-racing rules, possibly
with start and finish in the same place, long unmetalled sections with
some severe climbs (and some really fast descents), no main roads, rolling
road closure when on tarmac, unmetalled sections closed to other traffic,
probably 120Km the first year, either longer or shorter in subsequent
years depending on how the teams feel about it. Obviously (at least at
first) this would be for amateur club teams. Do you think it would attract
riders? Would you want to ride it?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke)http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; have mercy on the slender grass

I have a heavy cross bias, so this new event idea sounds very
appealing to me. You might want to check out the Three Peaks
cyclocross race to see how they do things. Are there other marathon
cross races in the UK or is Three Peaks unique? They've obviously
built a very strong following. If I ever vacation in the UK it will be
to ride that race or to drink some bitter, maybe both.

http://www.3peakscyclocross.org.uk/

Bret

in message <[email hidden]>, Bret

(') said:

Simon Brooke said:

So: event format: one-day, classic-style, under road-racing rules,
possibly with start and finish in the same place, long unmetalled
sections with some severe climbs (and some really fast descents), no
main roads, rolling road closure when on tarmac, unmetalled sections
closed to other traffic, probably 120Km the first year, either longer or
shorter in subsequent years depending on how the teams feel about it.
Obviously (at least at first) this would be for amateur club teams. Do
you think it would attract riders? Would you want to ride it?

I have a heavy cross bias, so this new event idea sounds very
appealing to me. You might want to check out the Three Peaks
cyclocross race to see how they do things. Are there other marathon
cross races in the UK or is Three Peaks unique? They've obviously
built a very strong following. If I ever vacation in the UK it will be
to ride that race or to drink some bitter, maybe both.

The Three Peaks is definitely the big one. Most other marathon events in
the UK these days are mountain bike oriented.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message Would you want to
ride it?

Funnily enough I've had the same thought whilst doing long rides this spring
training for the Fred.

Scottish Road racing fields nowadays average 30 odd starters at best -
racing on those roads would put folk off due to the need for rebuilding
wheels and your fields would be tiny
Cyclo sportifs are the way to go - got into this years Fred again, all 800
places filled within the hour, ditto the bealach - a sportive makes it a
challenge for any cyclist
(look at the 3 peaks, yours truly was entered) run it as a unique Cyclo
Cross cyclo sportive, start and finish at the same venue next to a campsite
and major town such as Newton Stewart, possibly a long and short route to
attract all comers, make it self sufficient, maybe allow MTB's (perhaps two
classes, cyclo cross, road bikes and MTB)_ heck yes, I'd ride as would I
suspect a few 100 others if you advertise on the cyclosport, roadcycling
websites

Och well, better hose my bike down having ridden the coast to coast in 3
days of pi**ing rain - and straight after that load up the car and go an
marshal the Ae checkpoint for your darn 7/24 ride Simon

Andrew said:

Funnily enough I've had the same thought whilst doing long rides this spring
training for the Fred.

Training for the Fred ? Some people around here are natural freds, they
hardly have to train.

in message <[email hidden]>, Andrew

(') said:

Och well, better hose my bike down having ridden the coast to coast in 3
days of pi**ing rain - and straight after that load up the car and go an
marshal the Ae checkpoint for your darn 7/24 ride Simon

I wanted to say - thanks for taking the edge off those midges' hunger
before we turned up...

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

' ' <------- this blank intentionally spaced left