gairym wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 9:43 am
I suppose what I meant by the racers 'taking over' is that I always thought of it as everything for everyone but now it turns out that all the events have been snaffled up by the self-supported crowd and the idea of being non-competitive is the new kid on the block that needs to establish itself.
I don't think the racers have 'taken over' the events, certainly not the ones I've done, they always were races.
HT550, set up by Alan as a race
Dales Divide, set up by Chris as a race
B150, set up by Ben as a race
When you email to put your name down you go on the mailing list and in the emails you get will be the 'rules' which by starting you agree to abide by, so if you break them you're cheating. If you want to ride the route and not stick to the rules then simply don't sign up for the race. As I said about the HT550, there's loads of people riding the route and not racing, but they don't get any coverage so people don't realise how many there are. I met 3 german lads who'd come over to ride it, they were having a great time.
For balance, if an event is not a race I make a point of not racing. There is a local charity event on the Island which crosses the Island twice, so about 54 miles. The Doctor who organisies it lives about half way across and there is a checkpoint at his house with food laid on. Every year I stop for ages at the checkpoint, in both directions, and as I'm usually one of the last through on the return leg and there's loads of food left he usually makes me eat at least 3 slices of cake to try and use it up
I usually roll in to the finish as one of the last riders with a couple of mates. Some people treat it as a 'race' as it's timed but that's mainly to check everyone has finished, as it's not a race it doesn't bother me how fast they go, it just leaves more cake left for me an my mates to consume