Are we witnessing the end of cycling sportives in the UK? Is gravel taking over? Join us for this week’s episode of Torque It Out where Dan & Triathlon Dan are discussing what the future of UK cycling events might look like and if we are seeing an end to the popularity of Sportives.
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7 Comments
You’ve explained ‘the spirit of gravel’
UK Road Sportive is dead, too risky for large companies now I think. For the first time in years I considered doing a Sportive yesterday, all those I’ve done in the past don’t exist anymore.
Your spot on its the cost accommodation if the events are far away it really becomes expensive I used to ride the wiggle and cycling weekly sportives between 2014-2024, and to be honest, you need a gravel bike for the roads their appalling surface plus I feel much safer away from the roads on gravel now, lucky I'm in the South Wales forests to ride. Great content as usual.
What about Audax. You get a GPX route to follow, a group to ride with and it costs between £5 and £10. There are plenty of them spread around the country, so always one’s local to you and you can ride one every week if you want and are prepared to travel a bit. I’ve ridden loads of them, mostly 100k’s, but a few 200k’s as well.
We still have quite a few sportives in Scotland – I think a big appeal for these is closed roads for the event with lots of other cyclists – I'd love to do a few of them but I don't drive so the overall cost of doing them is restrictive (and even getting there can be tough as the trains only allow a certain number of bikes).
I think you're spot on about road safety, notable increases in accidents in recent years. Also, the conditions of most roads in the UK means most roadies are basically doing gravel anyway
I can't be doing with paying to ride on sportives that are on open roads I can ride on anyway for free… especially in The Peak District.
Be interested to know your thoughts on time trialling.