Photos.
MTB are now online, Sportive coming soon. Click here
Rider Times
Thanks to everyone who braved the cold conditions and joined us at the Nottingham Ride It! event. You can download your ride times using the links below -
Update 1/11/12
Well, that was a nicer day than I was expecting!!! It was a bit cloudy but stayed dry and the sun even tried to show it’s face towards the end.
I went out to put up most of the Short road route today and there are some lovely sections, especially through the tree lined roads through Clumber Park.
The boys are putting out the MTB tomorrow so I’ll let you know how they got on. It’s been raining so expect some mud! Saying that, quite a lot of the route is on good surfaces so it might be wet but it should be ride-able 
INFORMATION FOR THE WEEKEND – IMPORTANT.
PARKING
There are a few spaces in the centre and a few more behind, once these are full then we have a huge field next door. This has been used for a fair a couple of weeks ago so the centre is a bit churned up. The edges are fine though so please drive and park around these. I will be standing on the corner directing you into the field so please be expecting me and do not turn up the road towards the event centre if you see me. THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to note is you MUST NOT PARK on the road directly outside the event centre or in front of the houses just past it. The home owners will get pretty annoyed and probably come out and confront you!!
Please BRING YOUR HELMET TO REGISTRATION
MTB ride.
There is another ride in the area on Sunday. They will be putting up their signs on Saturday and unfortunately there are the same colour as ours although a different design. Please make sure you get to know the design of our signs and do not follow any other signs that you see out there!
It’s not a race! Please give way to other trail users, walkers, horse riders etc. If you come across a Horse, please let the rider know you are there in plenty of time and follow their instructions. Remember, if you spook the horse it might hurt you or other people and you are responsible for you actions and the consequences!!
Sportive
The only things to mention on the road ride is that there is a ford towards the start which was in full flow today and also a small road closure where they are repairing a waste pipe. At both of these points there are footpaths to by-pass them, so please walk your bike.
This is not a race!! Please obey the highway code, stop at junctions and only ride two abreast where it is safe to do so – not on main roads or winding country lanes where cars travelling at speed will not be able to see you and stop!!!! If you cause and accident, you are responsible for the consequences and any costs.
Maps – I will post up maps for both days by tomorrow night. These are for info only and you will get a hard copy at registration.
MTB map can be viewed here ( Provisional until tonight)
Sportive map can be viewed here
GPX files – everyone who has pre-entered will have received a pre-event mail that has links to the GPX files and a guide to show you have to view them interactively. If you have not received this by 7pm tonight please check your junk folder or any other email addresses you might have used in the past. If it’s still not there, email dean.stacey@evanscycles.com and I’ll check your entry and send the link. If you have not pre-entered then you can down load the files from our computers in the morning, please don’t email me asking for them
See you all there!
Dean
Dean
Afternoon,
Are there still spaces on the ride it event on saturday at sherwood? I just tried to book on it but it says the product is no longer available.
Thanks
Rob
HI Rob
Places still available, it’s only the pre-entries that have closed down.
Ta
Dean
Hi Dean
I’m planning on entering the Sportive on Sunday, depending on the route but cannot see the GPX file anywhere. Is it (or will it be soon) available?
Thanks
Hi Lawrence
If you have not pre-entered then the gpx files can downloaded from our computers on the morning. There are now copies of the map available so you can see where we go, click on the map links in the text above.
Ta
Dean
Thanks Dean See you on Sunday
Lawrence
Many thanks to all at Nottingham today, A well organised and brilliant day. martin (fenland)
Cheers Dean & Crew for making today so enjoyable. The route through Clumber Park was absolutely gorgeous.
Geez, I know it wasn’t a race, but it would be nice to see the rider times organised by distance and time – they’re not much use otherwise as we all know our own individual times.
Hi Richard,
What use are they anyway? As you say, it’s not a race so comparing your times with other people who weren’t racing is a bit pointless. If Bradley Wiggins attended, had a nice ride, a few punctures, helped out a fellow rider, stopped and had a drink at the drink stations, you’d probably got a faster time than him. Is that a fair comparison, are those riders who rode around as fast as they can really faster than him?
We provide times as not everyone has the facility to time themselves, and it’s nice to be able to give riders a time for the ride. It also helps us know roughly how many riders are out on the ride and when they are due back. In an ideal world we wouldn’t time a non-competative event, but riders like this facility.
Sportives are not races and putting riders in distance and time order so you can compare times is basically encouraging riders to race and get better times. As we are not organising a race we do not have the insurance or permission to hold one and therefore do everything we can to discourage racing. If there is an accident due to a rider not obeying the highway code as he was racing, we have to justify to our insurrers that we weren’t encouraging this, hence the non competative format of our rider times.
Dean
Inspired by Sunday’s ride (only my second Sportive) I signed up for Ironman Wales (September 2013) and will be in need of a new bike. I know where I won’t be coming for that if this is the attitude of Evans Cycles.
Hi Richard.
Sorry you saw my reply as “attitude” I was just trying to explain why we don’t publish times in distance or time order.
We get people asking for times in time order and frankly getting upset when we don’t. I have heard about Sportive riders arguing with Police, who closed a road due to an accident, that they needed to come through as it would effect their times. So you can hopefully see that this is an emotive issue for us. If a time and position is important and the reason for some one to enter a ride, then they should be entering a race, not a sportive.
Dean
Dean, I may have got this discussion off on the wrong foot by starting with “Geez” which is my bad, that said, I don’t see why asking for the data in a different order requires a 3 paragraph essay on why the customer is wrong to even ask for it. From the outset I acknowledged it wasn’t a race and didn’t ride it as such either – I’m not capable of doing so. I’m 50 lbs overweight, I set off on my own and finished on my own – quite literally because when I crossed the finish line in the rain there was nobody there to tell me my time (I wasn’t even sure my time had been officially clocked). At the previous sportive I did 3 weeks ago they cheered in all the riders and gave me a print out and told me where I finished relative to other people. So whilst I understand the concerns you have about the dangers of people racing, I don’t understand why it’s such a bad thing to ask for the data after the fact. Regardless, your assumption that I want this data for racing purposes is presumptuous and incorrect. The only thing this discussion has proved is that Evans Cycles have an attitude that they can read their customers minds, and they know they are right and the customer is wrong – end of. Which makes me more than a little nervous about making a big ticket purchase from Evans. Bottom line is, I’ll cut-and-paste the data from the PDF in to a CSV and ask my staff to sort it and order it the way I want it. It’ll take me 30 mins or so, but I suspect that will be quicker than continuing this discussion and my staff won’t have an attitude of superiority when they’re doing it. Thank you.
As this was my 1st sportive type experience, I was just pleased to make it to the finish! Thanks to everyone @ Evans, you couldn’t have been more friendly, welcoming and helpful. See you next year without a doubt!
Dean,
Many thanks for the times you published, I accidently turned off my Garmin 800, so I never really knew my time, but I did stop for seven or so minutes at the drink station and had a good chat to your official there about my voodoo bike.
So to minus the seven mins from the time you gave me really helped for my training strategy for this year.
Keep up the good work.
PS I am looking for a new bike next year, 99% coming to Evans.
dean,
are there any photos from the saturday ride?
Hi Martin.
There are, please follow the link at the top of this post.
Ta
Dean
many thanks dean. see you at the next one.
I rode in the Sunday event and thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you to the organisers it was a great event and I will definately be signing up for another
Hi, bit late but just wanted to say i really enjoyed the Notts XC event on Saturday. I found the organisers & Evans staff really friendly despite a few upset locals & the odd competitor who can’t read the instructions! despite me living in Notts you found some stuff I hadn’t used before,good route
cheers! Will
I thought it was a great event, fab scenery most of the way round, especially through Clumber Park, and my friend (whose first sportive it was) really enjoyed it too. If only you could let me have the recipe for the fruitcake at the drinks station, that would make it perfect….!
Many thanks to all at Evans for a well planned and friendly Sportive. I thought the signage was particularly good. Dean, for what it’s worth, I have done quite a few sportives and none of them provided results in time order for the reasons that you elequently explained. Any organiser would have difficulty in proving that their sportive was not a race (which would be illegal and uninsurable) if they did.
Keep up the good work
You fell for all that nonsense? I might not have much sportive experience, but I know what I’m talking about when it comes to collating and analysing data and I can spot a mile away when no care or attention has been given to how the data is presented. I don’t doubt that they don’t wish to encourage racing, but dumping out the results in number order when nobody had a “race number” makes it more difficult to read and smacks of laziness. If any care or consideration had been given the results would be in alphabetical order. Those three paragraphs of “eloquent” nonsense above were written to disguise the fact that somebody was too lazy or inept to spend 30 seconds considering the end user and to put down anybody who dared to question this laziness.
Hi Richard.
I think you are over reacting a bit here. I didn’t “put down anybody” and I didn’t tell anyone that “Evans were right and the customer was wrong” I answered your comment, which started with “Geez” with an explanation about why we publish the times like we do. I could have just said ” Well that’s just how we do it” and left it like that, but I feel that an explanation is better. Perhaps I was a bit heavy handed, but for all the reasons above.
I’m sure you know what you are talking about when it comes to anaysing data, but we have to pick a format to present these times in and we choose chip number. It’s not laziness as to present them in any other order, be it alphabetical, sequencial on start times, finish times, overall times etc is basically the tick of a box. So it’s just as much work to tick ”chip number” as it is any other box. This might mean that riders have to scroll down to look for their name, but most remember their rider number and the initial bulk of the list is also alphabetical as this is how we sort riders for registration.
Richard, you don’t know me so I trust me when I say that I don’t write nonsense, I’m not inept and I’m certainly not lazy. I try to be honest and take the time to answer peoples questions and issues as well as I can, hence the long dialogue here. If we have genuinely done something wrong or there is an area we can inprove on, I admit to this and accept the comments from riders/customers .
Thanks
Dean
Fair enough, Dean. I apologise. You’re right, I probably have over-reacted a little and part of my annoyance / negative perception of Evans is almost certainly due to what happened on Sunday and not entirely due to your replies – which just tipped things too far for me (and why I started with my exasperated “geez”). Like I said earlier that was my bad. Apologies to anybody else who is annoyed reading these comments and enjoyed their experience on Sunday.
Thank you to all at Evans for a great event. This was my first sportive and I really enjoyed it, despite forgetting my over shoes…my feet are only just warming back up.
I’m looking forward to the next one, when hopefully I’ll be a bit better prepared
There are many other people reading and I for one am getting a bit fed up with the childish argument that is ongoing.
Come on guys put it to bed and be men about the situation. (99.9% of people enjoyed the experience)
Thanks again Dean and all at Evans for a great day.
Exactly, well said. Let’s turn to more important things like..that cake recipe please?!
We’d like to take credit for the cake, but it’s bought from a wholesaler ( it was fun trying to find a nice cake
)
Excellent MTB ride Saturday, evens staff very helpful.
Ps my time was a little different compared to my garmin time by 3 minutes any reason or is my garmin playing up.
Many thanks to all Evans staff
see you again !
Hi Sam.
Three miutes isn’t too bad. We had some timing issues on Saturday which meant we weren’t fully electronic and this is probably where any time difference is lost/gained.
Ta
Dean
Great event Dean, as a regular, I think that the format, rider times (simples to drop into excel) and particularly the chilli, are all top notch.
See you at the next Evans event !