Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Charity ride...minus the charity?

Hi everyone,

I've recently discovered the joys of long distance riding (for me, long distance is only 30-40 miles). I normally ride solo, so the whole dynamic of drafting and pulling and getting laughed at by real roadies is still pretty foreign to me. However, after doing a couple of charity rides with my co-workers earlier this month, I found I really enjoyed riding with others that are near my level (beginner, obviously). Not only is it nice to chat with like minded folks, but there's also that element of trying to push myself to compete (in a friendly way) with other cyclists.

Anyhoo, there's another charity ride coming up in a couple weeks, but you need to raise $250. I pretty much got all the money out of my co-workers, family, and friends that I'm going to get from the previous rides, so I was considering just joining this ride as an independent rider. Has anyone done this? I mean, it's a free road, anyone can ride it, I just feel a little weird about it for some reason. Any thoughts on this?

Hmmm, please forgive the incoherent rambling, it's late and I just don't know an elegant way to ask this silly question :o

don't do it. Try to find a no-drop ride locally through a club or a bike shop. I saw a no-drop ride near me that had a lot of beginners.

agreed ... don't do it. People work hard to put on these rides; organizations donate food etc.; the money, well hopefully most of the money, goes to a good cause ... everyone else out there has either raised the money or chipped in themselves -- do you want to pretend that you're part of it ?

Welcome to the sport and glad your having so much fun out there. Keep it up!

Here's another vote for don't do it. Yes, it's a free road, a free country and all that. But just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. It's a matter of respect for those who worked hard to organize the event and those who made the committment to raise funds for a charitable organization to do the ride.

I concur, look around for some club rides.

While I heartily encourage people to do charity rides, you do have to keep in mind that as you're finding, a little bit of "fund-raising fatigue" can set in. I would give your friends a break for awhile.

Another option is to volunteer for the ride or the organization. I don't know the specifics, but you may be able to help them with the set up or clean up, for example, in exchange for doing the ride.

Riding a charity ride w/o raising the funds or any other organized ride w/o paying the entry fee is called "banditing". That implies that aside from riding the route, you're stealing the free food/water/support provided along the way, too; it's considered very poor form.

If the route is a good one, then get a route sheet from someone and do the ride solo at a later date. I keep a collection of route sheets from all the rides I've done, and I typically grab one from each course distance regardless of which one I'm riding. That way, if I rode the century for a ride, I can come back and do the metric or half another day.

Thanks for the input, what all of you have said makes a lot of sense. I'm either not going to do it, or I will just pay my own way. It's the Livestrong challenge in San Jose, CA, and if I join it will be my first century. At the very least, per Clifton's suggestion, they give a description of the route on the website and I'll do it at a later date.

Pchopper, fyi, the Bay Area has a lot of organized centuries every year (http://www.velogirls.com/resources/centuries.php) where you just pay an entry fee of $40 - $75 rather than raising a certain amount of money for charity. Some good ones happening in August include the Marin Century and the Tour de Napa, which will both attract thousands of riders of all levels.

If you decide you like long-distance riding, you should also check out the Santa Cruz Randonneurs (http://www.santacruzrandonneurs.org/) and the San Francisco Randonneurs (http://www.sfrandonneurs.org), both of whom put on roughly a half-dozen organized rides known as brevets each year, none of which costs more than $20 or so. Most of them happen in the spring/early summer, but I am pretty sure the SF Randonneurs will be putting on a 200K (125 miles) in the fall.

Finally, check the NorCal section of Bikeforums. People are always organizing informal long rides in the Bay Area there, and they're a very welcoming bunch.

It's the Livestrong challenge in San Jose, CA, and if I join it will be my first century.

Maybe it's just me, but to "steal" a ride from such a cycling-related charity just feels even more wrong than banditing on a regular ride. A lot of time and money goes into securing the permits and support - police at intersections, etc., that you should either raise the money or ride it another day. Don't mess with Lance.

Another vote for "don't do it" ... and my reason has to do with insurance and licences etc.

The cycling organization will have put in an application with the state/province/county or whatever to hold an event that will put a certain number of cyclists on the road, thus potentially clogging up the road, and will have received an approval to do so. The cycling organization may have also paid for that application.

One other rider is probably not going to make much difference, but what if a lot of other riders had the same idea?

And then the cycling organization putting the event on will have acquired insurance so that if something happened to a rider on their event, and that rider attempted to sue them or if they were just required to pay for some of the rider's medical expenses or something, they would be covered. But what happens if a rider who is not with the event causes or is involved in the incident?

These are some of the things which go on in the background of events like that.

Pchopper, fyi, the Bay Area has a lot of organized centuries every year (http://www.velogirls.com/resources/centuries.php) where you just pay an entry fee of $40 - $75 rather than raising a certain amount of money for charity. Some good ones happening in August include the Marin Century and the Tour de Napa, which will both attract thousands of riders of all levels.

If you decide you like long-distance riding, you should also check out the Santa Cruz Randonneurs (http://www.santacruzrandonneurs.org/) and the San Francisco Randonneurs (http://www.sfrandonneurs.org), both of whom put on roughly a half-dozen organized rides known as brevets each year, none of which costs more than $20 or so. Most of them happen in the spring/early summer, but I am pretty sure the SF Randonneurs will be putting on a 200K (125 miles) in the fall.

Finally, check the NorCal section of Bikeforums. People are always organizing informal long rides in the Bay Area there, and they're a very welcoming bunch.

thanks, I'll check those out!

I'd bandit a non-charity ride, but not a charity one.

You got to set a standard somewhere!

I did the TDC century about a month ago. Spent a few miles with people doing the same thing as you. As long as you're not moching more that water at the checkpoints, I don't see what the big deal is. As you said, you're just using the painted turns on the road.

Come to think of it, I might try to find the 50 mile TDC tomorrow if the paint's still there.

I did the TDC century about a month ago. Spent a few miles with people doing the same thing as you. As long as you're not moching more that water at the checkpoints, I don't see what the big deal is. As you said, you're just using the painted turns on the road.

Come to think of it, I might try to find the 50 mile TDC tomorrow if the paint's still there.

The Seattle TdC was dangerously close to running out of water at some of the later checkpoints. If I was shadowing any paid-entry ride, I'd treat it like a brevet and buy my own supplies along the way, or put a gallon water-drop stashed along a side road the night before if there's no services for a long stretch.

A couple years ago I did my first bandit ride, joining the route a couple turns from the start. Found out about the ride too late for preentry, and wasn't too sure I would like the route. Area is known for hills. As it were, I'm glad I saved my $$. Only took the short route, so had my own water. Didn't use anything from organization but the road markings. Did not return. And did it again last year on Lancaster Covered Bridge. Paid for ride for first 3 years; but other then 3000 plus bodies on road that event offers nothing. I'm down to only 3 rides that I enter and pay for. Good lunch, snacks, and/or a T shirt for entry. The best place to ride for me remains the Oley Valley, Berks County, PA. It's free, low traffic, rolling hills and so popular with cyclists, I usually pass a dozen or more on any ride. I have always been leary of asking friends and relatives for money for big time charity rides, and never thought to crash them. Oddly, the last couple had a route thru the Oley Valley.