The thing about organising sportives is...
...that describing the process is riddled with the possibility for cliches. Some of my more grandiose thoughts about what I do might find a comfortable home in pseuds corner in Private Eye. Hey ho, here goes anyway. Here’s what I do.
I’ve been a sportive organiser now since about 2010. The first one was done for Twinings the tea people and took place down in Wiltshire, but most of what I’ve done has been up here in Staffordshire where I was born and where I’ve done most of my cycling over the last 30 years.
I’ve sat in rooms with people over the last few years who talk about the process of organising bike races and sportives as if it’s some kind of dark art. For me, it isn’t though. That doesn’t mean I don’t get the chance every now and again to add an artistic flourish to what I do. But the foundation on which it’s built is a simple, easily repeated process that can be summarised like this:
Would it be fun to ride here?
How can we manage the risks around getting people here and around the route?
What can we add to make it an experience rather than just a bike ride?
Will people pay what we need to charge to make the event work?
Plan, deliver, reflect, repeat.
Sometimes event’s work first time, but most of the time we feel we’ve done well if we break even in year one. The thing that does seem to work though is to keep coming back. If you deliver an event well, look after participants in the ways you’ve promised you would. Many will come back again.
You can find out more about the events we organise at www.ridestaffs.co.uk
