West Cork 200 preperation!

thebouldwhacker

I just recieved this from the West Cork 200 organisers..... ahh the summer is coming:)

Dear Cyclist,

It has been difficult to get cycling this Winter, what with ice and floods and the roads . Surely Spring will come soon and we can get up and on with it.
Behind the scenes the West Cork 200 Club have been plotting to make this( our second )year bigger and better than last year.
In this regard we have decided to start and finish at The Community Leisure Centre in Baltimore. This will mean that after the event you will have the full use of: Pool, Jacuzzi , Steam Room, Sauna and of course showers. ( the Gym wont be available)
We are working to get more exciting food on the route. This is to reflect that West Cork is regarded as the Food Capital of Ireland. So you can look forward to really good and wholesome fare as you cycle what can only be described as some of the most scenic roads in Ireland.
We haven’t made a final decision on the route as yet. This is because of the road conditions. We are waiting to see how repairs progress. The route will however follow roughly the same as last year.
From Baltimore to Skibbereen along the river. On to Ballydehob, to Schull, to Goleen, to Barlycove, over to the North side of The Mizen and on to Durus.
From Durrus to Killcrohane to Bantry to Castle Donovan to Drinagh , To Leap and along the coast towards Skibbereen and finish at Baltimore . As said before this is the prime cycling experience in Ireland.

Please tell your cycling friends about the West Cork 200 www.westcork200.com There is a poster to download on the website and we would be most gratefull if you would download it and spread the word.

The slogan for this year is: BORN TO CYCLE, FORCED TO WORK

Happy cycling and look forward to seeing you on 20th June in West Cork

blorg

It was a very nice route last year but to be honest less saunas and a lower entry fee is more to the point.

ROK ON

50 notes is steep.
I am hoping for playboy bunnies in the jacuzzi for that.
Nevertheless will aim to do this.

godihatedehills

My cheque is already in the post

Lumen

ROK ON wrote: »

I am hoping for playboy bunnies in the jacuzzi for that.

godihatedehills wrote: »

My cheque is already in the post

ROK ON

Yippee. Pool party.

blorg

To be honest I feel they are taking the piss with the entry fee. I might well ride the route supplying my own food.

thebouldwhacker

I emailed them about the price a few months ago and they replied......


We realize that fifty quid is a lot of money but we intend to give a lot as follows:

1 As West cork is renowned for haute cuisine we intend that the food will be up to this standard. So there is your fifty quid straight away.
2 The challenge will start and finish at Baltimore leisure Centre so you will have the full use of the pool, Steam room, sauna, Jacuzzi, showers etc.
3 The best scenery in Ireland and no ice or snow guaranteed.
4 We are working on getting an after cycle programme together so watch this space.
5 I am not sure that we can provide an alternative to the public roads. They are not very public anymore and the only work being done on them is by private individuals .
6 We gave a donation of one thousand five hundred to charity last year and will improve on that this year.
7 We also have the usual and mundane things like: staff on the day, insurance, bananas,bars, water,shirts, phones,E mails, signs, cards, numbers etc. etc. It’s a real pain in the bum.

Regards

PS we have given some free participations to those who were sick and couldent cycle last year.

thebouldwhacker

I'm not impressed by the fee either (but in their defence) the tshirt's they gave out were the best I have seen and I still wear it, also it is a fund raiser for charity. €50 is a lot of money though...

blorg

Point is it is just about the most expensive sportive in the country and that rankles a bit especially as it is a newcomer. Others are run for as little as a tenner including good food. Insurance can be covered by Cycling Ireland for members. The "route" is nice but that costs nothing. "No ice or snow" on 20th June? Well thanks for that. €50 is just taking the piss, sorry. I did it last year and enjoyed it but the entry is just too expensive. Dump the T-Shirt or make it an optional extra (it is a nice T-Shirt.) As I say my current plan would be just to ride the route self-supported.

blorg

If they wanted a model to follow as a new sportive, I would suggest they talk to the lads who ran the Tour de Kilkenny. Firmly the best new sportive of the year. Entry was €20; there was a great route, good food (much better than West Cork) and nearly €4,000 was raised for charity.

The West Cork 200 is a great route and their heart is in the right place but €50 is just ludicrous if they want this to succeed.

Ah no! Was hoping it'd be Skibb again this year (couldn't do it last year). I know Baltimore isn't too far away but I was looking forward to rolling out of my parents' place to the start line.

Joff

Did this last year, great day, they have promised to improve on a few things-nothing but melted chocolate bars at a food stop were a real low point! shower, sauna etc sound good, and Baltimore has some good pubs. They could maybe do a discount for early booking though same as the Stephen Roche Tour de Cure ( €50 on the day/€40 advance).

rottenhat

I haven't been back in Ireland long enough to give an opinion, but does it seem that there's a trend towards higher priced events (whether accompanied by better facilities or not)? Between this, the Wicklow 200, the Etape Hibernia and the Sean Kelly, there are quite a few events now that would set you back €40-60. Perhaps the growth of sportives in the UK is indicating to organisers here that there is a market for more expensive events? And perhaps the growth in cycling here means there will be a new generation of recreational cyclists who are accustomed to paying these prices (but perhaps expecting more sservices than are provided on a club randonnee)?

James O Donnell

We do listen, so we will give an early bird reduction to €40. See the entry form from next week. All those already entered will be refunded.
We had 220 entries last year to give a total income of €11000 (contrast that with say the Wicklow200 with minimum 1500 riders to give an income of €63000)
We spent as follows: T shirts €1500, Publicity€1000, Food €1200, Postage, phones, printing €1300, Signs €900 ,Cards, numbers etc €1000
Indemnity insurance €100, Misselanous €750, Charity €1500.
This leaves us with €1750 surplus to carry into this year. This takes no account of all the work and expense of volounteers .
Its not easy to gauge how many will enter and therefore what the income will be. West Cork is remote and we cant see that lots of ye will travel so far. But prove me wrong.
As regard someone who is proposing to cycle the route bringing their own food. Well there is nothing we can do about that. If enough people did that, then these kind of events would collapse all over the country.
If this person got into technical or medical trouble on the route we couldent refuse assistance, could we?? In this account they are sponging of everyone else. Happy cycling everybody.

Lumen

James O Donnell wrote: »

T shirts €1500

So that's almost €7 per entrant. Personally, I would never wear a charity T-shirt (not for style reasons, it's just a bit LiveStrong for my tastes). It might get used to clean the bike.

Still, it's your gig so you can obviously do as you see fit.

Thanks for the detailed breakdown btw, and good luck with the event!

godihatedehills

Lumen wrote: »

So that's almost €7 per entrant. Personally, I would never wear a charity T-shirt (not for style reasons, it's just a bit LiveStrong for my tastes). It might get used to clean the bike.

Still, it's your gig so you can obviously do as you see fit.

Thanks for the detailed breakdown btw, and good luck with the event!

They're really nice t-shirts.

ten speed racer

I'm going to be in West Cork for a week sometime in June. I'm not sure the exact dates, but if it coincides with this I'll definitely do this. It sounds like a good event.

Bikerbhoy

James O Donnell wrote: »

We do listen, so we will give an early bird reduction to €40. See the entry form from next week. All those already entered will be refunded.
We had 220 entries last year to give a total income of €11000 (contrast that with say the Wicklow200 with minimum 1500 riders to give an income of €63000)
We spent as follows: T shirts €1500, Publicity€1000, Food €1200, Postage, phones, printing €1300, Signs €900 ,Cards, numbers etc €1000
Indemnity insurance €100, Misselanous €750, Charity €1500.
This leaves us with €1750 surplus to carry into this year. This takes no account of all the work and expense of volounteers .
Its not easy to gauge how many will enter and therefore what the income will be. West Cork is remote and we cant see that lots of ye will travel so far. But prove me wrong.
As regard someone who is proposing to cycle the route bringing their own food. Well there is nothing we can do about that. If enough people did that, then these kind of events would collapse all over the country.
If this person got into technical or medical trouble on the route we couldent refuse assistance, could we?? In this account they are sponging of everyone else. Happy cycling everybody.

Will gladly join Blorg and ride this unsupported and would have no problem giving a donation to charity of your choice...

We have said this so many times now ... Lower Entry fee = BIGGER Entry..

Good Luck..... has potential to be a great event...... BUT... like anything needs to be managed correctly

blorg

@James- I appreciate your taking the time to reply and the breakdown but even then to be honest the breakdown is none of my business. To clarify, I am not suggesting that you guys are getting filthy rich off the back of this event and I understand that a lot of unpaid volunteer work goes into any of these things, it is the same with any club event.

My point is simply that other clubs manage to run these things at a fraction of the price you are charging, still put on a quality event, and still make money whether as a fund raiser for the club or for charity. So I'm suggesting you need to look at what you are doing, and, especially in the middle of a recession, consider how you could do it better and at less cost.

€1,000 on cards and numbers? That is €4.50 per cyclist, ridiculous. Dump them, they are not needed. €1,000 on publicity and €1,300 on postage, phones and printing? Why spend this much, what about the internet? I concur with Godihatethehills that they are very nice T-Shirts, best I have ever got, but why not just make it optional?

Again, I am not asking you to justify yourselves here as to cost, it is your event, but at the end of the day there are ways you could do it cheaper and offer more value to the cyclists (and charity you are supporting.) At root what are these events about but cycling around a good and challenging route and so stuff like a number, a t shirt, even food beyond the basics (most important thing about food I think is simply that it is made clear before you begin what to expect) is really quite secondary.

The Wicklow 200 quite frankly is the biggest rip-off in the country and is not a good model for ye to compare yourselves to. It is where it is because it is the oldest event and has established itself as "the" sportive challenge. That is something you work up to, not something you declare yourself as in the first year.

As to riding it supplying my own food, I frequently ride these sort of distances and longer unsupported and frankly would have been more than able to manage last year's event without any of the supplied food! I probably enter around 20 of these events each year and am happy to pay the money to do it "officially" if the price is reasonable but I am sure you can understand this does not extend to handing over 40 or 50 quid each time. Many of them are as little as €5 to €10! If I didn't pay my money obviously I would not be looking for anything from you guys.

Far from sinking these events across the country, if you priced reasonably you would get a bigger turnout and the event will grow. While I rode it myself I have several friends who didn't do your event last year because they thought the entry price was frankly immoral. If you cut the price in half you could get double the turn out and all those extra people spreading the word that it was a good event worth doing the year after. And it was a good route and I do hope you grow it.

DirkVoodoo

Lumen wrote: »

It might get used to clean the bike.

Due to sizing problems this is what I use them for, cotton rags are great for buffing!