This month, Beeston CC’s Chairman, John McCay, summarises the marginal gains which, when added together made the whole experience massively better for all who took part.

With more and more entrants each year, the sheer numbers were putting pressure on our feed stops and it was obvious that we needed to make some big changes. The main food stop in Crich was moved from the gates of the Tramway Museum to a nearby café () where the owners were very happy for us to use their facilities, including toilets, water supply and car park for setting up our marquee for handing out food. This stop was kept open all day as it was now used on all three routes at different times during the day.

The furthest out food stop, on the long route only, was moved to a café in Flash, actually the highest café in the Peak District (Flash Bar Stores), again providing riders with much needed toilet and café facilities in addition to our well stocked supply of free food.

The third food stop at Parwich was moved to the village green last year, and this year we moved it closer to the village pub, which the riders were able to use as a toilet stop (once it had opened at 10am!). Whilst this is a big improvement on previous years (when the stop was on a grass verge with no facilities) we know we can improve this one further so some negotiation with the landlord is needed!

The feedback on the feed station positions (particularly with the female riders!) and the quality of food has been extremely positive, but one rider made a great observation when he said we should have publicised how well stocked our feed stations were so that he didn’t need to carry so much, especially doing the long route. A good point to consider for next year!

“I thought the food stops were a huge improvement, as they had the added bonus of facilities"
Sally Foulkes

Signage
As we said in the last blog, the secret of successful signage was 100% familiarisation with the three routes, especially difficult turns, hazardous descents or anything else worth mentioning to the riders.

To aid signing we deployed three teams of three people, which reduced the time taken to put up the signs up by 40%. This was a major saving in volunteer time considering that we increased the number of signs by 20% to approximately 300 across all three routes. Taken to its extreme, we could put up a sign every 10 metres to make sure it was impossible to miss a turn, but we have to strike a challenge between cost, practicality and environmental impact, and this year we think we got it spot on.

“Thank you to everyone for such a great event yesterday. It was brilliantly signed so it was good to know you were going the right way even very slowly. It was my first sportive and I may even do another once I recover the movement in my legs and can actually get on my bike again. Thanks for such a great event.”
Sue

Registration
One of the top criteria of a good sportive is to make registration fast and efficient. We implemented ready-made riders’ packs for the first time this year, which simply included a timing chip and map with the timing chip number on the front of the pack. This allowed us to allocate numbers to the riders who booked on-line and we separated a batch for the on-the-day entrants. Also giving different start times for the different routes meant that riders were processed more quickly and slickly.

Using a 3G enabled laptop, we were able to upload details from all the on-the-day entrants, including their mobile phone numbers, which meant that their finish times were available straight after they had crossed the finished line (individual times being SMS’d to their mobiles immediately, and all the riders times being posted online the day after the event).

Overall we were much more savvy with the registration and timing-chip system this year so the whole process was a lot less stressful to us organisers and clearly slicker for the entrants.

“Thank you so much. Course was wonderful, if far harder than I could ever have imagined. Well signposted. Good food stops. No unnecessary fuss at start and end. Good atmosphere. Much appreciated.”
Steve Wiggins

A welcoming HQ
After several years tweaking the ride HQ area, we have finally arrived at a layout that works for the size of our sportive. By creating a separate parking area on an adjacent park, we have been able to develop a HQ village style set-up, with clear operational zones for registration, bike storage, catering and toilet/shower facilities. This village theme worked well by adding a sports therapist zone offering post ride treatments.

We are proud of the welcome that riders receive on returning to base at the end of their rides - as a club run sportive we appreciate what the riders have done to complete the event. Developing the welcoming atmosphere at the base is a key area moving forward, and we have plans to add other services such as bike maintenance and spares sales to add to the welcome buzz.

“Thanks for today guys. Your efforts have once again made for a brilliant day and a fantastic sportive. Much appreciated.”
Dave Morley

Our sportive never stands still…
From the planning stage to the end of the Sportive day itself and beyond we are constantly listening, observing and gathering information and feedback to make our club-run Sportive the best in the region and beyond. As club our over-arching priority is the quality of experience not quantity, so having found the optimum number of riders we can now focus on improving rider experience year on year.

2015? Watch this space…