The death of mass ride events in Australia?

[CmdrBiggles]

I doubt there will be record-breaking crowds lining up for this Spring's events.
I'm out of what I originally had intended to participate in come October 4th: the Around the Bay in a Day, 175km option. At $190, I cannot justify such an extravagance — it is, always has been and always will be, very, very expensive, for what it is — a ride!
Never mind the uber-pricey Great Victorian Bike Ride. Fancy advertising lingo and slogans and promises wash over all of these events with unabashed vigour. I'll pass.

I'll do my own solo Around the Bay in a Day, cheerfully paying for the ferry over to Sorrento, staying at one of my niece's homes in Melbourne at the end (probably Exhibition Street), and a $5.00 V/Line shuttle home the next day. Cheap and cheerful!

[brumby33]

I doubt there will be record-breaking crowds lining up for this Spring's events.
I'm out of what I originally had intended to participate in come October 4th: the Around the Bay in a Day, 175km option. At $190, I cannot justify such an extravagance — it is, always has been and always will be, very, very expensive, for what it is — a ride!
Never mind the uber-pricey Great Victorian Bike Ride. Fancy advertising lingo and slogans and promises wash over all of these events with unabashed vigour. I'll pass.

I'll do my own solo Around the Bay in a Day, cheerfully paying for the ferry over to Sorrento, staying at one of my niece's homes in Melbourne at the end (probably Exhibition Street), and a $5.00 V/Line shuttle home the next day. Cheap and cheerful!

I've never been on a Great Victorian Big Ride and I believe that the one this year was to commemorate the 40th anniversary of such rides.
I think there's only 2 of these big rides now in existence, the Victorian and Queensland big rides as the NSW Big ride was canned over 15 years ago now.
Even though the average cost per person is around $1200, they do give you the option of 3,5 and 9 days and you pay pro-rata depending on how long you'll be there.
It's not cheap but it's not expensive either, when you consider what's involved in the organising of such an event, the cost of Police to protect the riders for the entire 9 days, Ambulances on site, the cost of food as the price covers most of the 3 meals per day, the entertainment must be paid for, the trucks that have the toilets and showers in them, the sag wagon bus to pick up tired riders and bikes, insurances and yes I guess some have to be paid for work but there are many volunteers as well. Costs are enormous and I think there's a proportion that goes to charity as well.

I went on the 2005 Kosziusko to Kiama big ride and it was fantastic although sadly the first year in the History of the big ride that a young lady lost control of her bike riding down from the start point down the mountains and hit a tree, she passed away that night in Hospital. However despite that, the rest of the ride went great, about 1200 riders.
It's a major logistic exercise so yeah with the costs everywhere that have skyrocketed, it's hard to keep the costs affordable.

Just a 5 day trip from my place in Albury to Sydney, Hotel stay, food costs and any incidentals for 2 people ends up costing well over $1,000 and that's not counting the medical appointments we need to go to while we are up there. We probably have 1 luxury meal in a Japanese restaurant and because we know the area well, we know where the cheaper eateries are......

Many people would pay $1500 plus for airfares to go on holidays before anything else is taken in consideration like food or accommodation so I think a 9 day ride and camp is pretty reasonable for $1200. I've only ever done one big ride only because i've been a shiftworker and not being able to get the time off plus I find that it was a bit hard getting your bike to and from the event as they never start/finish in the same spot.

The Day ride you mentioned is a charity ride yeah? I guess some monies from the ride have to be donated otherwise why bother holding it. I guess there's a lot of cost associated with that as well, but we all know that everyone is struggling and it's times like now when events like these struggle as well.

[nezumi]

One that I have been waiting to hear anything from, but has been sadly quiet, is the Hells 500 Ol' Dirty ride. This had been my main group ride in years gone by, and a very fun one at that - but it seems that it too has fallen by the wayside.

[CmdrBiggles]

One that I have been waiting to hear anything from, but has been sadly quiet, is the Hells 500 Ol' Dirty ride. This had been my main group ride in years gone by, and a very fun one at that - but it seems that it too has fallen by the wayside.

Along with the famously madcap Michelin Autumn Day Tour.
Whatever became of that ride through the hilly Eltham-Hurstbridge scenery?

[warthog1]

Done the alpine classic a few times. It has been cancelled too, as running at a loss it seems.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_Classic

[CmdrBiggles]

At least the Bendigo Double Century (Melbourne-Bendigo-Melbourne/318km) is a tentative goer this year — after a 19 year hiatus (!) Just accommodation in Bendigo to pay for, and maybe shared petrol for the sag wagon (but of course! We're no spring chickens no more!! )

"...Everybody agreed the day was just right for a picnic to Hanging Rock"

Yes, we stop at Hanging Rock for a picnic going up!

[Duck!]

The Day ride you mentioned is a charity ride yeah? I guess some monies from the ride have to be donated otherwise why bother holding it. I guess there's a lot of cost associated with that as well, but we all know that everyone is struggling and it's times like now when events like these struggle as well.

BV (as I still refer to them to distinguish them from this site; their proper title is Bicycle Network) have always been rather misleading about the charity aspect of Around The Bay. Not a cent from entry fees goes to charity; instead they encourage participants to seek sponsorship to do the ride, and only that money goes to charity.

[queequeg]

Here's a success story.

https://goforbroke.org.au/vic100/

He has managed to get Bells Line Of Road closed for this event.

It's the same group that does the annual Go For Broke event.

Edit: it’s expensive though.

I know he's worked pretty hard on this. Trying to justify it myself, both cash wise and fitness (as I am woefully unfit). I have ridden the route with the organiser before, and I have done the whole "Tour de Lithgow" along Bells Line with some friends and it was a fantastic ride - we just had to leave Kellyville at 3am so we could ride Bells Line before all the maniacs woke up. We pulled into Lithgow by 8am for breakfast, then rode via Doctor's Gap up the Darling Causeway, over to Mt Victoria and then down the highway to Springwood before returning via Hawkesbury Heights.

If you do have the opportunity to do this ride, I can highly recommend it. Who knows if they'll ever get the road closed again!

[queequeg]

Sad news

I have just received an email stating that the Snowy Classic 2025 has been cancelled due to increased operating costs. Refunds will be issued shortly.

I really enjoyed this event and am dissapointed that it is not going ahead. I wonder if state / local gov is no longer providing funding?

Bowral classic îs going ahead for now

https://bicyclingaustralia.com.au/news/ ... cancelled/

[elantra]

….
I've never been on a Great Victorian Big Ride and I believe that the one this year was to commemorate the 40th anniversary of such rides.
I think there's only 2 of these big rides now in existence, the Victorian and Queensland big rides as the NSW Big ride was canned over 15 years ago now.
Even though the average cost per person is around $1200, they do give you the option of 3,5 and 9 days and you pay pro-rata depending on how long you'll be there.
It's not cheap but it's not expensive either, when you consider what's involved in the organising of such an event, the cost of Police to protect the riders for the entire 9 days, Ambulances on site, the cost of food as the price covers most of the 3 meals per day, the entertainment must be paid for, the trucks that have the toilets and showers in them, the sag wagon bus to pick up tired riders and bikes, insurances and yes I guess some have to be paid for work but there are many volunteers as well. Costs are enormous and I think there's a proportion that goes to charity as well.
……

The Bicycle Qld Big Ride (Cycle Queensland) hasn’t happened for quite a few years as far as I know.
I think that the last one was probably 2018.
These were fantastic events but yes they were not cheap and it was a well-known fact that in their latter years they had to be run at a financial loss for BQ.
I did the Cycle Qld events in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
They were huge fun, all of them, and quite different courses each time.
Very fortunately as far as I recall there were no serious injuries to any rider in those years.
It’s hard to know which of these 3 events was the “best” because they were all good fun.
And these events were blessed with totally fine weather - although the 2011 event had consecutive freezing cold mornings !

But as they say the writing was on the wall in 2015 - patronage was down and costs were up.
It was rumoured on that event that it would be the last.
Actually I am pretty sure that BQ did have a few more annual Cycle Queensland events after 2015 but not now.

For many years the “biggest” BQ event has been the B2GC - Brisbane to Gold Coast.
Famously, the 2010 event was going to be huge - 10,000 riders plus on the 10th October 2010.
Unfortunately the Qld Weather was non-cooperative and the event had to be postponed due to cyclonic conditions that weekend.
I don’t think that it has anything like that level of patronage since those heady days unfortunately

[elantra]

Apologies for the stoopid autocorrect error in my post above !
- Now corrected thanks g-boaf and Christopher J

Crikeys- autocorrect is a Pain in the proverbial.
And somehow I can’t edit from the phone*
* corrected - now can

[g-boaf]

Apologies for the stoopid autocorrect error in my post above ! Should be “were not”
rather than werewolf
Crikeys- autocorrect is a Pain in the proverbial.
And somehow I can’t edit from the phone

Tilt the phone sideways so it is in landscape mode - then the edit button appears. Bug was reported but no changes made.

So you'll have to live with the difficulty of fixing auto-incarrot.

If on iOS you can see this topic: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/25 ... ortBy=best

Soon to get even more fun with the introduction of AI (on iOS 18 - only on newest phones).

[elantra]

Apologies for the stoopid autocorrect error in my post above ! Should be “were not”
rather than werewolf
Crikeys- autocorrect is a Pain in the proverbial.
And somehow I can’t edit from the phone

Tilt the phone sideways so it is in landscape mode - then the edit button appears. Bug was reported but no changes made.

So you'll have to live with the difficulty of fixing auto-incarrot.

If on iOS you can see this topic: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/25 ... ortBy=best

Soon to get even more fun with the introduction of AI (on iOS 18 - only on newest phones).

Thanks g-boaf, edit accomplished !

[troiks75]

Here's a success story.

https://goforbroke.org.au/vic100/

He has managed to get Bells Line Of Road closed for this event.

It's the same group that does the annual Go For Broke event.

Edit: It’s expensive though.

Very expensive. The organiser commented on a Facebook post about the snowy classic cancellation stating that the traffic management / control cost for this event is $90k. That is an eye watering sum.

[g-boaf]

Here's a success story.

https://goforbroke.org.au/vic100/

He has managed to get Bells Line Of Road closed for this event.

It's the same group that does the annual Go For Broke event.

Edit: It’s expensive though.

Very expensive. The organiser commented on a Facebook post about the snowy classic cancellation stating that the traffic management / control cost for this event is $90k. That is an eye watering sum.

Doesn't surprise me at all, traffic management requirements are getting much stricter. The Calga TT is long since gone as well - with that being one of the things I heard mentioned, but there are others probably as well. I never did those because it's too far away.

[AndrewCowley]

Very expensive. The organiser commented on a Facebook post about the snowy classic cancellation stating that the traffic management / control cost for this event is $90k. That is an eye watering sum.

Wow that's crazy.

But it's why I think the only way forward for these events is to have fewer of them than what we had historically and for organisers to pool their resources and work with governments to get them officially supported. With these sorts of costs, I can't see any other way forward.

So in the Snowy mountains, instead of multiple events, there needs to be just one which has government support.

A global group like L'Etape could take the lead on this. Interestingly, their own event succumbed a few years back.

The days of small'ish local groups being able to organise these events is over.

[g-boaf]

Very expensive. The organiser commented on a Facebook post about the snowy classic cancellation stating that the traffic management / control cost for this event is $90k. That is an eye watering sum.

Wow that's crazy.

But it's why I think the only way forward for these events is to have fewer of them than what we had historically and for organisers to pool their resources and work with governments to get them officially supported. With these sorts of costs, I can't see any other way forward.

So in the Snowy mountains, instead of multiple events, there needs to be just one which has government support.

A global group like L'Etape could take the lead on this. Interestingly, their own event succumbed a few years back.

The days of small'ish local groups being able to organise these events is over.

I remember in 2019 talking to Fergus Grant of the Haute Route, they had some ideas of Haute Route in Australia but it all went by the wayside. It would appear to have been too difficult to get everything organised. If they can't make it work, then smaller groups have no chance. And remember they have the guy who used to run L'Etape du Tour in France.

It's a shame it's so difficult and here any kind of event like this ends up in local outrage. Over in France, the locals love it and they get out and support it massively.

[AndrewCowley]

Yeah so basically things like this are complete rubbish then.

https://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/about/bike-city

There is no follow through.

[troiks75]

I suppose Bowral and Mudgee Classics are not affected due to the roads not being closed so costs are far lower

[g-boaf]

Yeah so basically things like this are complete rubbish then.

https://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/about/bike-city

There is no follow through.

That was never going to be anything more than a one off.

But hey, they hosted the world championships so job done…

The label is only given to cities that show a long-term commitment to supporting cycling at all levels. To be eligible, cities also need to host a UCI cycling event, such as the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, which came to Wollongong in September 2022!