Will any sportives go ahead in 2020?

Just got am email saying the Tour de Connemara, and the Ring of Clare cancelled for 2020.
Will any sportives go ahead this year?

Macy0161

No one knows, but hard to see these (or even group spins) while physical distancing remains a "need to do".

Loads of variables/ unknowns at this point - treatment, anti-body tests, whether you can catch it again, whether it mutates...

ednwireland

doubt it

KevRossi

Paris-Roubaix sportive was postponed a number of weeks ago. They still intend to hold it if possible this year but are waiting to see how things develop.

Not sure how the main Pro race is affected by this. Would it be the day after as per usual, or are they all cancelled or just postponed?

I don't see much chance of any of them taking place this year.

keane2097

Ring of Beara was rescheduled for 29th of August which looks optimistic now.

Westportif was due to take place the week just gone. They postponed on the 28th of March and there has yet to be an update with regard to new date, refunds or anything, which isn't great.

RobFowl

I suspect some will go ahead but with a restriction on numbers.
Nothing before August though (IMO)

ridelikeaturtle

No.

07Lapierre

Very unlikely any sportive goes ahead before September I'd say and any that do will have limited entries. I imagine their won't be a mass start and no "pasta Party" at the finish. It'll be a case of turning up, go pass the start line, no indoor food stops, and once passed the finish line, head straight home. Very little "atmosphere" roll on 2021!

magicbastarder

would be curious if insurance companies are even taking queries about insurance for events like this. if you don't have insurance confirmed, it would tie your hands in terms of committing to organising it i would assume.

RobFowl

Insurance will be a CI issue. Once they get the go ahead the events will be covered.

Beasty

RobFowl wrote: »

I suspect some will go ahead but with a restriction on numbers.
Nothing before August though (IMO)

Nothing before 10 August under the current roadmap, but even then we will have social distancing. In the WW200 I've seen 500+ turn up at a feeding station over a 30-40 minute period. No way that sort of thing can be allowed until social distancing is relaxed (which I do not see happening this year)

Mercian Pro

Audax-like sportives such as the Mick Byrne 200 might have been a possibility but that had already been cancelled for this year. Time enough later in the year to start looking at some of the permanent Audax routes.

07Lapierre

Beasty wrote: »

Nothing before 10 August under the current roadmap, but even then we will have social distancing. In the WW200 I've seen 500+ turn up at a feeding station over a 30-40 minute period. No way that sort of thing can be allowed until social distancing is relaxed (which I do not see happening this year)

They could restrict each rider to “one sandwich only” at the food stops? Or has that been tried before?

Beasty

07Lapierre wrote: »

They could restrict each rider to “one sandwich only” at the food stops? Or has that been tried before?

I think the only way would be to do it as they do it in the peloton and allow people to grab refreshment bags as they go past a "feeding station"

Of course there can be no drafting within 2 meters and any overtaking must be done on the other side of the road - none of this 2 abreast stuff! Might wind up a few drivers when there's a 5km single file of cyclists to overtake:pac:

07Lapierre

Beasty wrote: »

I think the only way would be to do it as they do it in the peloton and allow people to grab refreshment bags as they go past a "feeding station"

Of course there can be no drafting within 2 meters and any overtaking must be done on the other side of the road - none of this 2 abreast stuff! Might wind up a few drivers when there's a 5km single file of cyclists to overtake:pac:

Upset drivers? Not if the event is held on closed roads.

dogsears

keane2097 wrote: »

Ring of Beara was rescheduled for 29th of August which looks optimistic now.

Westportif was due to take place the week just gone. They postponed on the 28th of March and there has yet to be an update with regard to new date, refunds or anything, which isn't great.

Ring of Beara now cancelled for 2020 (with auto entry to next year).

keane2097

dogsears wrote: »

Ring of Beara now cancelled for 2020 (with auto entry to next year).

Well **** it anyway

Macy0161

I'd see out on the roads as much as an issue as food stops. I mean, you can't really do a club group spin and physically distance?

at1withmyself

Sounds perfect to me anyway!

"07Lapierre wrote: »

I'd say any that do will have limited entries. I imagine their won't be a mass start and no "pasta Party" at the finish. It'll be a case of turning up, go pass the start line, no indoor food stops, and once passed the finish line, head straight home!

CramCycle

I just can't see it this year in any way shape or form, I wouldn't get my hopes up, I think we will be doing well if they are possible by March next year and would be disappointed with any organisation planning any sooner than that.

Macy0161

CramCycle wrote: »

I just can't see it this year in any way shape or form, I wouldn't get my hopes up, I think we will be doing well if they are possible by March next year and would be disappointed with any organisation planning any sooner than that.

To be honest, there's very little guidance coming from CI. I get their damned if they do, damned if they don't, to some extent but clubs are basically being left to make their own calls.

CramCycle

Macy0161 wrote: »

To be honest, there's very little guidance coming from CI. I get their damned if they do, damned if they don't, to some extent but clubs are basically being left to make their own calls.

Considering some of the stupid sh1t I have heard some riders and clubs calling for, they really are damned no matter what, but then so is society if any of those are taken seriously.
If they say, no events to next year, you have people crawling out to give out sh1t that they can't possibly know. They pick the first day after restrictions are eased, they know that people will plan for something that can't reasonably happen.
The government has guidelines, I feel that it should be pretty obvious to anyone that anything that requires huge planning like a big sportive should have the common sense to know, they won't have enough confidence about whether it is possible to run until it is too late, so just take it that it is not running, simples.

RobFowl

CI haven't given guidance other than to obey government instructions because that is the right thing to do.
They has asked for clarification on where competitive and organised events fall within the relaxation proposals.
They can and tbh should do nothing else at this stage.
People are dying everyday and we need to do what we can to limit this.

Mercian Pro

Macy0161 wrote: »

To be honest, there's very little guidance coming from CI. I get their damned if they do, damned if they don't, to some extent but clubs are basically being left to make their own calls.

Whatever about Sportives, and I agree it will probably be next year before they resume, in 5 days time cycling in groups of up to four people will be permitted provided social distancing can be maintained. Surely CI should be issuing guidance or protocols regarding this covering things like distance between cyclists, being self-sufficient, no spitting or nose blowing, avoiding narrow routes such as towpaths where you can't keep 2m from others, etc, etc.



By way of comparison, Irish Sailing have circulated their members with an 18 page document entitled Return to Sailing Phase 1, Mountaineering Ireland have published a Roadmap for the Return to Hillwalking and Climbing, the Golfing Union of Ireland have very detailed protocols for when play resumes as have Tennis Ireland. All of these sporting bodies, and I'm sure plenty of others, have worked with Sports Ireland and other stakeholders in drawing up these documents.



Is it because CI are primarily focused on racing and that is unlikely to resume until later phases or have they actually produced something but haven't released it yet? Is it an attempt to force clubs to draw up their own plans as suggested above?

Weepsie

Mercian Pro wrote: »

Whatever about Sportives, and I agree it will probably be next year before they resume, in 5 days time cycling in groups of up to four people will be permitted provided social distancing can be maintained. Surely CI should be issuing guidance or protocols regarding this covering things like distance between cyclists, being self-sufficient, no spitting or nose blowing, avoiding narrow routes such as towpaths where you can't keep 2m from others, etc, etc.



By way of comparison, Irish Sailing have circulated their members with an 18 page document entitled Return to Sailing Phase 1, Mountaineering Ireland have published a Roadmap for the Return to Hillwalking and Climbing, the Golfing Union of Ireland have very detailed protocols for when play resumes as have Tennis Ireland. All of these sporting bodies, and I'm sure plenty of others, have worked with Sports Ireland and other stakeholders in drawing up these documents.



Is it because CI are primarily focused on racing and that is unlikely to resume until later phases or have they actually produced something but haven't released it yet? Is it an attempt to force clubs to draw up their own plans as suggested above?

Why the feck should they.

This is being rammed into us for months now. Why on earth should CI be the ones giving people guidance to something that is bloody obvious to anyone who has paid attention.

People moaned about them not lobbying for easing restrictions for cycling. Those people should've been told to go do one.

IF people need to be told what they can and can't do at this stage, then they should just stay at home to be honest.

If they do sent out guidelines, people will moan about them being restrictive.

Other than, insurance, and stating that if in a group of more than 4 it's void.

Macy0161

It was more into the lockdown I was getting at, rather than the way out now. It was clear that the initial phase wasn't the last, but they only went as far as that, and clubs had to make (the albeit obvious) call. Hate to give them any credit, for TI made an early call on their events.

Mercian Pro wrote: »

Whatever about Sportives, and I agree it will probably be next year before they resume, in 5 days time cycling in groups of up to four people will be permitted provided social distancing can be maintained. Surely CI should be issuing guidance or protocols regarding this covering things like distance between cyclists, being self-sufficient, no spitting or nose blowing, avoiding narrow routes such as towpaths where you can't keep 2m from others, etc, etc.

Or whether it is even realistic, in their view, that social distancing can be maintained in a cycling group at all?

magicbastarder

Mercian Pro wrote: »

By way of comparison, Irish Sailing have circulated their members with an 18 page document entitled Return to Sailing Phase 1, Mountaineering Ireland have published a Roadmap for the Return to Hillwalking and Climbing, the Golfing Union of Ireland have very detailed protocols for when play resumes as have Tennis Ireland. All of these sporting bodies, and I'm sure plenty of others, have worked with Sports Ireland and other stakeholders in drawing up these documents.

i checked the mountaineering ireland one, and it seems to be a simple restating of the government's guidelines. there's nothing new in it, and you could substitute any one of a number activities in at the top of the page.

https://www.mountaineering.ie/aboutus/news/2020/?id=272

Mercian Pro

Weepsie wrote: »

Why the feck should they.

Because they are the official Governing Body for the sport. The Government, HSE, NPHET etc set out the high level requirements but rely on the NGBs, working through Sport Ireland, to interpret how these requirements will be implemented for each sport. That process has been going on for some time and most other NGBs have been quite open in keeping their members informed of developments. Given the confusion and rancour that emerged over the interpretations of "brief exercise" by cyclists, I would have thought more specific guidance from our own Representative Body would be welcomed.

Macy0161 wrote: »

Or whether it is even realistic, in their view, that social distancing can be maintained in a cycling group at all?

I fully agree.

magicbastarder wrote: »

i checked the mountaineering ireland one, and it seems to be a simple restating of the government's guidelines. there's nothing new in it, and you could substitute any one of a number activities in at the top of the page.

An earlier message from MI informed members that they were working with Sport Ireland and other key stakeholders to develop guidelines for hillwalkers and climbers to assist with the safe return to the sport. I assume this will be published shortly but is less critical for the moment unless you live within 5km of a mountain.

Weepsie

They can't really just interpret them, and form guidelines like that, especially for cycling where the "normal" rules will not be able to apply.



Cycling is arguably one of the trickiest sports to do this for. The act of cycling is not a problem. Needs no guidelines, and hence low risk. Cycling in a group of any size though is a different ball game though

2metres apart won't work, it will need to be more, possibly a lot more, as you're entering the shared space so much quicker.

Realistically, group cycling needs to be canned for the foreseeable future and there's no easy way to state this without people getting in a huff, which they will as quite a few have been wholly unreasonable about the rules and why it should apply to their cycles and have been sending CI nonsense messages about lobbying to relax them.

But people know this, if they don't then they havnt been paying any attention.




Golf is perhaps the easiest sport to develop any sort of guidelines for, there's a Shi+ tonne of money swilling around there too.

Mefistofelino

Canoeing Ireland have published a detailed Return to Paddling plan, outlining what they expect to be permitted at each stage and for each level of participant. It meshes the Covid restrictions with their water safety guidelines.

As a sport it has some similarities with cycling -there's little enough money ( unlike golf and sailing) and a mix of solo & group training & participation. Canoeing has the added complication of proximity for assists/ rescues conflicting with the distancing requirements, which has some parallels with distancing vs group riding in cycling.

https://canoe.ie/2020/05/13/return-to-paddling-guidelines/

TGD

RobFowl wrote: »

CI ....has asked (Government) for clarification on where competitive and organised events fall within the relaxation proposals

As if ‘Government’ has people employed to know the minute details of every sport and discipline, and to individually advise every sporting organization in the country how they should run every type of event, or not. Government has other things to be doing. Cycling Ireland should step up to the plate and provide leadership within the broader Government guidelines, and not be passing the decision-buck to ‘Government’.