Well done Wilier - nice to see an all-inclusive national series which definitely isn't just restricted to the south of England......

I'd love to see UK Cycling Events map of the UK - presumably it consists of Dorset, Sussex and Hampshire surrounded by water!

Poor Poor Poor effort. Take it Wilier doesn't want to sell bikes in Scotland?!

I agree with all comments above - poor show.

Quite remarkable, it's rare to see such a flagrant bias towards the South of England.

Usually people try and make an effort to disguise it, like the way the weather forecast has a map of the UK but the forecaster talks primarily about the South of England.

Anyway, well done Wilier, you've said the rest of the UK isn't as important as London.

You've also said you're not bothered about selling bikes to the peasants up north.

And you've done it without shame.

I mean you haven't even included one race above Oxford.

We need more of this narrow-minded geographical snobbery and then we can all live in a divided country

Is there some rule that says sportives can't start in Birmingham (or anywhere else in the West Midlands for that matter...)???

Living in Edinburgh, I was pretty pissed to see that it's restricted to the south of England. Upon reflection, though, I think it's more a matter of an unfortunate company name. Calling yourself "UK Cycling Events" when in reality you're a local company is a bit unwise. To be fair, they've advertised the sportive series as just that - it makes no claims to be a "UK Sportive Series" as reported here. Bikeradar have also failed to mention there's a parallel series of mountain bike events.

So don't blame Wilier - this is a misleading company name and sloppy journalism.

As a northerner, I for one will give Willier a pass. To think, I was due to buy a 2009 Mortirola! What a shame.

Get a grip, are you seriously suggesting you've changed your choice of bike over this?

It does seem a bit of an own goal though, the race series will be become better known for upsetting us Northern riders as it will for anything else.

I'm not that bothered, we've got all the best scenery and cycling country up here anyway :)

All,

UK Cycling Events is a new company and as such we can not overstrech oursleves in our first year. This is why we have choosen to focus on Southern England. Our Plan is to expand up North the following year and offer great organised rides all over the UK. Unfortunatley we could not be every where is our first year, but please bare with us as we plan to expand North shortly.

so why call yourself "UK CYCLING EVENTS" when you clearly are south bias!! very good idea poorly implemented..........

>>UK Cycling Events is a new company and as such we can not overstrech oursleves in our first year.

"UK Cycling Events is a new company and as such we can not overstrech oursleves in our first year."

is this why you have committed yourselves to running 11 events in the next 12 months..??

Would it not have made more sense to run fewer events, but with a slightly more varied and less southern-centric geography...??

The name simply allows us to expand the following year as our plans are to put on quality cycling events Nation wide. 11 events is the right number of events for us to ensure they are well organised and exectuted.

Martin's comments make sense, much as it might put Northerner's noses out of joint. Good luck to them and hopefully we'll see events in other parts of the country soon.

>>As a northerner, I for one will give Willier a pass. To think, I was due to buy a 2009 Mortirola! What a shame.

You're not serious?! That chip on your shoulder must be affecting your judgement.

"11 events is the right number of events for us to ensure they are well organised and exectuted"

so presumably some of the events you are planning to run in the next 12 months will thereafter be dropped in favour of events elsewhere in the country..??

It depresses me reading some of the childish comments here, it's 11 events people can do, sure there's not one conveniently close for everyone but the more of the series that start up then the more chance you will have of one being near you sooner or later. Ofc if all they get is a lot of negativity there's not much to encourage other organisers. Will I be going to any of them? Unlikely as it's a fair trek for me to but I'm still glad there's even more choice of events next year.

"sure there's not one conveniently close for everyone"

that's a bit of an understatement. Surely there's nothing childish in pointing out what myself and many others see as a monumental imbalance in where these 'UK' events are taking place..?

And saying - "oh, we'll get round to the rest of the UK next year" (or words to that effect) sounds like an afterthought - either that or someone forgot to mention it in the press release.....

"11 events is the right number of events for us to ensure they are well organised and exectuted."

...and out of those 11 events, you couldn't manage to have a single one North of Watford Gap! Not even a token event for Wales, Scotland, the Midlands, Cumbria, the North East???

A nice idea very poorly executed - you've shot yourselves in the foot.

"Unfortunatley we could not be every where is our first year, but please bare with us as we plan to expand North shortly. "

Isn't there already a company called Southern Sportive that have been running successful events in these areas for the last three or four years though? Wouldn't you have been better off starting your series further north where there's a gap in the market, rather than saturating an area that already has plenty of events?

Hmm

I'm not a great fan of sportives, as I'd much prefer to do a ride without a bunch of Southern Jessies on £5000 bikes wearing Rapha that can't ride for shit!

Saying that, anything that gets people riding bikes isn't a bad thing. If there is sufficient demand for events in whatever area then great, and the company will succeed. If not... natural selection will mean that the companies that put on poop events will fail.

We do need more events up here north of Watford, but we also need more people on their bikes.....defo more fattie, fag smoking grot bags up here! It would also be great if a company like UK cycling events or more established companies could invest some money in club infrastructure. Dunno what the clubs are like down south, but its difficult to find an inclusive and social cycling club here.

I understand the frustration of people up north on seeing not one of these north of oxford. What i would suggest is to get together with your cycling clubs and cycle shops and try and find someone to promote and run some events. It sounds to me very much like there is a good opportunity for someone to do very nicely out of organising some Northern sportives- clearly some untapped potential there and some fantastic scenery to boot.

"Hmm

I'm not a great fan of sportives, as I'd much prefer to do a ride without a bunch of Southern Jessies on £5000 bikes wearing Rapha that can't ride for shit!"

MrRex, I live in the south, I can't afford Rapha Kit nor can I afford a £5000 bike and in the few sportives I've done I've seen very few of the above Southern Jessies you describe.... Perhaps they only turn up to Northern Events.

MrRex

These events are right in my part of the country, but we're already overserved down here, if anything. I can already enter about six sportives a year on the south downs if I want, I certainly don't need any more. 'Getting more people on bikes' means either coming up with new ideas or putting on existing ones in new areas, not just tapping an easy market. I'd be interested if these were something new and different, but it just looks identical to what other organisers are already doing. If I'm honest, it just looks like someone spotted a bandwagon going past.

And I have to agree with petejuk. If everyone north of Watford is as sniffy about sportive riders as you, then I'm not surprised the clubs aren't social or inclusive!

New UK sportive series. Quite a misleading title. Isn't that against advertising regulations? Why didn't you go the whole way and call it European or World sportive series as that is about as accurate.

Company should be renamed 'UK Cycling Events but only in the South East of England'

or

'Southern England Cycling Events'

Whoever wrote that press release has scored on hell of an own goal.

Did it occur to any of you bitter northerners that there might be just a few more people (and therefore more cyclists) living in the South? I'm sorry to see that there aren't more events around the country, but as Mr Rex himself put it, "We do need more events up here north of Watford, but we also need more people on their bikes.....defo more fattie, fag smoking grot bags up here!" If Uk Cycling Events is to be successful, they need to make money. If there are not enough customers for their product (the sportives in question) they will not make enough money and will fail, and then there will be no sportives from them at all - the events in question aren't local to me either, but I welcome them.

And, for the record, I ride a flash bike, and wear Rapha, and whilst I am not the strongest of climbers, being over 6' and around 13.5 st., I love my cycling and am happy riding with anyone, even bigotted snobs like Mr Rex (jealous, are we?) That kind of inverted snobbery didn't do anything for the kind of inclusive and social cycling scene Mr Rex dispairs of ever finding - I suspect with his attitude it's been trying hard to avoid him for many years...

Looks like yet another bunch jumping on the Sportive gravy train. I woulkd say they are neither wanted nor needed up North

As there are other Sportives available I don't see the geographical bias as an issue. Would you rather see no events, or successful events you might not be able to get to?

"Looks like yet another bunch jumping on the Sportive gravy train. I woulkd say they are neither wanted nor needed up North"

Oh, just get over it will you? Try losing the chip on your shoulder, it might make you think straighter, or ride faster (probably both).