Vélo Birmingham
With all 15,000 places being snapped up over a single weekend, can the organisers of Britain’s latest super sportive deliver the goods in a competitive market? We caught up with CSM Active’s executive chairman, former Olympic hurdler, Jon Ridgeon, to find
Any whispers that the British mass participation cycling market might be hitting its peak, were hushd by the launch of Vélo Birmingham last September. For a brand new event from a company that, while part of Lord Coe’s sports marketing and entertainment group, CSM, was itself new to the cycling market, you might think it would take time to get the word out and attract interest, particularly close to the end of the season when cyclists might still be evaluating their plans for 2017. But no, all 15,000 general entry places were sold in the opening weekend, making it an extraordinary success even before a wheel has spun.
CSM Active’s executive chairman, former Olympic hurdler, Jon Ridgeon understatedly said they were “pleased” with the reaction but argues that it was perhaps no surprise, given that a) the Midlands is missing such an event, and b) the relatively small number of similar, closed road events in the UK. “The UK market has lots of fabulous cycling events but only a handful of fully closed road ones. The barriers and costs are so high. You look at the market and your gut feeling will tell you an event like this should be popular, but you never know until you go on sale.
“Even if the [sportive market] does level out, our view is… if you look at the running market for example, it’s much more mature and has been around longer. The big propositions can continue to grow even in a mature market and it’s perhaps the smaller events that will struggle to catch attention. For good events, I think there’s still room for growth.”
Like Velothon Wales with Cardiff and RideLondon with, er, London, Ridgeon and co have secured a start for their event in the heart of Birmingham city centre. He admits to being fortunate that when they approached the city about the event, the powers that be were building its ‘Cycle Revolution’ plan of making it the country’s most cycle friendly city, and such a large-scale event as Vélo Birmingham would act as a shop window for it. “It was good timing,” Ridgeon admits.
Heading out of the city in a southwest direction into
INEVITABLY WE’LL HAVE A MIX OF EXPERIENCE BUT IT ’S MUCH MORE OF A PERSONAL CHALLENGE
Worcestershire, riders can expect a tough day in the saddle. It’ll be a fast ride – closed roads mean no inconvenient stops at red lights or traffic – but 2000m of elevation over its 100 miles is challenging.
Vélo Birmingham’s only timed section, a KOM coming at the 85-mile mark, reflects its status as a sportive rather than a competitive gran fondo. “I think [gran fondos] are great, but they’re going for a slightly different market,” says Ridgeon. “Our event, yes, you can ride up at the front and go for a good time but we’re aiming more for the RideLondon model, with more regular people going for a big challenge. Inevitably we’ll have a mix of experience but it’s much more of a personal challenge.”
The event, at £75, is one of the more expensive of the closed road sportives in Britain, cheaper than Etape Caledonia (£85) but pricier than RideLondon (£58) and Velothon (£69). But they’re all in the same ballpark and reflective of the huge costs of large-scale closed road events. Ridgeon defends his pricing strategy - and clearly it’s viewed as pretty reasonable given 15,000 people paid it right away.
“To close a hundred miles of roads costs hundreds of thousands of pounds. I won’t go into exact numbers but the budget for this event is in excess of a million pounds. Entry income alone doesn’t cover the cost of staging the event. It was priced to make it sustainable over the long-term – Birmingham [and ourselves] don’t want to create a oneoff that vanishes.”
Will former professional hurdler Ridgeon be swinging his leg over a top-tube for Vélo Birmingham? He has form with bikes – he currently sits on the board of the British Triathlon Federation – and has his fingers crossed.
“I try and do a challenge each year in a number of different areas and this year my cycling challenge is an off-road London to Brighton ride. I hope to ride, but I might have to be manning a drink station or something equally less glamorous.”