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Apparently National trust will be charging sportives to go over the Zig Zag £640, or £1000 if you start and finish at the top and £200 per lap.
Fair play, plenty of spandex warriors out that way to make that a worthwhile revenue stream.
Well, it is a private road.
Would think it's a very bad move even if it's private, as they could start trying to charge for access to other areas, maybe where MTBers ride.
The bridleways were closed when the roadrace was on. Not sure on who's authority.
Didn't know its a private road don't recall seeing any signs.
Will we all be charged to go and look at 'their' butterflies as well? Put a zip wire through it!
The land is private as is the road. Why shouldn't NT charge for commercial enterprises making money using their property?
The bridleways were closed when the roadrace was on. Not sure on who's authority.
Didn't know its a private road don't recall seeing any signs.
Will we all be charged to go and look at 'their' butterflies as well? Put a zip wire through it!
Would think it's a very bad move even if it's private, as they could start trying to charge for access to other areas, maybe where MTBers ride.
Yes and no. We're talking about organised events here, Sportives which are making a profit for the organiser. It won't affect any old clubrun or group of cyclists (anyone can still ride over Box Hill for free at any time).
It's an attempt to discourage the huge number of Sportives in and around that area which generally just clog the roads up and piss off all the locals. After all, it's a road and traffic has the right to use it too without there being 1000 cyclists of varying ability wobbling wildly all over it every other weekend.
zippykona, thats got to be the longest gap I've seen for a double post, 9 hours!
After all, it's a road and traffic has the right to use it too without there being 1000 cyclists of varying ability wobbling wildly all over it every other weekend.
er ... massive contradiction alert
woot woot woot
After all, it's a road and traffic has the right to use it too
Cyclists [u]are [/u]traffic.
It's a free country I swear
Heh, wondered what kind of response that'd get! 😉
Yeah, I know but the locals and the NT (who own the land) are fed up with what is perceived (rightly or wrongly) as disruption for which they get no gain. Sportive riders don't stop at the cafe, they use feed stations; they don't tend to stay over, they drive in, ride then drive off so there's no perceivable benefit/economic gain to the locals. Not saying that's right but since the Olympic RR Route was announced there has been a massive increase in the number of events wanting to use Box Hill and the number of cyclists riding over it generally.
Can't blame NT for wanting to a) limit it a little bit and b) make a bit of money out of it.
They're NOT talking about charging all cyclists to ride it, they're talking about charging a Sportive Organiser to run a route over it in an attempt to limit the number of organisers cashing in on the "come and ride the Olympic Route" bandwagon.
Is it the only hill in the South or something?
Cashing in the the 'lympics innit.
I live close to Boxhill and generally don't ride local sportives but the ones I've seen that go up Boxhill then take you down Pebble Coombe which is busy, not very wide and fast. White Down, Coombe Bottom and various climbs up Leith Hill are the best of the known ones to use in the local area. I think the Spring Onion is one of the best sportive routes in the Surrey Hills area and it doesn't use Boxhill.
I'd say to Sportive Organisers..
Don't use it then..
Pimples init.
Would think it's a very bad move even if it's private, as they could start trying to charge for access to other areas, maybe where MTBers ride.
Errrr, they charge for access to pretty much every park they own?
Which seeing as they're a charity with no government subsidy providing a service we'd all miss I think that's pretty Ok.
Although the one 'local' to me has started chargeing per person rather than per car, which I disagreed with as the old system favoured families with full cars (good for familys and the environment). The new system is fairer (it used to get a lot of familys taking out 1 membership just for access for the car), but biases away from families and doesn't encourage more envirnmentaly friendly transport as technicaly the charge applies to bikes and walkers although I dont think they try too hard to collar everyone at every entrance/exit.