[giobox]

Of course not all of these events are bad, but there is a very real problem in many of them where often none or very little of the large entry fee goes to charity at all - only additional donations do. The organisers of charity sporting events rarely make this distinction clear.

The problem was especially acute when cycling exploded in the UK following Bradley Wiggin's and the British Team Sky's huge successes at the Tour de France. Charity cycling events called "sportives" sprang up all over the country, many of them badly organised and poorly run, with often very little of the funds raised going to charity. Basically a bunch of people saw an opportunity to make serous cash, given entry fees where often over 100 quid per person depending on the "package" you selected. It all kinda tied into the "cycling is the new golf" scene that gripped a lot of business people. The kinds of people vain enough to drop 15 grand on a full Sky Team issue Pinarello bike often like to pay for fancy events to show off their exspsensive habit. The guardian did some good coverage of the phenomenon a couple of years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2012/jun/2...

[jontas]

I know next to nothing about the biking world, so this is interesting to me. But the comment I was replying to was specifically calling out Marathons which, for the most part (at least the majors), tend to raise a lot of money for charity. But thanks for the info on biking I will definitely read up on it.