Take some paracetamol, eat regularly, make sure your bike is A1

Is that the Dragon ride? If some some of my clubmates are doing it and it is supposed to be pretty hilly. I don’t think any of them are doing the short option though…

Don’t get caught up in the excitement at the start. Ride within your means. Eat regularly. Finish strong.

Put a decent stop half way and it is less daunting.

Pacing wise, start off slower than you think you need to. Drop a gear if it helps. If you realise you haven’t gone hard enough ride the last ten miles as a time trial.

Get yourself a stealth e-bike motor, but let your brother in law suffer, as revenge. 😆

Everyone has their own way of doing these things, but for me the thing that works is a couple of short stops rather than one long one. Breaks the ride nicely into thirds, and I find with long stops I start to stiffen up, get cold and find it hard to get going again.

As I said though, different things work for different people.

As long as you’ve done at least one ride around 70 miles and a few over 50 in training you should be fine physically for a 100 miler (as long as you pace yourself and eat/drink properly as others have said). The main challenge is mental, I always go through a bad place (in my head) around 70 miles, by that time the physical side is hurting, the supporting muscle aches and saddle soreness has started and there’s still a couple of hours left of riding to do. Hopefully you and your BiL go to your dark places at different times and can motivate each other through it.
The above is based on my usual riding being around 50 miles, I’m sure those regularly doing 100+ milers probably have much less of an issue mentally with it.

wot eddie said – smash it from the gun and then if you feel able, turn up the wick for the second half

Set phasers to ‘pootle’

Eat (food, not gels’n’shite, you’ll be amazed how many bananas, Naked bars and cheese rolls you can fit on the rear pockets of a jersey)

Drink (bottle an hour minimum).

You’ll be fine. From seeing some of the enormous people on BSO that complete RideLondon, you’ll be fine.

Alright, maybe take an emergency gel. But, if you’re eating regularly, you won’t/shouldn’t need it.

Think of it as an all day ride with a continuous picnic 🙂

Assuming the finish is in the same place as the start, 2500m of climbing = 2500m of downhill.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Smash the first 30 miles, get a load of Strava PBs because you’re in a group. Go to pub. Job done.

More seriously, pace yourself, eat and drink properly and you’ll be fine. For someone who rides “regularly” I think 100 miles is doable, it’s just a matter of how fast. If you want to target, say, 5 hours, you would need to train 🙂

I only tend to use gels as either a last resort or as a bit of extra ooomf to get over something unpleasant. They’re quick to absorb and put to use but they’re also gone quickly so you either need to be doing them regularly or you still need energy bars/normal food. My usual food on a long ride/sportive is:

1, Couple of bananas to eat first
2, Few energy bars
3, If I can be arsed, some honey waffles spread with peanut butter like a sweet peanutty-honey flavoured sandwich (cut into bits)
4, Emergency gels

Bananas last me the first 90 mins or so, energy bars/waffles take me for most of the rest.

You don’t need to train to ride 95 miles. You do need to ride at a gentle pace, and eat and drink regularly.

Oh, don’t eat anything on the day that you haven’t eaten before, don’t fit something new to your bike for the day. I generally say nothing with under 200-300km on it is worth risking.

I’m doing that sportive as well. My training has been to start to ride to work a couple of times a week (45k round trip) and to do the odd longer ride on the weekend. Did a 130km / 1700m climbing one week before last and nearly died so I am a little worried. My plan is to go very slowly and then smash it for the last 10k hopefully beating my mates.

Trust me.

I’d still not roll up with brand new brake blocks… the time to learn that something is badly set up is near home, not at the start or during an event.

Or at the top of Winnats Pass when that rattle that was coming from my rear wheel turned into a PING! of a snapped spoke (thanks to 18 bikes for replacing that so i didnt have the severe rattle for the next 80 miles)

What everyone else has said. Anyone who rides regularly should easily be able to do the route you suggest I would of course stick and extra 5 miles on the top just to make it a round number myself.

The best advice I got from a runner regarding Marathons was to “pick a nice womans arse and follow it” it works… The same for riding a sportive try and slot yourself in a nice group, look for bikes and people you can work with.

Look for people that look like you (of course i’m looking for people with 50mm carbon ribs and a god like physique) try and get in a bunch and work together it will make your day go quicker both literally and figuratively.

Stop at the food stations, unless you know you can “race” 100miles and are aiming for a time.

Don’t eat Gels and Shite unless you do so all the time, stick to peanut butter and jam and normal foods.

Drink more than you thought humanly possible and make sure you’ve got lots of salt.

Don’t change anything on your bike without properly riding it first…I’ve rocked up bike races after “fettling” and had DNF’s if it aint broke don’t fix it…but be sensible, check your brake blocks, cables etc

No you won’t die

So,a little update from me, on saturday i did a 100 mile road ride from york to bridlington and back. before this the longest road ride i had done was 32 miles.

I did no special training for it,just my normal once week mountain bike ride of between 7 and 15 miles.

I averaged 15mph ,which is not fast,but im pretty happy with it overall.