So, I’ve signed up for the macmillan dragon ride 2016 which will mean me riding 100km for the first time. Would love any advice or tips on aiming for this. At the moment I can comfortably ride around 50km, however where I live is relatively flat and the dragon ride has around 3350 metres of climbing.
Any advice is welcomed and hugely appreciated?

Cheers!!

If you can do 50k, you can do 100k. Eat, drink plenty, spin rather than grind (espeially on the longer climbs) and keep the pace steady early on and you’ll be fine.

That’s a fair amount of climbing if it’s flat where you ride.
Train somewhere with some hills if poss, or maybe add some training in a higher gear / lower rpm than you’re used to.

EDIT.. The Macmillan 100km only looks like there’s around 1200m of climbing, the longer routes have more. You’ll be fine 🙂

You shouldn’t struggle, your fellow riders and the atmosphere of the event will drag you along and before you know it you’ll have done it. ^ Eat small and often during the ride, and do it before you think you need to/feel hungry. Drink plenty. Don’t worry about it. The number of events I’ve done where I’ve worried about my ability to complete and then finished it and wondered what all my fuss was about..!

That’s a hell of a lumpy ride if it has that much climbing in that short a distance.

You’ll be grand though.

Eat something every 30 minutes. Don’t get dragged along at a pace you are not comfortable with. Spin up the hills. You’ll be fine.

When is it?

If it’s early next next year then you’ve got loads of time to build up to 100km, don’t whatever you do make it your first 100km ride as it could go seriously Pete Tong.

When you say it’s pretty flat where you live, how flat is it actually and where do you live?

You will be fine although not sure you have your climbing correct as the 305km Dragon Devil only has 3800 mtrs???

I think it’s more like 3350 FEET of ascent

Edit: Basecamp gives it as 1180 metres

http://humanrace.co.uk/event/dragon-ride/

as already stated, if you can do 50 you can do 100.

you just need to:
– eat and drink regularly
– not go faster than you feel comfortable with
– get some training for the climbs (although it’s not that much climbing)

on your current rides you should have some idea of your average speed. Use a speedo/garmin or whatever that you can stick on your bars and keep an eye on your average speed to make sure you are not going over it

if you have an HRM you can do similar e.g. you can ride all day irrespective of distance at say 75% of max HR but if you try to do 80% of max HR then you will blow up within an hour (the figures may vary, i just made em up but the principal is the same).

For what it’s worth I’ve done London to Paris in less than 24 hours and a circuit of the M25 (245km) in 12 hours both earlier this year. I’ve also climbed Col de Madeleine which has 1500 metres of ascent in one climb. Not trying to willy wave just indicating that it’s possible.

I’m no superstar cyclist, just a 51 year old bloke who loves cycling.

Keep a steady 15mph pace and keep eating and drinking and bob’s yer mother’s brother

It’s not till next June, so more than plenty of time to get some training in. Think I may have misread it, though won’t hurt to try and prepare myself for more climbing than I’m expecting.
I live in the midlands, close to Stourbridge; I can ride for 30 miles, try and aim towards the hills and only do 1500 feet of climbing. Gonna have to look further afield for the hills I think.
Really looking forward to it by the way!!

If you’re relatively fit, you’ll be fine over that terrain. That kind of climbing is lumpy enough, and may feel challenging if it’s very flat where you normally ride, but it’s not brutal by any means. Just make sure you do some regular riding beforehand and you’ll be fine. If you can get close to that distance, all the better, but don’t sweat it. The regular rides will get you fit enough to finish it, regardless of distance.

Sorry to jump in but 3500m over 200k – how bumpy is that – Kielder way,

Sorry to jump in but 3500m over 200k – how bumpy is that – Kielder way,

Pretty lumpy. Nice riding around that way though. Mellow gradients and long flowing descents. Depends which roads.

The short Dragon ride isn’t that bad. Just be careful of the terrible riding.

Have a good breakfast & take a banana.
Of the rides I’ve done around the 90-130km range they are not that bad, keeping 25kph average will have you back in 4hrs.