[Closed] Ride London rollcall

What idiot invented 3.15am??!
The things I do just to ride 100 miles...

Urg.

Coffee...

Well good luck everyone 🙂

Seemingly leith and box hill are cut out despite it being dry down south!

Yep it's official - boxy and leith out! Silly

RideLondon 86? Seems a bit silly to miss out the best bits. Will this apply to the race route too or just the sportive?

crazy-legs - Member
What idiot invented 3.15am??!
The things I do just to ride 100 miles...

Leith & box hill out

Are they alpine standard descents then? & to think I got flamed for saying it was a flatish course with them in!
I think I'd ride them anyway, they can't stop you doing the full 100 can they? I'd be disappointed not to do 100

Ride it next weekend & start when you like with the added bonus of 100s less cyclists panicking about rain getting in your way

Ride it next weekend and enjoy the added bonus of loads of Surrey weekend traffic and getting abused for going the wrong way around London one way routes 🙂

Preferable to dodging the mamils MrBlobby!

No point doing it if Leith and Box are excised, I'd be seriously unimpressed with that. In fact I'd do them anyway!

Gone damp and blustery now. How many crashes coming off Newlands Corner do you reckon there'll be? Why on earth would they cut out Box Hill? It's not like it's hard, or difficult or even the slightest bit tricky.

Damp and blustery? In Guildford it's hosing down and the wind in gusts is blowing it horizontal. Trees in full leaf, wet through, not convinced the wind is strong enough to bring them down but branches are starting to look fragile at the end of my garden.

In the time taken to write this, wind has died to almost nothing.

With thousands of riders of varying standards, I can't blame the organisers for playing safe.

Still trying to figure out if the pro race route has changed as well - anyone know?

Was planning on getting the train into Dorking and watch them climbing Ranmore Common Road (twice), but if its been removed then obviously I won't bother.

Awful conditions in Kingston. Just walked down the road to see the riders, came back and the mrs thought I had fallen into the river (and that was not an exaggeration - I was soaked through).

Did 60 miles on the hills yesterday and the conditions were fantastic - payback for those of us that didn't get in 😀

Hope everyone stays safe today - saw a couple of vans full of injured riders going along the route.

Should be some good rain jacket recommendations on here afters today's ride London!

Oh dear me, Dorking area is taking a beating at the moment (10:20), lightening and very heavy rain 🙁

A biblical noddergeddon or a DHB/Altura/boardman shareholders meeting? I can't quite tell?

I'm on the South coast and can confirm it's bucketing it down, I expect you'll get it in about an hour..

Eeek!

Thankfully I hacked out yesterday, today I'll bank for another day.

Best of luck 😕

Ok. I admit it, even by Devon standards that was a bit more than wet...

While it would be most amusing to join in the calls about Rule 5...

It was torrential. Drains burst, roads turned to rivers, spray everywhere, visibility near zero. Cutting out Box and Leigh was the correct decision given the erm... "varying" standards of riding on display. No doubt about it, some people were brilliant, easily 1st/2nd Cat level. But there were a lot of much less experienced people too (which is fantastic and was great to see everyone out). But I can't blame the organisers for playing safe. Had it been cold, that could have been a genuine emergency situation with everyone soaked to the bone. The kind of weather where waterproofs made little difference!

I got round in a fraction under 4hrs. 🙂
How did everyone else get on?

looks like a walk in the park
[img] [/img]

MrSmith, is that the top of Richmond Park? With the left turn in the distance? What time was that?

I was clipping along in a relatively empty road there!

Nice photo. Looks horrible!

not my pic,i wouldn’t dream of riding there today, dealing with thousands of nodders weaving all over the road.
i know somebody who lives in Putney who was standing watching with a track pump and helped fix numerous punctures (one chap had 4 already and not left london. what do you expect with latex tubes and pro-race tyres?) and had seen 2 mechs ripped off from numpty gear changes at the bottom of the local epic climb, and another sportive entrant saying that there had been a ‘big crash in the race’ when the race starts at 1pm? 😯

Oh my! Looks a bit like that on the Mall now. And yes it was wet. We had one group riding crash from a non-TCC rider taking out the group, so I stopped to tend the wounded. And I slipped off in Wimbledon where the road was under water! No punctures though. Done by 10. Now waiting for my intrepid sister.

EDIT: and one guy punctured his tub on the way into the Olympic park this morning. I think there were tears.

CL, impressive time considering the conditions.. 😯

Not that impressive. Without Box & Leith Hills it was only 86 miles, all relatively flat. We were on the road at 6.30am so pretty quiet and we properly caned it through London. 4 of us, through and off and no-one passed us!

Settled down into a slightly steadier pace later then ramped it up again when Marianne Vos caught us up. Best wheel in the bunch by a country mile. 🙂

After [s]we let her go[/s] she dropped us go we knocked it down a touch as the roads were under water by then!

So while the time might initially sound impressive, it was only 21mph ish for 86 miles. There were plenty of people quicker than that.
Sorry to disappoint!

aP - I was a bit miffed at that. My guess is that it the weather was going to make it harder and slower, and cutting out the slowest bits meant they'd get more people back on time, spend less time and effort pulling people off the route and lees people disappointed with not being allowed to finish.

Logistics at least as much as safety, I reckon.

And on mile 85, trying to hang onto the back of the group in the pissing rain, I have to say I wasn't really hankering after another 14 miles of hills!

About 4:15 here, 6:30 start. Was originally gutted re shortened route, however after experiencing conditions at Newlands and the bb deep floods then the shortened route was correct call by organisers.

Feel a bit sorry for those travelling a long way for a cut down event and also the villages that had put on events.

Mostly clear roads, glad I had early start though as coming back through Kingston it looked like gridlock for those on the way out. Unsurprisingly crowds out on course and Mall in particular way down on last year.

Didn't notice Vos but did see Laura Trott cracking on at a fair pace.

Despite weather still thoroughly enjoyed it, hopefully the sun will be back again for next year.

Fair dues to everyone getting round today. I expect there's a lot of riders entered for whom 100/86 is a notably long day out and to get that sort of weather will make it memorable!

Looks like Ian Rees from Bristol crossed the line first (although i believe he's getting some stick from local roadies on his FB page about it being a sportive

[img] [/img]

not bad for a 43 yr old 🙂

Finished 3.58 riding solo for about 50%
Second sportive and no experience of group riding so pretty pleased with that.

Saw a woman in wc jersey and held onto the wheel of her group for about a mile outside dorking. Just realised that was vos!

There are no 'winners', you just buy yourself a gold, silver, medal when you pay your entrance fee, no BC points awarded.
How do you even know you have 'won' if not everybody has finished yet? 😯

Well that was 'moist' to say the least 😯

Shame they took the two decent hills out though, done both on a mtb so would've liked to get over 'em on the road.

Popped in to see njee - he was really very busy. Reckon riding it would've been less tiring for him.

4.25 for me after riding the first 2 hours solo in a sulk, what an idiot, that's easily sub 4h for me on those roads.

Mainly enjoyable and I'm glad I've experienced it. Re the "race " comments - I experienced some right idiots banging out a chain line out of london squeezing past amateurs and street furniture. Not only that, but then swearing F and C words at anyone who came near them. I should have noted the club name and posted it up / emailed their club sec.

Loved the support from bystanders prepared to stand in the rain and cheers - especially the cheerleaders!

Bit of a whinger aren't you MrSmith.

Always looking at the negatives. All hail the riding god.

Chunky x 1,000,000 ,what a smug man you sound mr smith.

I experienced some right idiots banging out a chain line out of london squeezing past amateurs and street furniture. Not only that, but then swearing F and C words at anyone who came near them.

Had a lot of that last year. Shoulder charged a few, after I'd had enough of it. At 105 kg I was always gonna win !

There are no 'winners', you just buy yourself a gold, silver, medal when you pay your entrance fee, no BC points awarded.

Who said anything about winning?

Just seen beerbabe on telly on the drag up to Coldharbour.

Who said anything about winning?

pic above looks like a sprint was contested and someone punched the air with glee, like they won?

Who said anything about winning?

the bloke who won as he punches the air beating those others over the line in the pic pretending they are in a real race?

Always looking at the negatives.

theres quite a few of them, you only have to read the posts about other riders behaviour, why put yourself through that when you can ride in a group of mates or club and not have deal with all that?

All hail the riding god

You seem a bit angry about it all. Chill out and don't stress yourself about it.

Go out for a ride a pretend you're beating everyone.

Well done to all those rode the event. All the grumps stayed indoors.

Popped in to see njee - he was really very busy. Reckon riding it would've been less tiring for him.

Damn right! Nice to see a friendly face though Nobby, good effort!

The first bloke rolled in for tech support at 8.15 with his Di2 rear mech in two bits, having been down the road 3 times by then. We were steady for about 20 minutes, then utterly mental until about 1, then a few stragglers until 2.

One bloke had a heart attack on Newlands, the air ambulance arrived about 1:30 (I understand unrelated), but didn't actually take anyone.

We sold over 400 inner tubes.

We saw at least 50 broken mechs, I grudgingly single speeded a couple of very very nice road bikes.

Most people who came to us had crashed at least once, four times was the most I heard.

Some people are very rude when they're getting a free service, a couple of folk baulked at the fact they had to buy spares, as assumed they were FOC (obviously no labour charges).

I fitted a hanger to one bloke's bike, retrieved the remnants of his chain from the various orifices it was wedged into, rejoined, removed his cassette to take off the now broken spoke protector, completely tuned his gears and sorted his brake pads. The parts entailed a mech hanger and a PowerLink, it took me getting on for an hour all in. He said "I'm part of London Cycling Campaign, so I'm due a discount". He didn't receive one.

Most people very thankful though, particularly as wait times were long as only two of us could do any more than fix a puncture! I've never straightened so many mech hangers in one day, nor bodged spoke replacements!

You seem a bit angry about it all. Chill out and don't stress yourself about it.

Go out for a ride a pretend you're beating everyone.

Angry? its definitely a no stress LOL day. no riding today, went for a ride yesterday on the same roads in the sunshine thanks.

i’ll leave the “pretend your beating everyone” to the sportive pseudo-racers.

Edit at post above: I’m gobsmacked at that carnage??? falling off 4 times????

Looks like Ian Rees from Bristol crossed the line first (although i believe he's getting some stick from local roadies on his FB page about it being a sportive

Expect he will be suitably embarrassed come tomorrow morning 😛

Hats off to all riding in that, looked grim out there. And not often you get to be passed by Vos!