Ride London rollcall

I sit on the couch, and slap you with the clipboard? I’ll give it a go.

if anyone sees a shirt saying “Dorking Cocks” please shout “up the Cocks!” as it will be me. or one of the 2 or 3 others.

I have a red MTB helmet with the peak mos.def. in situ, and a nice titanium road bike smothered in enough crap it looks like one of those cross-the-Amazon land rovers.

more seriously I am a bit concerned how I’m going to ride 100 miles with my glasses covered in rain and road debris

it may end up a somewhat snaky route

who’s in the “going to bed early” camp and who’s with me in “no point won’t sleep anyway”?

I’m on my final pint – of erdinger – then I’m off to bed.

a pint of http://www.brightonbier.com/india-pale-ale-ipa.html from http://www.cobbettsrealales.com & I’m done too

for good timing, next door are having a party, that’ll help the 3AM wake up

Decisions decisions…ive had the saddle bag on and off about 5 times….im afraid i might just have to take the sensible choice for a change. I feel like such a fraud! 😀

I think this one is about who gets around, not who looks good while getting around

Had to pull out and differ till next year, if this storm materialises then I won’t be to unhappy about missing it. I am gutted though I’m unable to make this years ride.

wakey wakey!

(3AM not raining in Dorking)

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…

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

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

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 we let her go 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

not bad for a 43 yr old 🙂