Ride London rollcall

Well if you are not suffering today then you shoud’ve tried harder 😆

The litter dropping is totally awful, sometimes we are our own worst enemy.
However I can’t think for one moment that it’s anyone on here, so that’s fine, it’s all the other buggers.. 🙄

Ahhh the world loves a bottle(bidon) tosser 😆

So now we all know what drowned rats feel like, eh?

6 hours 40 minutes pedalling time here (must get fitter). Stopped a couple of times to get some food down me. Longest stop at Richmond Park, off the bke and edging slowly forward. People grumbling. Everybody shut up when we went passed the ambulance stretchering in the poor bloke. About 20 minutes of delay…

Pain relief gel into the right hip just past Leatherhead.

BIG UP to the charity teams placed at strategic points to keep up the energy.

Likewise – pretty irritated at the litter left on the road.

100 road miles still not ridden. See you next year!

86 miles, they missed out the hills! Box and Leith were avoided.

So it was a flat 86er? Right, time to unleash a can of whoopass on his facebook ramblings! 😀

nope, definitely not here, I hate it. All wrappers up the shorts or back in the jersey pockets.

Worst shorts tucking moment was retrieving the end of a choc cliff bar that I’d not been able to finish before. The wrapper had already gone in the pocket, last third went up the shorts.

Coming back to it later, fishing out a brown lump from my shorts, seeing streaks of it on my leg, then eating it… 😕 bleurgh. Tasted good though!

Shame about the litter, why can’t people just stuff it back in their jersey?

To quote a well known phrase; I counted them all out, and I counted them back in. Four SIS gel wrapper. I agree, leave nothing behind. I had two modest pockets and no seatpack, and I had no problems not dropping litter.

So it was a flat 86er?

It was pretty flat, yes.

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/family-devastated-after-woking-cyclist-7593599

Sounds like someone had a bit of a bad day. Could happen to any of us at any time.

TiRed, did you have anything else other than the 4 gels?

Not questioning your littering, just interested in the nutrition/energy!

wml – that is desperately sad, especially that she thought she’d see him at the top, and then couldn’t be with him.

@wanman – very sad, just saw headline on BBC. Will make a donation to his justgiving page, he was riding for charity.

^^ Yup brought a tear to my eye that story.. 😐

TiRed, did you have anything else other than the 4 gels?

That nutrition in full:
Night before: Risotto, garlic bread and a Peroni beer.
On morning: Two weetabix, a banana and a gel for breakfast.
On the line: Small chocolate crepe made by my own fair hand the day before.
SIS gel every 40 minutes. Stored under shorts, empties placed in the rear pockets.

For the full 100, I also carried a SIS energy bar, a small malt loaf and some shortbread, but never felt the need for them.

And a very sad turn of events. RIP. Donation made.

Such sad news about that poor guy. Will be making a donation too. can’t even imagine how his GF felt when he just didn’t turn up at the top.

After loosing a bottle just outside RP I only had 1 650ml bottle for the ride and 3 gels…

Always laugh at the High5 “3 gels an hour” instructions, I’ve never done that though, think i’d be off my face!

Yes agree on all the advised servings – a bottle of High 5 every 20 minutes, plus a gel. 😯

They had so much High 5 left over, I came away with a bin bag of gels and sachets – appeared to be about 80 gels, plus 50 or so drink sachets. Win.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and managed to raise over £1400 for an MS charity into the bargain. I had my doubts as the heavens opened on us in Kingston (and we could see the earlier riders coming home on the other side!) and while standing in the rain in Richmond park after a pile up, but based on that alone I think it was a good call to remove the hills, they would have been carnage.

Very sorry to hear about the guy who collapsed at Newlands corner. I now realise I cycled past it happening. Have made a donation to his charity.

Credit is due to all the spectators and charity cheering teams who turned out in support and all those marshals and mechanics who did a superb job.

The High 5 was amazing – I didn’t bonk at all, but instead felt like Lance after a fresh transfusion!

I did it. All in all I thought it was a great event and the opportunity to ride on closed roads through London was great. They def made the right call to take out the two big hills. I had trouble with punctures – fixed first one in torrential rain then thought ‘hmm, I didn’t check the tyre to see what caused that’ shortly followed by puncture 2. Both caused by a piece of stanley knife blade in the tyre! I ran out of CO2 and had tow walk about a mile to get it sorted. Ho hum…

Thoughts are with the fallen rider, RIP.

Sad news about the guy who died 🙁

This is fun to look at for events:

http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer

Put in the id for your Strava activity then select your mates and watch yourselves race around.

awesome. Thank you, mudshark! I’ll have a look at that when I get home – don’t need to be premier, do you?

I started with a friend, lost her at 25 miles ish, but we finished 8 seconds apart. I’d love to know if we passed each other and didn’t notice.

Same for another friend, wasn’t expecting to see him, but it turns out he rolled over the start 15 seconds behind us, so he must have been standing a few metres away for 45 mins or so.

awesome. Thank you, mudshark! I’ll have a look at that when I get home – don’t need to be premier, do you?

no

7.10 start here and I was amazed to see the average speed creeping up to 21 mph through the City for very little effort on my part. Rain started after Richmond Park and reached biblical levels out in Surrey. I was shocked at the numbers of riders who punctured so dreading the same happening to me…. which it inevitably did at about mile 60. Pulled out the tube, checked the tyre carefully, refitted it easily as everything was soaked then cracked open a CO2 cylinder only to find that the trigger thingy was leaking gas so instead of going carefully I had to dump the lot into the tyre in a hurry. Luckily I hadn’t trapped the inner and it all worked and stayed inflated. Only took 2 tubes and 2 cylinders so didn’t want to have to do it again. Spent the last 20 miles (as I’ve posted elsewhere) enjoying the sight of a woman cyclist with spectacularly long, well muscled legs, which helped a lot. Now I’ve seen the pics I realise she was also on my wheel some of the time, probably enjoying my full mudguards, not my legs!

Was very impressed with the Castelli rain jacket, which I’d never used in anger before and which kept me bearably dry and not too sweaty while not being flappy at all. If nothing else the ride has taught me not to fear heavy rain!

Also impressed with the Veloflex open tubulars (clinchers) that I bought a few days before for £52 the pair from Ribble, they ride fast, grippy and super smooth.

Finished in 4.40 actual riding time, I’m happy with that as a 58 year-old! Don’t think I’ll try for 2015 as the logistics and expense of getting self, bike and family down to London on the train were a ball ache.

This is Marianne Vos for those that kept up with her for a bit:

http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#178137763

Yes, the Marianne Vos flyby thing is quite cool, can see the jump in my average speed where I joined her peloton for 15-20km. 🙂

I’ve been given a list of the top 2000 finishers by time. 3:55:41 is the time and is the 2000th.

fastest 3:23:23
100th 3:30:43
500th 3:45:55
1000th 3:55:41
1500th 4:03:38
2000th 4:10:21

2000th and a bit then for me.

I’ve been given a list of the top 19084 so ner!

“knocked up a quick and dirty macro to pull from the results site at 15:37 Sunday”

19084 time – 9:01:20. Impressive enduring that weather for that long!

What position is 4:17:41 then?

Or could you send it to me? Address in profile.

dont you know its not a race?

but whats a 4.21 count for roughly.

Laura Trott was 4:23. She may not have been racing….

Must have stopped at some point then as the wiggle peloton passed me at speed about halfway round. Didn’t have the legs to hang on….

It was definitely not a race but if there is one thing that event told me it was that I should get out and race.

My time just under four hours but I was waiting for my mate quite a lot as he was having a bad day. I kept putting in little efforts on the small rises and before I knew it he was off the back.

There was a really good train that came past me on the A24 from Dorking and I would dearly have loved to keep on them but didn’t want to leave my mate.

Not sure how quick I would have been had I not waited. Maybe 3hr 45mins?

I really should go and do a 25TT

mudshark, 5 seconds quicker than me! 2718 – 2720 all got your time.

jambo, 3056 – 3178 got 4:21:something.

While we’re on ifs and buts, what do you reckon spds would have got me over flats and running trainers? (apart from hurty knees!)

9 hours. that is true dedication.

Think that was the person or people from my GF’s club. They stopped to given the poor chap CPR who later died. Stayed with him for a while and then rode back with the broom wagon chasing them. Kudos.

Loads of people were coming through as the broom wagon was loading up at Newlands, desperate to continue. One bloke even turned down the broom wagon and rode back on his own, fully accepting he was effectively out.

where was Newlands? Was it the feed station at the top of a hill about halfway round?

I didn’t really have much of a clue where I was in the middle part of the ride

where was Newlands? Was it the feed station at the top of a hill about halfway round?

Yes that was it.

SO much of the ride is a blur to me. It all passed by in a druken haze of adrenaline fuelled excitment. I can’t even remember crossing the Thames on the way out or passing by Hampton Court!

One bloke even turned down the broom wagon and rode back on his own, fully accepting he was effectively out.

People like that were the real heroes on the day. Those people that you saw on £100 Halfords specials in trainers and tracky bottoms; that’s a real achievement to have ridden that course like that.

The most amazing think I saw though, in the photographs not on the road, is the guy doing it all on a BMX. Yes really! I will try to dig the photo out.

Here you go.

Stone me if he didn’t do it in 5hrs 45mins as well!

More pics of him here.

impressive. did anyone else see the chap in gold lamee. I thought it was jimmy saville…

5:45 is a 15mph average? That seems mental on a BMX!

5:45 is a 15mph average? That seems mental on a BMX!

So mental you could quite understand if actually he’d done it by hitching lifts but we know he didn’t!

In the other pictures he does at least have his seat up but still, can’t quite fathom how strong you’d have to be to be able to do that.

I think this event needs more people like that.
In the marathon you see loads of people in fancy dress, or pushing a tennis ball round the course with their nose…
It would be nice if it evolved into something like that rather than a 20,000 person TTT.
I might consider doing something daft like that for charity next year.

That’s the stated aim of the organisers. They want it to be one of the largest mass participation fund raising events in the UK.

but whats a 4.21 count for roughly.

16th percentile. You were faster than 84% of riders.