Ride London

Knowing most of the route I reckon there’ll be ambulances ago-go if the standard of riding displayed on the Dragon Ride was anything to go by.
The climb up to Leith will surprise people, the one to Box won’t as its not exactly hard (but apparently its iconic….)

Is there anyway to register on the day? I entered the ballot but didn’t get a place, OH did so off up to London anyway to act as the bagman.
I kind of figure that of the 20,000 allocated places, there are going to be quite a few no shows due to illness, lack of training, not being arsed etc. So, if I turn up with £50 and ask nicely at the end of Saturdays registration period what’s the chance of them letting me do it? Slim probably…but it’s a shame to let the empty places go to waste.

Alternative is to lift bike over the barriers 1 mile down the road from the start and just ride with everyone…(not really going to do this, it’s not right!)

I’m off at 7, if the ride goes as smooth as the registration I’ll be more than happy…

Train leaving Waverley at about half 7 tomorrow and I’ll hopefully be registered by 3pm tomorrow afternoon. I’m in a relay team of 4 and I’m doing leg 3…miles 49-73 – so get Box and Leith hill…looking forward to it, should be a bit of a laugh!

On the upside… perfect forecast and 20,000 riders on a mostly flat course. It’s gonna be quick

It’s going to be carnage. 20’000 nodders with poor spatial awareness thinking they are in a race. I wonder how the ambulance service is going to cope? It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a death, some unfit tubby strava monkey going for a PB up the box hill alp.

Crikey, that’s positive thinking right there!

Prepare for the worst then there’s no nasty surprises.

That sounds a bit more positive…come on…keep trying…

Chap at work is doing it on a BMX…He’s been commuting 40 miles a day for quite a few weeks now so he may well succeed.

Feel a bit inadequate on the racing bike.

I’m in a relay team of 4 and I’m doing leg 3

is that allowed?

It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a death, some unfit tubby

to be fair, there are sometimes deaths at marathons and other mass participation events so it wouldn’t surprise me either.
if I see anyone collecting for the Miserable Bastards Foundation, I’ll pop a penny in for you Gary.

Not miserable at all, having had the misfortune to come across a sportive and witnessed the standard of riding I’m just making a realistic assessment of what 20’000 wannabe Bradley wiggins’s is going to be like.
A bit of adrenaline and an a poor judgement of ones abilities on Surreys epic mountain descents will enviably end in tears.

You get a place then Mr Smith 😉

Thankfully not.

7.22 start for me.
I’ll be the big lad wearing an orange/black MS jersey.
Any encouragement after the 70 mile mark will be much appreciated.

good luck all, shoudl be a grea event.

ps love the “there are too many cyclist in surrey” on

http://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/About/FAQs.htm

What a day! Such a good event, well organised and a VERY quick route!

How did everyone do?

amazing day! superbly organised.
highlight for me was riding through red lights on the wrong side of the road at 40mph… surreal. oh, and turning onto the Mall to a wall of sound – people cheering you on.
if I was being hypercritical, it did feel like a bit of a procession at times due to the number of people but there was no stopping out on the road just a bit of slowing and I expected it to be a lot lot worse than what it was. Also longer with more hills would be nice.

Hi Will,
My ride time according to the Garmin was 5 hours 38 minutes, which also included the 2 mile lead out before you hit the timing mats.
My only other 100 mile event was the Nottingham 100 which I did in 6h 25m.
The course was rapid. Kept thinking I had to slow down for fear of running out of energy later on.
What an atmosphere!!!

Great events, but I would never want to ride it, sorry.

Just don’t like the idea of riding with a bazillion other cyclists. It seems mildly ironic that you have the use of closed roads yet have to sit penned up unable to ride until you’re told, then it’s bumper to bumper so to speak.

But I know loads of people who will love this, it is a bloody splendid event. I’ll enjoy my audax next week with three maters more.

Stayed in the worst hotel in London, 10 min from the start. Met up with the Twickenham medium paced team and left at 6:20. The blue train pulled about 50 riders out of London to Weybridge whereupon the group fell apart. My team sent me on ahead as I’m a climber and they didn’t want to hold me back, and I rode the last half solo. Finished in 4:40. Was nice to ride some of the descents as one would like, not worried about traffic, but otherwise, it’s any South London cycling club’s standard Sunday route with a 20 mile header to get to the start.

And oldgit isn’t far wrong; nice route and closed roads, but it basically seemed to be a wheelsuckfest, nobody working together, everybody trying not to work on the front, nobody even saying thanks for the tow! Nice medal though 😀

Join a club and learn to group ride, much better feeling. Then try a race.

that looked a seriously rapid route, a few work colleagues just ‘joined in’ and set a 20mph+ avg speed – they aint no racers!
Im now annoyed I didnt ‘join in’ as its passed the end of my road!

Great day out, .the closed roads and big event atmosphere really made it.

From what i saw the majority of the early groups were experienced, no daft riding, no diving into the corners etc and a fast pace. Never really felt nervous in the way you get when amongst erratic riders.perhaps later waves were different.

I couldnt hack the pace on leith hill got dropped there then a bit of a sufferfest until box hill when the next big group swallowed me up. The last 15km or so was an awesome experience, a downhll section then a flat run along the river to westminster and the crowds from there to the finish. Last 2k in particular stands out with the pace really ramping up people trying to get a decent position for the sprint and the crowd cheering as if they are watching the stars rather than guys like me. 😀

don’t know why, but really quick. tremendous organisation. my mate on the BMX was the knackeredest person I have ever seen…

Agree with Omar. I was riding with a friend who hasn’t done a century before so we took it steady. I started about 7:10ish so most of the club (serious) riders were ahead of me. We took it steady and really enjoyed it. The crowds clapping and cheering were amazing. I had a club jersey on and loads of people singled me out and shouted for me which was really cool. Coming into London and turning onto The Mall was something I’ll never forget, it was deafening.

Couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

Some good times here! It was seriously quick wasn’t it! Don’t think I have ever done 100 miles in that time before (4:09)

Myself and a club mate were doing some huge efforts and that worked for the whole route, awesome stuff.

Full times here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At9hEvGB0JsUdE9XRTlmYzc5S2plRVhNWWdMWlhVdVE#gid=0

Brilliant time had by all! we were in a team of 7 riding for Help the Hospice and managed to get all to the end with a bit of team spirit. Some had trained a little more than others.

Amazing fun riding through empty streets in London, we stopped at various towns and villages to say hello to friends and family and come 12-1pm the smells of bbq’s dritfing over the roads was fantastic. all in all a great atmosphere!

Only a couple of shunts that I saw and my fear of it being a shuntfest coming down Leith were unfounded, lots of sensible people either keeping out the way or letting others know they were coming through.

One irate bloke on the way up Box hill complaining at people not getting out the way but that was the only bad humourd person I head/saw. He got told to relax and get out the way of someone else ironically enough 🙂

Great seeing friends and Family in Westcott, on to next year!

remember, it’s not a race, it’s an experience and an unforgettable one for me! Oh and we raised a load of money too!

I was a crossing marshal on Cromwell Road and seeing the first wave of riders go past was awesome followed by the next 16,000 riders.

It was a great event, just a shame it started so early as there was not much support on your ride out of London due to the time. My mate who rode said there was loads of supportin Surrey and the run in to the finish was amazing.

For the pros I stood on an island and flag marshalled, the peloton split right in front of me and went down both sides, the noise and blaze of colour was awesome. A really good memory shame I couldn’t take pictures. 😀

Well done to everyone who rode it, the riders I spoke were full of praise for the organisation which is great for a new event on this scale.

One thing I found a bit disappointing is that there were 3,500 no shows. So if you do give feedback we should ask for a late/last minute registration to fill the empty places.

Riding through empty streets in central London at 5.00am was a novelty.

One thing I found a bit disappointing is that there were 3,500 no shows

Could well be that it was organised with a drop-out rate in mind and 16,500 was the target. Actually having 20,000 might have been a bit of a stretch.

Maybe.

Really enjoyed that, a great day out, the two crashes I saw were people overdoing it in the corners, having said that, blasting through the towns using all the road was good fun, garmin recorded 52mph max, no idea where that was, offical time was 5.51 and the garmin recorded 5.40.

A guaranteed place in next year’s ride was almost certainly the reason for no-shows. I thought the event could handle more participants, and this was a conservative start. The London Marathon has grown since it began, and the same people organised this event.

The general view is that by 2017 it will have an entry of 35,000 riders per year in order to be bigger than the Cape Argus (currently the largest sportive in the world).

I agree that filling the missing slots this year would have been good, and let’s hope they find a way to do that for next year.

well, there were a fair few people taking advantage of the open roads, so I’d imagine the number actually taking part had swelled by a few hundred.
there was a guy at the end on a cruiser with no rider numbers anywhere and who looked like he’d ridden about a mile as he cruised down the Mall, got a medal and a photo and a goodie bag.

what was the name of the guy on the BMX? I want to look up his photos.
I would actually be tempted to do it on a novelty bike next year, or in fancy dress. Even to do it on an MTB with knobblies would be fun.

Definite shame about no-shows. I was woefully unaware/apathetic about the ride, once I knew the details I’d love to have been able to turn up on Sunday for a place. Definitely on it next year! (might even book a slot on brakes’ 120 mile training rides!)

haha! I’m doing 122 miles in a couple of weeks – Stage 1 of the 2014 TdF, but that’s up in Yorkshire. We should deffo hook up for a ride though – I’d like to work out a route going north into Hertfordshire rather than riding through London for 30 miles to get to Surrey. might even get involved with a club/ shop ride in the Autumn, if only to work out a route.

Definite shame about no-shows. I was woefully unaware/apathetic about the ride, once I knew the details I’d love to have been able to turn up on Sunday for a place. Definitely on it next year!

+1 I’d heard a few mutterings that something was going on but it wasn’t until I saw the thread on here on Friday that I realised the magnitude of it and exactly what was happening. Will definitely apply for a place next year, it sounded ace!

5h 07m for me. My fastest ton by a long shot. I never rode with any particular group, so had some time in the wind alone, but it was often easy to get in pace lines, ride with them for a while, maybe tow a few people up to the next one on occasions. I started with the F start group and seemed to be among a lot of “F”s all day, and didn’t really see many solid organised groups, just lots of odds and sods. Great fun, really amazing riding those closed roads.

10% no-show is about standard for most events and I think for the Dartmoor Classic (which was held in atrocious conditions) the no-show rate went up to about 35%, that’s a similar event where people enter months and months in advance and it always sells out.

The extra logistics around this one (needing to be in London the night before, the closed roads making transport difficult and the different start/finish points) will have put a lot of people off – they may not have known the exact requirements at the time they entered.

Amazed that Boris managed to finish, well done him 🙂

Sounds like a good day was had by all – gutted I missed out on a place. Maybe next year!

brakes – I did a reasonable 100 miler through Hertford on Saturday – building in 2 x 36 mile loops (between Hertford and Clavering) plus a ride up the A10(ish) from London to Stanstead Abbotts. Can send you the Garmin link if it’s any use? 🙂