L2B, L2C or L2O

kelsen

Office is organising a team to do the L2B this year. Did it last year and the sheer numbers made it pretty chaotic.

I'm going to suggest the other 2 as alternatives. What're your experience of them?

Edit: I mean specifically the organised charity rides

EKE_38BPM

+1 to L2B being chaotic. L2B bike walk for the first third.
Never done either of the other two though. Feedback would be interesting.

jzed

The Independent and Action Medical Research do a London to Brighton. Last year was its first year, with rider numbers limited to 200 IIRC, there were 2-3 food stops along the way which was a bonus and from the start you had good open road.

http://www.action.org.uk/independent_london2brighton_ride

I did the London to Cambridge last year and for the first hour it was chaotic due to the numbers of cyclists, alot who seemed inexperienced.

greg66_tri_v2.0

I did L2C once. Arrived at check in on the outskirts of what I'd call "London" with a mate, who promptly spied some of her mates from her triathlon club.

The result was that we rode to the main feed/stop station in a 7 or 8 person paceline blasting past all and sundry.

This was a few years ago though, and it may be that these things are more popular now.

The ride, from what I recall, is pretty nice. Quite country roads until about 5m outside Cambridge, where you join the A roads that take you in.

hambones

I've done the L2C for the last 3 years whilst encouraging various work people to get out and cycle and this year will be no exception. I have 14 interested this time around! As with all these events you will get all standards of riding and the general rule if you want to avoid the chaos is set off early...

Vitessetortoise

Did London to Oxford with a couple of mates last year, quite a nice ride and totally different to L2B in terms of numbers, you can easliy ride the whole way without being forced off due to congestion. The ride up to the pub at Christmas Common was great (pub & ride) as were the sausage butties at burnham beeches. The last 5 or so miles into Oxford was pretty dull A rods but there is loads of food and a bar set up at the end.

Also did London to Southend a couple of years ago which was also quiet enough to be a decent ride but enough people to feel like an event. Not having been to Southend before we had planned to have a few pints once we got there but, well, lets just say we changed our minds on arrival, the Champs Elysees it aint.

spen666

London to Southend Organised by same people as L2B etc.

Same distance - far fewer people and a good day out