London-Cambridge this Sunday: with ride report

optimisticbiker

http://www.bike-events.com/Ride.aspx?id=271

Looks like weather will be good... fancy doing there and back too... route is reasonably flat, about a 650m climb overall over the 88km. I'm guessing 3h30 approx each way.

Riding there wont be an issue, be lots of people, just dont fancy coming back on my own tho...

optimisticbiker

50 views and no responses.... I guess thats a no :roll:

Oh well, lonely ride home then...

rich164h

I'm doing it with a couple of others. Mainly because Cambridge is where I grew up so I get to see the parents. I think there were 4500 people last year (according to the video on their website anyway) so I'm planning on starting early to avoid the worst of the crowds.

MountainMonster

3hr30 to do a 88km ride with only 650m in total? I understand your going to be doing the return as well, but still. I hit the 4 hr 30 min mark a couple weeks ago on a 140km trip, with 2000m climbing in total.

jamm13dodger

Yep, ill be doing it. Just the one way though. Im doing it as part of my company ARM team event. First decent length ride ill have done for 15 years but not expecting any issues.

Keep an eye out for the 100+ riders wearing our ARM branded cycle shirts. Ill be one of them.

All the best, Rob

optimisticbiker

@rich164h: yes was planning to start early too, maybe close to 7:30 - got to drive over to Picketts lock but thats 20min or so from me on a Sunday morning. Guess you're only doing the one way?

@MountainMonster: tbh I would hope to be faster. Its a bit further than I have ridden before, but I can average 16mph for a couple of hours commuting, tho my last sportive was 60mile in the rain on a 950m climb and i managed a poor 4h30 (12mph) including stops. Its a day out anyway, so speed isnt really an issue, it was more to give people an idea of the pace I'd be ok with...

@jamm13dodger: Its not too bad a route - obviously exact route not known but a few alternates I plotted cant get to more than a 10% gradient for a few 100 metres so hardly going to be too strenuous...

Oh well - still a lonely ride home... lol

Will be signing upon the day... as booking site closed now.

MountainMonster

OptimisticBiker wrote:

@rich164h: yes was planning to start early too, maybe close to 7:30 - got to drive over to Picketts lock but thats 20min or so from me on a Sunday morning. Guess you're only doing the one way?

@MountainMonster: tbh I would hope to be faster. Its a bit further than I have ridden before, but I can average 16mph for a couple of hours commuting, tho my last sportive was 60mile in the rain on a 950m climb and i managed a poor 4h30 (12mph) including stops. Its a day out anyway, so speed isnt really an issue, it was more to give people an idea of the pace I'd be ok with...

@jamm13dodger: Its not too bad a route - obviously exact route not known but a few alternates I plotted cant get to more than a 10% gradient for a few 100 metres so hardly going to be too strenuous...

Oh well - still a lonely ride home... lol

Will be signing upon the day... as booking site closed now.

That's fair enough, some arn't the really racey type, and enjoy slower rides taking the scenery in. Nothing wrong with that at all!

Anyways, best of luck with the ride, hope you make it all and are happy with your results

optimisticbiker

MountainMonster wrote:

OptimisticBiker wrote:

@rich164h: yes was planning to start early too, maybe close to 7:30 - got to drive over to Picketts lock but thats 20min or so from me on a Sunday morning. Guess you're only doing the one way?

@MountainMonster: tbh I would hope to be faster. Its a bit further than I have ridden before, but I can average 16mph for a couple of hours commuting, tho my last sportive was 60mile in the rain on a 950m climb and i managed a poor 4h30 (12mph) including stops. Its a day out anyway, so speed isnt really an issue, it was more to give people an idea of the pace I'd be ok with...

@jamm13dodger: Its not too bad a route - obviously exact route not known but a few alternates I plotted cant get to more than a 10% gradient for a few 100 metres so hardly going to be too strenuous...

Oh well - still a lonely ride home... lol

Will be signing upon the day... as booking site closed now.

That's fair enough, some arn't the really racey type, and enjoy slower rides taking the scenery in. Nothing wrong with that at all!

Anyways, best of luck with the ride, hope you make it all and are happy with your results

Thanks... mind you 140km in 4:30 is averaging 19.4mph, thats pretty good over that climb, I can just about manage that on the flat, and then only for a short while!

MountainMonster

OptimisticBiker wrote:

MountainMonster wrote:

OptimisticBiker wrote:

@rich164h: yes was planning to start early too, maybe close to 7:30 - got to drive over to Picketts lock but thats 20min or so from me on a Sunday morning. Guess you're only doing the one way?

@MountainMonster: tbh I would hope to be faster. Its a bit further than I have ridden before, but I can average 16mph for a couple of hours commuting, tho my last sportive was 60mile in the rain on a 950m climb and i managed a poor 4h30 (12mph) including stops. Its a day out anyway, so speed isnt really an issue, it was more to give people an idea of the pace I'd be ok with...

@jamm13dodger: Its not too bad a route - obviously exact route not known but a few alternates I plotted cant get to more than a 10% gradient for a few 100 metres so hardly going to be too strenuous...

Oh well - still a lonely ride home... lol

Will be signing upon the day... as booking site closed now.

That's fair enough, some arn't the really racey type, and enjoy slower rides taking the scenery in. Nothing wrong with that at all!

Anyways, best of luck with the ride, hope you make it all and are happy with your results

Thanks... mind you 140km in 4:30 is averaging 19.4mph, thats pretty good over that climb, I can just about manage that on the flat, and then only for a short while!

I had the blessing/ curse of riding with my father in law and his buddies since I started out cycling. He's obsessed with bikes, trains a minimum of 16 hours a week (nice to be a pensioner eh) and looks after himself very well. Needless to say, their all tanks. Perfectly formed bodies, and then me hanging in the middle with belly flapping. Oh well, I keep up, so who cares!

meanredspider

Riding in a group is a lot quicker. The return trip will be much harder though.

I used to live on the route at the Cambridge end - the slope outside our house was gentle but, towards the end of the day, you'd have thought it was the summit of Ventoux looking at the faces of the riders.

If I'd realised, I might have headed down from Inverness today to join in. I'm down tomorrow anyway.

vs4b

Yes, i'll be riding it both ways as it happens, but the other way to you. I'll be getting up (very) early and riding down from Cambridge in the morning.

Its a nice day out, well was last year, loads of people riding all sorts of standards, IMHO its about a social ride so speed not at all important, at least thats what i'm relying on!

So if you see a fat bloke in a skeleton jersey on the a10 early tomorrow give us a wave!

woody123

First time poster but long time lurker.
Hoping to do there and back as well, bit out of shape ( OK SERIOUSLY OUT OF SHAPE ) but going to give it a go.I will have to cycle over to start fom Harrow but hoping to leave early.If you want bit of company on way back I will be old bald fat guy in tour of Waterford top (horrible orange colour.

HadronCyclist

I'll be there.
Picketts lock at about 0720.
Two of us doing it, one on a black/red/silver dogma and one on an allez. Look out for white helmet, shoes, gloves and jersey travelling at 23mph northwards, and probably 20mph southwards on the return leg.

optimisticbiker

I'll be in red gore top and black shorts on a Jamis Ventura Race (white/red), black spesh Propero helmet

I've plotted an alternate return route (to the as yet unknown in detail outbound route) on my Garmin800, see how the outbound goes...

@woody123 - sorry didnt pick this up earlier - if you want a lift over to PL I'll be leaving Stanmore/Edgeware border about 7 or just before... PM sent

@Hadron, what time are you planning on coming back? PM sent

jamm13dodger

Well im back home. Ave speed of 15.3mph which for me is about right. Went out way too fast though -difficult not to get caught up in the excitement TBH. I suspect that'll wear off but this is my first organised ride with others in over 25 years. Enjoyed it even though the last few miles did hurt.

optimisticbiker

jamm13dodger wrote:

Well im back home. Ave speed of 15.3mph which for me is about right. Went out way too fast though -difficult not to get caught up in the excitement TBH. I suspect that'll wear off but this is my first organised ride with others in over 25 years. Enjoyed it even though the last few miles did hurt.

well done. I wasn't that quick, but I'm happy with what I achieved.. 111miles.. and I had a goal to do a 100miler before the end of July.

My Garmin reckoned the outbound route was 93.1km - 58miles. By the time I had queued to register, paid, gone back to the car to drop off all the bumph they gave you, queued at the start, it was closer to 8:05 by the time I did start and there was a lot of traffic (bikes and cars, seems everyone wanted a day out in the sun). And it took forever to cross the A120 and, later, to get into Cambridge. So the outbound trip was longer than I had expected - closer to 4hr10 tho my moving time was 3h56, 23.7km/h or 14.8mph, but well happy.

My planned return route was slightly more direct than the organised one at 84.6km by virtue of going straight down the B1368 instead of swinging back and forth on small roads to avoid a couple of small bumps - to be honest I didnt find that any more difficult despite my tired legs (I did have a massage as the back of my right thigh was extremely tender when i got there, but fine when I got home). The return journey was a lot slower as I decided to experience cycle routes 61 and 1 which run alongside the Ware and the Lea Valley Navigation. Obviously slower and very scenic, but very disappointed with the state of them... some of NR1 running through the Lea Valley Country Park (very scenic, its a nice ride) has been surfaced in about 1/2" of pea gravel making it impossible, on a road bike anyway, to go at anything more than about 10mph. Trouble was that that included a section that does a passable mini-imitation of Alpe-d'Huez, with about 15 hairpins up and over a hill... but with that surface it was no fun... End result was 21.1km/h (13.2mph) average for the return route. Was around 24.5km/h when I hit NR61 at around 40km to go.

Overall 22.3km/h (14mph) - more than happy with that... over a total elevation gain 1370m

Mrs OB wants me to commute by tube tomorrow... hmmmm... nope... legs feel ok... (but we'll see tomorrow). Did get a little sunburnt tho, seems 2y out of date suntan lotion (I didnt check when I grabbed it this morning) doesnt work so well

jamm13dodger

I only went one way - no way i'd have attempted the return journey yet so i think your time is more impressive than mine

I thought the route was pretty good but as i set off at 9am it was very busy, the number of people on the road wass quite large and it seemed there was a bunch of people crawling up every hill which made it quite hard to maintain a comfortable pace up them. I was either sitting way too slow or sprinting to overtake them on the wtong side of the road.

There was also one spot in a village that had a staggered crossroads with traffic lights. The queue was about 200 meters long at that point.

One of our team ended up in Addenbrookes with a broken shoulder and fractured hip, still not sure what happened though. There was also a report on the news that someone had had a heart attack and had to be airlifted to hospital. All in all quite an eventful day. I believe everyone is ok though which is good.

vs4b

Well done guys, which ever way you go its a long way there and back. Sounds like you did really well.
I left Cambridge at 540 and headed straight down the A10 to take the most direct route to the start, saw a couple of guys in Royston but they had a different route planned so didnt ride with them. I did the 45ish miles to the start with no stops at just under17mph average which is fast for me. The last 15miles of teh a10 werent very nice to ride- more like a motorway than an a-road
Having met some mates at teh start we rode back together, had a great day, enjoyed being faster than most and did a lot of overtaking (not normally the case in the sportives ive ridden) had a few nice chats with passers-by. It was really slow though, mainly due to weight of numbers of some hills and also a few junctions - one with traffic lights, one right turn on a down hill and also the level crossing. We averaged 14.5 on the return but stopped a lot for food and rest for the two younger riders we had with us.
All in all a great day out, despite teh crazy early start time.

woody123

Again well done to all.Made it there and back,enjoyable spin up ,returned by A10 not as bad as i expected reasonably quiet and hard shoulder most of way.I started to die in Enfield and from there to Harrow was very tough! Optimistic biker: Sorry I missed your email, as it turns out our times very similar. All in all 238K door to door at 22.6kph. Diet started this morning!!

MountainMonster

OptimisticBiker


Glad to hear your happy with your results, and that you had a good time!

optimisticbiker

woody123 wrote:

Again well done to all.Made it there and back,enjoyable spin up ,returned by A10 not as bad as i expected reasonably quiet and hard shoulder most of way.I started to die in Enfield and from there to Harrow was very tough! Optimistic biker: Sorry I missed your email, as it turns out our times very similar. All in all 238K door to door at 22.6kph. Diet started this morning!!

Wow, 148 miles for someone 'seriously out of shape' is pretty impressive... well done!

Cycled in to work this morning, didn't try too hard as legs weren't really complaining but quietly moaning in the background lol..., still managed it at 15mph

optimisticbiker

vs4b wrote:

I left Cambridge at 540 and headed straight down the A10 to take the most direct route to the start, saw a couple of guys in Royston but they had a different route planned so didnt ride with them. I did the 45ish miles to the start with no stops at just under17mph average which is fast for me...

Not surprising since you had a decent tail wind...

Of course by the time I came back the low producing that northerly wind had moved east and the other low on the other side of the high pressure was giving a warm southerly... so I had headwinds in both directions!

vs4b

strangely, it wasnt a tail wind in the very early morning - was very much a side wind. didnt feel very much like it was helping at all. sadly