London Surrey 100 - whos doing it ???

roadiesean

So I've won a slot on the LS100 part of Ride London which I was chuffed about until I realised that :-

1. It was £48 to enter !
2. You have to go to the Olympic Park the day before the ride to collect your start number and timing chip.

Who else thinks that this is scandalously cheap ? £48 for a ride, plus £27 for a Travelcard to collect the stuff they should be sticking in an envelope and posting to you (and a day off work), plus another £27 for a Travelcard to get to the bloody ride. Over £100 to ride on a sportive ?? Seems very bloody expensive. :evil: :evil:

Can someone please sell me on the value of this ? I was really excited until I realised all this.

And how in Gods name can someone not in London do this ride having to come down twice in 24 hours ?? ?


Incredible !

chrisaonabike

Its incredible that no one else has posted anything about this.

Joking apart...

- The £48 entry fee was publicised when the event was announced, so people had the option not to apply if they thought it too expensive.

- It's not just any old ride, it's a closed-road event right through the middle of London. Expensive, maybe, but the organisation involved in getting 100 miles of road closed for a day must be quite something. Police, marshalling, barriers, publicity, it's all got to cost.

- Given that the start is very early in the morning, it isn't going to be practical to turn up by public transport on the day. So I guess they figure that unless people are very local, they're going to have organised local accommodation for the previous night, thus making it quite easy to collect the packs the previous day.

£27 for your travel into London? You're outside Zone 6, so good luck getting to the start by 6 am or earlier by public transport on a Sunday.

watchfire

Roadie Sean- if you're unhappy with the costs involved I'll take your ticket off your hands....

Anonymous

Its costing me about £500-800, so forgive me if I think you got a bargain!

How did you enter without knowing it was £48?
Are you going to make it to the start for 6/7am (unless you put a really high estimated finish time and are starting at 8am with the mountain bikes)?

Its max £27 more than you would have thought. Just sell the ticket or get a refund if its such a big deal

pashda

I am in. Its a bargain for a closed road sportive through London. To do the London Triathlon on closed roads they want more like £70. I agree its a pain having to collect the numbers yourself but at least it cant get lost or nicked in the post.

meesterbond

As someone who entered and didn't get in, my sympathy for people whinging about the price and arrangements is somewhat limited.

Although it's just lovely to see another thread about it.

Anonymous

It needs its own section
There could be a training thread, what you wearing thread, buying new bits for the ride thread ............

I am quite looking forward to picking the number and chip up the day before.
Can you get it on the Friday?
Hope I am not right at the back :roll:

Am thinking of making a trip to Surrey (about 100 miles) to check out the hilly loop.

MattyyP

I've managed to get a place! And really can not wait! I shall be making a weekend of it! Any excuse for a good jolly!

Simon-R7

I have a place and I am really looking forward to what wil be a challenge for me, enjoying the training rides in the dark in sub zero temperatures

On a serious note it is a bit of a pain to have to collect entry stuff on the Friday or Saturday, the biggest challenge is finding somewhere to park for the day without it costing a fortune as i am looking to drive in early on Sunday morning :shock:

Its not every day that you get the chance to ride through London on closed roads.

chrisaonabike

Carbonator wrote:

It needs its own section
There could be a training thread, what you wearing thread, buying new bits for the ride thread ............

I'd be posting on all of them... I find myself embarrassingly excited (no, not in that way) about the whole event.

The prospect of The Route, on closed roads, starting in the Olympic Park, and finishing on the Mall, is simply great.

Though I'm slightly disappointed that it doesn't quite follow the road race route out through Richmond and Twickenham, cos then my parents could come out and wave which would be fun.

roadiesean

Ok, good to hear the responses and I feel duly put in my place !

I, as you all were was chuffed when I got the call up, brilliant. But I had forgotten the cost as when I applied I was on the street on my phone and as you know you don't always pay max attention !

I had also forgotten about the closed road, so that answers the cost problem, bargaintastic really !

But the whole collect your stuff thing IS a pain. Every other sportive will send it out to you, why can't they ?

Yes, I'm outside of Zone 6, unsurprisingly since about 90% of the UK population is ! Anyway, I've since found out that I have to be in London on the Saturday, so the question on that is also moot !

I'll get me coat !!!

See ya all at the ride !

Anonymous

Ahhh, I love a happy ending.
Glad you are happy about the ride now

So are you staying in London Sat night then and have no probs getting to the start now?
I guess no one knows their start slot until they pick up their number.

I am riding for BHF. Anyone else riding for them and have any idea how they are allocating start times?
I really do not want to be at the back!

That's another thing you don't have to worry about by getting a ballot place Sean.

e17blade

Carbonator wrote:

Ahhh, I love a happy ending.
Glad you are happy about the ride now

So are you staying in London Sat night then and have no probs getting to the start now?
I guess no one knows their start slot until they pick up their number.

I am riding for BHF. Anyone else riding for them and have any idea how they are allocating start times?
I really do not want to be at the back!

That's another thing you don't have to worry about by getting a ballot place Sean.

I have a charity place too and they have sent me a link today to an official Ride London 100 entry form that I have to fill in. It is nearly exactly the same as the original ballot entry form that I didn't get in with - including the "estimated time" section. It has to be completed in a month or so I think, so I expect they will allocate start times when they have all that info. Not sure how else they could do it?

Anonymous

E17Blade wrote:

I have a charity place too and they have sent me a link today to an official Ride London 100 entry form that I have to fill in. It is nearly exactly the same as the original ballot entry form that I didn't get in with - including the "estimated time" section. It has to be completed in a month or so I think, so I expect they will allocate start times when they have all that info. Not sure how else they could do it?

Thanks for letting me know ;-) Is it a BHF charity place?
Were you realistic or optimistic with the time you put?
Checked my spam but no email yet.
Friend was asked about estimated finish time when he applied to 'Make a Wish Foundation'.

e17blade

Carbonator wrote:

E17Blade wrote:

I have a charity place too and they have sent me a link today to an official Ride London 100 entry form that I have to fill in. It is nearly exactly the same as the original ballot entry form that I didn't get in with - including the "estimated time" section. It has to be completed in a month or so I think, so I expect they will allocate start times when they have all that info. Not sure how else they could do it?

Thanks for letting me know ;-) Is it a BHF charity place?
Were you realistic or optimistic with the time you put?
Checked my spam but no email yet.
Friend was asked about estimated finish time when he applied to 'Make a Wish Foundation'.

My place is with the Make A Wish Foundation too. It was them who contacted me with a link to the online form. I just checked - the deadline for completing it is mid-May so there is loads of time yet.

I am aiming for 6 hours but put down 6.5 as my mate who got through the ballot that I want to ride with put 6.5 and we are trying to wangle roughly similar start times.

ricky1980

roadiesean wrote:

unsurprisingly since about 90% of the UK population is !!

actually its about 13% now that's limited to London Boroughs...but if you include the travels on trains that's within 30min to the major London terminals i.e. the southern parts of Essex/Hertfordshire/Bucks and the northern tips of Surrey/Kent/Berk - the M25 corridor and all the areas included within the M25 you will find almost 20% of UK population live in London...so ya Londoners rule

on a serious note, £48 dosh is cheap! how much do you pay for a tour bus in London, i think it's £25. this ride gives you exclusive rights to some of the most amazing city roads and going pass some of the most ICONIC sites in the world - let alone London and you are the first to ride in the newly opened Olympic Park retrace many parts of the 2012 road race route...sorry the nostalgia just keep on coming...this is a seriously COOL event. I wish i got in.

though my concern was 25K people; 100 miles of fairly challenging route, just want to know how they keep the phasing of the ride...

Anonymous

E17Blade wrote:

My place is with the Make A Wish Foundation too. It was them who contacted me with a link to the online form. I just checked - the deadline for completing it is mid-May so there is loads of time yet.

I am aiming for 6 hours but put down 6.5 as my mate who got through the ballot that I want to ride with put 6.5 and we are trying to wangle roughly similar start times.

Only got a confirmation letter and standard sponsorship forms from BHF so far.
I will email them about it.

Am hoping for 6 hours too

Daughter wants me to do the 'freecycle' on the Saturday with her. How many miles (at childs pace) do people think would be a good leg stretch, and at what point would it start to detract from the following days performance?

edewer

Got my place with Breakthrough Breast Cancer. They havent sent me much at all really! Do the people riding for charidee still have to pay that £48 aswell?

Anonymous

edewer wrote:

Got my place with Breakthrough Breast Cancer. They havent sent me much at all really! Do the people riding for charidee still have to pay that £48 aswell?

No, not to the event organisers. You should have paid it to the charity when you registered with them (poss £50, not £48).

I wondered if the charity would be able to link in to the details given in ballot entry?

Pumpkin Positive

edewer wrote:

Got my place with Breakthrough Breast Cancer. They havent sent me much at all really! Do the people riding for charidee still have to pay that £48 aswell?

Don't think so. But most charities are looking for a £40 (ish) registration fee. I guess they want to be sure that they won't be out of pocket if people fail to make he start line. I think the charity needs to pay the event organiser for every person they place.

mroli

Every charity place costs the charity £150 + VAT (so £180) at the least - I think its more if the charity has lots of spaces.

superfourben

I failed on the ballot, am now in through leukaemia/lymphoma research. I have paid the £48 to them and they sent me a link to complete my registration with Ride 100, which was basically refilling in the original form. I have also booked a cheap hotel now near olympic park for the Saturday night so I am able to collect timing chip/race number etc the day before and be near for the early Sunday start!

andyeb

I'm in too. Failed on the ballot but got a place with Great Ormond Street Hospital. Can't wait and training hard!

Anonymous

Doing it with BHF.
Still no link to fill out form. I emailed them a few days ago about it, but no reply as yet.
Anyone else riding for them and had the link email yet?

ben@31

£48 is cheap!

I'm having to find £500 for my charity place.
Travel all the way from North Scotland with my bike.
Find accommodation over the weekend.

If I aim to do it in 6 hours, it will cost me a minimum of £120 per hour to cycle on public roads.

I'm now thinking I could have gone on a cycling holiday over winter for less :-(

Anonymous

Thought I would bump this old thread for people like ChrisAOnABike who love Ride London 100 threads, to say that I have started one in the 'Training' section re training towards anticipated finish times.
Hope to see you there

jonny_trousers

Just out of interest, those of you who failed in the ballot, but then got charity places, when did your charity tell you? I applied for a place with Prostate Cancer UK the same day I knew I'd failed the ballot. They contacted me last Fiday (some 5 weeks later) to tell me I was unsuccessful, by which time there were no more charity places left elsewhere. Frustrating to say the least.

Anonymous

Sorry to hear that
BHF seemed to be a guaranteed place as soon as you registered. Confirmation letter took a couple of weeks.
Other charities seem to have wanted the places to go to the highest bidders, which is one of the reasons I went with BHF.
They have dragged their heels in other areas though.
I have been trying to find out when (if!) they are going to email me the link to register my details with the organisers (ie link my charity place back into event as if my original ballot entry had been successful).
Emails have been ignored and it took many phone calls to get someone to go ask someone who knew, and call me back!
I think they are a bit tied up with their London to Brighton event.
Going to call Ride London today to see when the online form needs to be filled out, as BHF said it would be sent within a month, but I am not overly confident.

peat

I got a place through Leukemia & Lymphoma Research.

Didn't realise you had to to collect 'bits' the day before. Can you nominate someone (also riding, who lives in London) to pick them up on your behalf i wonder?

Stedman

If it is anything like the Etape Caledonian, reason that they do this is to try and stop touts getting into this market. You have to turn up in person with you’re your own photographic evidence.

peat

Okie doke. Plenty of time to get something sorted for the Saturday night then.