London Ride 100

veronese68

If it's really wet as we set off for the start I'll take my knackered old overshoes. If it's too warm I'll chuck them in a bin as they are headed that way anyway.
Enjoy it folks, hope you all have a good ride with no mishaps.

rubertoe

Good luck every one. Its going to be fun.

FoldingJoe

Anybody know a way to remove a quick link without the tool and no pliers?

menthel

ugo.santalucia wrote:

menthel wrote:

The roads round leith hill are a bit crap and steeper than box so I can understand that if the weather is rubbish, however Box Hill is so well surfaced and maintained, as well as not very steep I can't see the point in cutting it.

That's the way up, the way down at the back has a couple of vicious bends that will surely cause a lot of crashes

The decents off box are not as bad as the other hills. Let's hope everyone stays safe though.

leeefm

Good luck tomorrow everyone. Hope you all stay safe.

pblakeney

I have just witnessed a report of the cycle on the BBC news and have one singular overriding thought -

Is that it?

What a fuss about a little inclement weather.
I bet the participants are enjoying the ride. The organisers are being over cautious in my opinion.

adam0bmx0

Absolutely teaming down here just south of Waterloo! Hope everyone is having fun still, i'm not bitter i didn't get in, honest.

frazered

@itvnews: Organisers of #RideLondon shorten bike race by 14 miles amid heavy rain forecast as former hurricane #Bertha hits UK http://t.co/zR5TxI02Fr

Shame but understandable. The animal outfit rider carnage on those hills would be immense in this weather.

iPete

Saw a few riders go down on the corners, including the last, that was seriously wet but very good fun! No issues with the route shortening. I'll take a 24mph avg too, although credit goes to the machine that did most the work!

Popping a spoke going into The Mall was both annoying and lucky, made for a slow wet ride home in torrential rain.

Agent57

iPete wrote:

No issues with the route shortening.

Yeah, but spare a thought for all those poor people who got sponsorship on the basis of riding 100 miles and will now have to give the money back as they only did 86.

cyclingprop

Ride shortening made sense. Lots of flooding on route, and water teeming down so hard that the drains looked like fire hydrants.

18.4 mph average? 127kg says thanks!

mpdouglas

Some high speed crashes out there. I was directly in front of the guy that crashed on the final turn into Admiralty Arch. He must have been carrying too much speed (trying to overtake me on the last corner?!) and ran wide - his bars made contact with my backside but he didn't bring me down. Happy with 3:46 for a 22.75mph average. Even happier I avoided the crashes. There was lots of noise of breaking carbon! And most were at innocuous parts of the circuit ( 1. RP on the straight from Ham Cross to Kingston Gate - at about 28mph, 2. big pile up from touched wheels on Hurst Road before Weybridge, a guy on the hard right of the road clipped his pedals on the pavement as a result of his rubber necking and went straight over the handlebars for his lack of concentration and 3. touched wheels and clipping the pavement on the A25 straight before Newlands Corner turn).

Ready for a large Sunday lunch now!

keyser__soze

Three punctures, one massive crash due to a pothole just after Lambeth roundabout on the way back and most of the late morning/early afternoon in St Johns ambulance station wrapped in a space blanket with mild hypothermia as the organisers had lost my bag with all my dry kit in and made me march up and down every lorry in the p!ss!ng rain trying to find it. Not my day. Bike seems okay, kit dried out enough to pootle home. Sore.

keyser__soze

Oh and if anyone finds bag Orange 2425 - containing a black Nike drawstring bag, Mavic waterproof, red shorts and a blue Pearson jersey, please let me know.

rhodrich

1 puncture for me. Did it in an 'official' time of 4 hours 24, but in addition to the puncture (20 mins or so, as I'm no good at that sort of thing!), this included a 5 minute stop to see the family on the way. Bicycle computer said sub 4 hours (just!)

That's my excuse anyway! Oh, and the weather......

asprilla

Hated the first part; didn't meet the friend I was going ride with and then had two punctures before I got to Kingston. I was ready to knock it on the head at Walton and got for a fry-up.

Then I saw Marianne Vos and Laura Trott and figured I'd follow them for a while. Stopped to kiss my kids in Walton and caught up with Vos and Trott again. Took a tow from them from Weybridge to Newlands where I dropped them and kicked on from there.

I love riding in the pissing rain, especially when it's not cold. It's just great.

I got another puncture in Esher which marred things a little, but I finished with 4.05 as a moving time. Happy with that.

ugo.santalucia

Asprilla wrote:

Hated the first part; didn't meet the friend I was going ride with and then had two punctures before I got to Kingston. I was ready to knock it on the head at Walton and got for a fry-up.

Then I saw Marianne Vos and Laura Trott and figured I'd follow them for a while. Stopped to kiss my kids in Walton and caught up with Vos and Trott again. Took a tow from them from Weybridge to Newlands where I dropped them and kicked on from there.

I love riding in the pissing rain, especially when it's not cold. It's just great.

I got another puncture in Esher which marred things a little, but I finished with 4.05 as a moving time. Happy with that.

My impression is that you pump your tires too hard...

rubertoe

4 hours 30 ish for me, no problems with Punctures just some terrible bike handling by some terrible cyclists. The weather wss fine it was warm and not too windy.

Met some club mates and took it easy.
122 miles all told for me.

Widgey

4:23 for me with Strava saying 4:13 moving. Spent the last twenty miles having a chat instead of going for time.

Good wet ride. Bit too flat for me.

No problems to report

Applespider

5.30 moving. 5.44 official after 3 pit stops which given lack of training and weather I was happy with. I have decided that I much prefer the Surrey lanes when stopping for a pint every so often is an option. But I'll take the London traffic-free every day... it was a shock to the system remembering to stop at lights on the way home.

Was most impressed by number of people out braving the rain to cheer everyone on. They did a great job at lifting the spirits. There were quite a few moments where you had to laugh when the rain was teeming down so hard. I did have a nervous moment leaving the Hub at Newlands when I thought I'd lost a contact lens on the downhill but thankfully not.

I was surprised by the number of punctures out there... and by the lack of braking that some people had which might have helped on some of the crashes. I was really glad that I'd taken the beast with the discs since at least I felt I had some control.

Organisation was brilliant at the end... and at the start once you found it. A large group coming from the Blackwall Tunnel were misdirected by a marshall and found ourselves at a dead end. And then the routes to the colours weren't always clear. I'm sure we must have taken the long route to yellow/green since we saw all the other colours 'start' multiple times.

And I do like my medal... it feels properly substantial unlike some of the plasticky ones I've had at runs before.

bigmat

3:23 for me. Didn't have the legs for the sprint after crashing on Wimbledon Hill and burying myself to get back on. I reckon I would have snuck in under 4 hours if it was the full distance!

asprilla

Oh yeah, I also overtook a car in the decent into Putney.

How can you not notice?

mroli

5.44 official (5.10 moving time). Happy with that on the tandem. I just want to say that imho the organisers made absolutely the right decision taking box and Leith hill out of the equation. Leith would have been carnage and people have to remember that the standard of rider is not that high all things said (although the thing that pissed me off more than anything else was people in club jerseys dropping gel wrappers).

Riding the tandem with the wife was brilliant - she was terrified before hand, and it felt fantastic riding down the Mall with her on her longest ever ride. Thank you to the wonderful people who came out and cheered in horrible weather and the people who gave us compliments on our tandem (although it let us down by not letting us get in our granny ring - but we didn't need it anyway!) Also thanks to the people who said "hi from Bike Radar". No punctures on 28c Gatorskins at 85psi, although to be fair the other tandem in our wave had the same set up and they had 2....

I think the rain "made it"...

jonny_trousers

Chapeau all!

alansd1980

3.58 as a solo just latching onto wheels as and when I could but not having any group riding experience it was tougher than I thought it would be.

Great experience and as bad as the rain was, I think I have commuted in worse!

Some properly fast riders out there and for about 1-2 miles I managed to tag onto a chain containing a pretty rapid woman. Couldnt believe I got dropped by a girl and it clicked later, that was no replica world champs jersey... I just managed to ride for a short time with marianne vos. Really added to the day!

asprilla

Vos was wearing an orange and black jersey and was riding with Laura Trott who was in her Wiggle Honda gear.

alansd1980

will check the strava flyby thing, laura trott took about an hour longer than vos according to the ride london app.

Could well be mistaken, could it be off and on of a top, or a quick change?

asprilla

I left the Velodrome with them but they were in the wave ahead of me. Was playing leap frog with them (despite me getting two punctures) until Weybridge and a stayed with their group until Newlands when I left them behind. It appeared to be Trott, Vos and one bloke using an Exposure Flare riding together.

asprilla

Asprilla wrote:

I left the Velodrome with them but they were in the wave ahead of me. Was playing leap frog with them (despite me getting two punctures) until Weybridge and a stayed with their group until Newlands when I left them behind. It appeared to be Trott, Vos and one bloke using an Exposure Flare riding together.

Edit; just checked the app and you are right. Hmmm. Weird.

I'm will in got stand corrected, but I'm sure it was her.

alansd1980

I saw her in dorking an on the dual carriage way up to leatherhead.

Didnt think I was going crazy



From what I read Laura Trott was riding with her Dad which could explain the difference in pace.

How did you get on in the end asprilla?