Ride London 2014

ugo.santalucia

ContrelaMontre wrote:

That's true enough, especially as any serious cyclist will probably use a CO2 can these days.

Seems a bit of a bollox statement... I would say any lazy cyclist who is more concerned about 3 precious minutes of his important existence than he is about the environment or the future of his children does use CO2

Anonymous

Vitoria Open Corsa CX with Michelin latex tubes.
No issues.

Wife had GP4000s with butyl and one rear puncture.

ContrelaMontre

ugo.santalucia wrote:

ContrelaMontre wrote:

That's true enough, especially as any serious cyclist will probably use a CO2 can these days.

Seems a bit of a bollox statement... I would say any lazy cyclist who is more concerned about 3 precious minutes of his important existence than he is about the environment or the future of his children does use CO2

There's quite a lot of 'serious cyclists' who fit that description!

HertsG

Despite extensive training, my squeeze couldn't fix a puncture to save her life. So both her bike and mine got new pairs of Conti 4000S IIs - and, I'm pleased to report, that neither of us had punctures.

I must admit to being a little shocked by the numbers of people fixing flats - there must have been 10 times as many as there were last year.

As for CO2, it didn't help the guy begging for a cylinder outside Leatherhead - he'd clearly used whatever stock he started out with.

ugo.santalucia

ContrelaMontre wrote:

There's quite a lot of 'serious cyclists' who fit that description!

It's sad though... as they are not serious at all, they are just taking themselves too seriously, which is different...

rich_e

DaveP1 wrote:

And at the start line, the official that came to explain the decision to cut Leigh and Box Hills, made some comment about the process with the Met Office and the police and the authorities, about various options and discussions. I got the impression it was a close call as to whether the whole thing got cancelled and the only reason it was allowed to go ahead at all was because of skipping the two hills.

That was pretty much what was said on the BBC coverage, it was very close to being called off altogether. :shock:
The TV coverage though was somewhat better than last year, as they had footage from cameras mounted to riders who had completed the course, along with actually doing some proper interviews with not just celebrities, but average riders too. Not sure about that couple who decided to stop and get married though!

Going by what somebody said about spectators, it did look from the TV coverage like there was considerably less this year. But then that was to be expected, as they were polar opposites, with 2013 having perfect weather and 2014 being as close to terrible as possible. I do think that's a bit of a shame for anyone who did the event for this first time yesterday, as I feel the huge crowds really made it that extra special.

How were the hubs this year?
From the footage I saw, it looks like they had setup a lot more toilets at least?
As I remember I lost a fair bit of time just queuing to use one.

marcusjb

HertsG wrote:

I must admit to being a little shocked by the numbers of people fixing flats - there must have been 10 times as many as there were last year.

I think there was rather more than 10 times the rain of last year (in fact, last year was 100% dry from memory).

The roads were covered in filth and flints, so it was no surprise it was a flat-fest. The flint that got us was a proper monster and only something like Marathons would have had a chance against it!

ContrelaMontre

Marcus - what colour was your tandem? I caught a tow off a couple on a blue one around South Kensington I think. I was really having to give it some beans just to stay on their wheel at about 45km/h.

veronese68

Well that was fun. I think I've been drier than that sat in the bath. But, like sitting in a bath I was warm and wet so not that bothered. A fairly uneventful ride for me, I didn't rush and just enjoyed the ride. Saw several accidents, mainly on straight stretches as a result of not paying attention. One guy rode into the back of a parked van on Whitehall a little way after Downing Street. We heard a bang, it made the police jump up and look round. Got to the van to see a guy on the deck and a woman saying she didn't know what to do. Stopped and could see that he was breathing, although far from with it. Then a spectator with training came over and one of the Downing Street police came up. He had radioed for an ambulance so I left as there was nothing I could do, hope the guy is ok.
I did the ride on 32mm Vittoria Randonneur Pros, had full mudguards and disc brakes. No problems at all, several people commented that it was the perfect bike for the conditions. Couldn't agree more, bike and gear were perfect.
Hugely impressed by the organisation, the marshalls and the spectators cheering us on in truly awful weather. Thank you to all. I had a total time of 5:36 or something, but as I said I didn't rush and stopped several times. Had lots of friends and family along the route. Got some speed up in a few places when there was room, and generally enjoyed it. Had a couple of pints and some food in a pub near Victoria afterwards, much better than hanging around the finish area.

marcusjb

ContrelaMontre wrote:

Marcus - what colour was your tandem? I caught a tow off a couple on a blue one around South Kensington I think. I was really having to give it some beans just to stay on their wheel at about 45km/h.

Unlikely to have been us - we can make the thing cruise at 45kph on the flats without too much effort as that is what tandems are good at - but we're not ever so racey and were mainly cruising at 30-35. We were playing with what the new tandem can do, and on a couple of the really big roads we were able to get it to cruise at 50 for a while without killing ourselves - way faster than old tandem, but we were running out of gears (this tandem is really for loaded touring, so the gearing is a little low for that sort of thing (100" top gear)).

It is blue, by name (Viola Blue), but more purple to my eyes.

It did get a lot of attention as stuff like the dual Gates Carbon Drives is pretty wacky, along with Rohloff, S&S, fancy brakes and stuff - so we had to answer lots of questions about it as we went around. It was it's first big ride and we were very pleased with it overall.

Grantmk

I got round in 4:16, a touch over 20mph, my previous fastest ride was 17mph (admittedly solo) so i'm pretty pleased. Great fun and quite an experience being in such large groups, shame about the weather that suddenly went from bad to biblical as I turned onto Newlands. I had to back off around the 8 mile mark when I realised quite how fast we were going. Pro4's held out but checking them now found the inner tube poking through a hole so I was very lucky not to get a puncture.

chrisaonabike

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Seems a bit of a bollox statement... I would say any lazy cyclist who is more concerned about 3 precious minutes of his important existence than he is about the environment or the future of his children does use CO2

I use CO2 because I physically can't pump my tyres up above about 80 psi with my mini pump.

Anonymous

Do people think average speeds would have been faster or slower than if distance, hills and weather had been same as last year?

I think being able to go faster down hills and around bends and generally not being wet with poor visibility and extra risks of crashing was more of a hindrance than a couple of climbs and 14 extra miles.

njee20

Both have a place, personally for an event like that I'd carry CO2, but would also carry a mini pump.

Do people think average speeds would have been faster or slower than if distance, hills and weather had been same as last year?

Do you just mean were average speeds faster or slower than last year? If distance, hills and weather were the same, it would be last year...? I'd have thought significantly slower. In the grand scheme of things it's not like they're colossal climbs that will decimate average speeds, they're pretty small.

marcusjb

Sadly, they have just confirmed that there was a fatality on the ride. My thoughts are with Kris' friends and family at such an awful time.

It is with deep sadness that we report the death of a participant in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100.

Kris Cook, aged 36, collapsed at Newlands Corner from a sudden cardiac arrest and, although prompt medical attention was provided by event doctors on the scene, his death was later confirmed after further attempts to revive him at hospital.

Kris was part of a group of 12 riders raising money for Woking Hospice. His mother said that he had died doing something he loved and welcomed donations in Kris’s memory to his Woking Hospice fundraising page on Just Giving https://www.justgiving.com/Kris-Cook

The organisers of the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 would like to express their sincere condolences to Kris’s family and friends.

We will not be releasing any further details and would ask for your understanding in this matter. His exact cause of death will be established by a post-mortem.

ManOfKent

I managed 4:09 with no stops at all - my back is feeling it today because without the hills there was no reason to stand up, and I was probably tense too. The last hour I rode pretty much blind because my glasses had misted up. I'll be replacing them with something with vents. The GP4000s held up brilliantly, even though one of them has a tiny hole filled with glue.

Compared to L2B which I've done a couple of times, I thought the standard of riding was pretty good. Maybe that's because of the earlyish wave I was in, or because the distance is just a bit too daunting for the kind of person who does no training and drags a rusty bike out of the shed the night before an event. I had a very near miss when a group started to form near Weybridge and then someone did something stupid causing hasty braking down the line, and was then nearly taken out by someone from one of the big London clubs who reached into his pocket and suddenly veered left. He did at least apologise. There will always be a few people who can't hold a line or do a shoulder check but once out of London those seemed to be fewer in number.

Coming back through Kingston at probably 10am, I hadn't expected to see a steady stream of people still heading out. Maybe they'd been held up in Richmond Park.

One of my clubmates said she hated every second and wouldn't do it again. I'm more ambivalent: the chance to ride through London at 25mph comes very rarely and I presume that on a dry day the atmosphere would be much better. The rain certainly altered the challenge. I went through a spell when my eyes were stinging so I could hardly keep them open and I wondered how I was going to get through, then after a while I started to enjoy it. All you can do is grin at the sheer stupidity of choosing to continue riding in those conditions. To the hardy souls who stood for hours at the roadside to cheer us on, a heartfelt chapeau.

Edit: very sad to hear about the fatality.

chrisaonabike

Carbonator wrote:

Do people think average speeds would have been faster or slower than if distance, hills and weather had been same as last year?

I think being able to go faster down hills and around bends and generally not being wet with poor visibility and extra risks of crashing was more of a hindrance than a couple of climbs and 14 extra miles.

Riding solo, I averaged 14.4 on the 100 last year. Looking at my recent training rides, I'm about 1-1.5 mph faster than I was this time last year. So I might have expected to average about 15.5 or a shade more.

Yesterday I averaged 16.9, completing in 5:05. I rode extremely defensively, took corners very slowly, and didn't push at all whenever there were others nearby. I also hung well back whenever the morons were squeezing through non-existent gaps. However, it was cool, and I needed no stops at all. 5 bits of flapjack and less than my initial two bottles was ample. Had it been warmer and I'd done the hills, I would have needed closer to the 4 l of fluid I needed last year and the consequent stops and queues.

Also, apart from the conditions, it felt like a much easier ride than most of my training rides (which are the same set of Surrey hills, usually including Whitedown). So I found I just went quicker, despite the weather not clearing up until I got to Leatherhead.

wallace_and_gromit

Savagestorm wrote:

Mikey23 wrote:

anyone else get stuck behind the accident close to the exit at richmond park? i think this only affected the late starters but was there for 25 minutes doing an average 1mph... and guess when the worst of the rain came through!!

Yes, I was there. Any idea what became of the individual who was hurt and taken away by the ambulance?

Unless there were two such incidents, this was a workmate of mine who "faceplanted" into the barriers. I was a row or two behind so didn't see the actual cause, but it was apparently a "speed wobble" of the type that we all have, but unfortunately just in the wrong plack. He's OK, though required some surgery on his nose last night. There was also a risk of hypothermia, I'd say. It took an age to get the ambulance through due to the sheer volume of riders that were already backed up behind the "sweep" wagons that had already stopped alongside and each paramedic seemed to want to ask the same lengthy set of questions.

It must have looked bad to passers, as even a hour of increasingly strong rain failed to wash away the pool of blood. :shock:

Having been involved in that, riding the remaining 105k as a solo time trial doesn't seem worth moaning about, though it was chuffing hard work!

As an aside, it was interesting to note that the Trott sisters got round in just under 4:25, which seems like a gentle stroll for them, whereas Marianne Vos rode it the only way you'd expect, getting round in 3:30! I feel honoured to have been allowed in the same event as her and am still annoyed that she was introduced at the start as a "Celebrity". She's not a celebrity - she's an awesomely awesome machine and should be recongised as such!

rich_e

If you want to see some truly bad riding, I'd recommend going down to the FreeCycle. I went along on Saturday afternoon and it was absolutely jam packed, on the Mall section, it was pretty much at a crawl for about 20 minutes due to the sheer number of riders and the pedestrian crossings. Just like the 100, you had some people who were riding like idiots, trying to go through gaps that weren't there, especially when you had young kids and people who clearly aren't used to riding bikes around. Most of the people doing that didn't look like serious riders though, so probably no surprise that they had little respect for others. I did wonder whether its worth trying to go down to the FreeCycle as soon as it opens at 9am and whether the roads then are actually clear enough to have a bit of a blast around before everyone turns up? Did anyone try?

It certainly shows how popular the demand is for cycling and there were a lot of kids! Great way to test your bike handling skills anyway!

Sad to hear the news about Kris Cook.

rich_e

Wallace and Gromit wrote:

As an aside, it was interesting to note that the Trott sisters got round in just under 4:25, which seems like a gentle stroll for them, whereas Marianne Vos rode it the only way you'd expect, getting round in 3:30! I feel honoured to have been allowed in the same event as her and am still annoyed that she was introduced at the start as a "Celebrity". She's not a celebrity - she's an awesomely awesome machine and should be recongised as such!

Laura told the BBC that she had been pacing her Dad around, but she pretty much gunned it towards the end and he was telling her to slow down!

DHA987S

Very sad news about the death of a rider. I had heard that the air ambulance was called out and had seen it flying back to London as I drove home.

As for the event itself I had both good and bad experiences. I had pre-booked London Bridge NCP parking and arrived at 5.40 but didn't actually get to park until 6.45 the queue was so slow to get in. My start wave closed at 7.00 so I was worried that I might not be able to start. Then there was no signage directly from the car park so it was a bunch of us who just headed in what we thought was the right direction, we did eventually find some signs though and got to the start. In the end they were just waving riders who were "late" through which was good however I finally started about 25 minutes after what I had expected to.

The ride itself was good if not a bit wet. But some of the london based clubs riding trains later in the event need to consider the inexpereinced cyclist who might not be comfortable with being passed so close with such pace. Even myself as a relatively expereinced club rider I felt that you had to keep looking on both sides both in front and behind just to be aware of different speeds and experience levels.

The closed road thing was nice, the ability to use all of the road rather than being "forced" into part of it when mixing with other traffic was an experience. The marshalls and signage and organisation of the actual ride was perfect, very well done.

Great to have supporters on the roadside despite the terrible conditions for being stood at the side of the road.

I ran veloflex carbon tubs, around 1400 miles use on them so far and didn't puncture. Ran them at slightly lower PSI than I would in the dry. Maybe I was lucky?

wallace_and_gromit

Rich_E wrote:

Laura told the BBC that she had been pacing her Dad around, but she pretty much gunned it towards the end and he was telling her to slow down!

I wonder how much of a windshadow Laura throws down. Not much, I suspect!

I remember now that in the announcement for the start wave just before mine, in the "Celebs" section was "Laura Trott's Dad". They didn't bother with his first name in the announcement, which made me chuckle.

wallace_and_gromit

On the tyre front, I ran Conti GP 4000s front and rear, and the rear version lasted 6k until the sidewall failed and it exploded! I think this was a pre-existing damaged tyre after I mixed up some old ones in the garage rather than anything from the road. I patched the hole with some toothpaste tube and and got to just outside the Ritz when I rejoined my workmates one of whom lived just round the corner so he went and got me a replacement Mich Lythion 2! (You couldn't make that up as a coincidence.)

Both tyres then saw me safely round the rest of the ride and also round a few pubs in London afterwards.

ScudULike

I knew Kris as I am also in the Woking Hospice team for the event. I am devastated to hear this as have heard no news yet from the Hospice on its Ride 100 Facebook page. Are you able to tell me where the press release is from as I couldn't find on the official site?

peat

Scud, I saw the press release on the RideLondon facebook page.

Sorry for your loss.

DHA987S

It's also on the local news websites and on the BBC website scud. And echoing the above sorry for the news.

Mikey23

Yes, really sad to hear about the fatality. Thoughts and prayers for kris his family and friends at their loss

@wallAceandgromit... Pleased that your mate is ok. Its just one of those things that happen in a mass event. What a time to get a biblical type downpour. It was the cooling down that was the issue. I was shaking and numb by the time we got started again and took ages to warm up. Just dried out before the next downpour just before the finish

And two punctures for me... Did the last 40 with no spare tubes. Conti gatorskins in good nick here

peat

Logistically a tough weekend for me due to other commitments, I got a full 2, yes 2 hours sleep prior to my 6am start time and was pretty down heartened to see it raining already when i woke up. luckily the early birds got some dry running for an hour or so before the heavens truly opened but due to my pessimism, i rather overdressed and suffered with heat in the early going having to stop several times to adjust my layers.

DHA987S wrote:

The ride itself was good if not a bit wet. But some of the london based clubs riding trains later in the event need to consider the inexpereinced cyclist who might not be comfortable with being passed so close with such pace. Even myself as a relatively expereinced club rider I felt that you had to keep looking on both sides both in front and behind just to be aware of different speeds and experience levels.

I saw alot of this. I got my elbow's brushed by big trains when I was as far left as i could be on a fully open double-wide section of road. What's the flippin point?? Also, while being over on the left as far as i thought I could be, some hero came barreling down the inside of me without so much as a "on your left". By that point, my goal had become survival rather than a decent time.

rodgers73

Conti GP4000S on both wheels, pretty fresh rubber run at 100psi. Ploughed through puddles at most opportunities as they allowed me to avoid getting squeezed in with the rest of the riders trying to use the dryer bit of the road. Overtook a lot of people that way and no punctures either.

I was surprised how often the left side of the road was jam packed while the right hand lane was virtually empty. Seems people were still in the mindset of riding on normal roads!

davep1

Very sad to hear about the fatality, thoughts to his family.

I used London Bridge, and as I don't have sat nav I "walked my way" to it with Google Earth; it's in a warren of one-way streets and hard to find. They had some system of two tickets they were issuing, which was different to the email instructions, and I could see it taking a little while. One of the benefits of arriving at 4.30 am was lack of queue! By the time I left 20 mins later there were 5 or 6 cars waiting, and my mates who were due to start nearer 8 had a real panic; they started getting ready in the queue outside the car park and had a rush to get to the start.

One of my big memories of last year was the cheering crowds; I won't say the whole route was lined but it felt like it. It was a lot less this year but I was surprised there was anyone prepared to stand around in that miserable weather and cheer strangers on! I started in the pen-ultimate group in 2013, and it was a much more sociable ride; riders reacting to the crowd and more talking amongst each other. I was due to start at 6.17 this time; my predicted time last year was a conservative guess at 6.5-7 hrs, this year I went for an ambitious sub 5. I somehow got myself in a wave even nearer the start due to my old-man brain telling me F was D, and it was full on. I hung on to the back of the bunch I was in, but no-one was talking just heads down going for it.