Ride London 2014

mrfpb

Hmm. I thought the whingers and sour grapes brigade had quit a few pages back, clearly they have time on their hands.

For the record this will be my first century, and given it's happening in August, it will be a challenge, and possibly an endurance test. You may view me as something of a wimp for saying this but do I care?

Anyway, for those of actually looking forward to this, have you all seen the new route? It is now laminated and on my home office wall. It doesn't yet have the course profile or water stops, but I've got those on last years map, and the differences don't look that significant.

http://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/A ... es_Map.pdf

Anonymous

Thanks for the map link ;-)

Anonymous

London-Red wrote:

Apart from waving to the kids as I ride through Kingston :-)

Twice ;-)

mrfpb

Personally my highlight will be going over the Hammersmith flyover faster than I've ever driven over it.

Anonymous

If all goes well it will be riding back through Kingston and into South London for me.

I was pretty knackered and had a bit of a mechanical issue at that point last year, but the plan is to be fitter and better prepared this time around

Oh, and a sprint down The Mall of coarse

mitchventoux

to all those lucky people that are in this year whether your a novice or an expert you will enjoy the day I can guarantee ,I didn't get in this year but did it last year and can honestly say its the best mass ride ive ever done ,very well organised and yes not too challenging (boris did it with minimal training !)ive done the etapes and marmottes but flying through central London and all those towns and villages with no cars and people clapping on side of road all the way round then racing down the mall was amazing and I will be trying every year to get in so I hope the sun shines for all of you, whether you take 5 or 10 hours you will love the day

screebs

Was lucky enough to do it last year in what was my first hundred - very surprised at how fast and flat the course was, hence my 5hrs 18mins time being well beyond my expectations.

Lucky enough to be in it again this year - can't wait!

kingstonian

London-Red wrote:

The prospect of riding my regular commute AND Sunday jaunt combined on closed roads is, well, rather tasty. Of course it isn't the most challenging route. Missed the point. Riding through the streets of London on closed roads is the bit I'm looking forward to most.. (Apart from waving to the kids as I ride through Kingston :-)

Haha, you can wave to me too!!!! I'm not riding it this year but my 2 boys will def want to watch everyone ride through.

ScudULike

Have just spoken to the charity that I am riding for and they still have a number of bond spots (£500) available. If you live in the Woking/Weybridge area you should know about the Woking & Sam Beare Hospices - please Google them for for contact details.
Hope this isn't breaking forum rules.
Peter

max_power_nz

How close (roughly) are the official car parks from the start..?
All seems a bit of a logistical nightmare at the moment and not sure if it would be best to drive/hotel or train/hotel.
As we'll be coming from Berkshire, the thought of driving on the day for such an early start is probably a no-go and trains won't be running early enough I imagine.

nick1972

Would anyone who rode last years Prudential 100 mind posting a link to their Strava file. I'd like to see the profile and feet/metres of climbing involved. Cheers

BrandonA

Surely someone created a segment which you could find via the search funtionality?

nick1972

I'd like to see the whole route not just individual segments.

drlodge

Its in my Strava profile (link to me in the footer)

drlodge

There's no single segment covering the full 100 miles AFAIK, there are 4 or so segments each covering about a quarter of the route. I rode it non-stop so no "stopping time" to take into account.

charlie_potatoes

drlodge wrote:

I rode it non-stop so no "stopping time" to take into account.

Nice 8)
I thought I did well with my 53 second pit stop

drlodge

Charlie Potatoes wrote:

drlodge wrote:

I rode it non-stop so no "stopping time" to take into account.

Nice 8)
I thought I did well with my 53 second pit stop

A 53 second pit stop would have cost me a sub-5 hour time :shock: [4:59:15]

nick1972

Cheers Drlodge

charlie_potatoes

drlodge wrote:

A 53 second pit stop would have cost me a sub-5 hour time :shock: [4:59:15]

That's cutting it a bit fine. Well timed

paul2718

http://www.strava.com/activities/72187192

You should be able to find hundreds of others.

(I really wanted to ride it again this year without having to stop to pump and eventually change the tube. But it seems you need to be able to spend £600 to get a reasonable chance of a place. And it's not worth that.)

Paul

kentphil

I believe Help the Hospices (£750 target) and Whizz Kids (£1000 target) still have charity places available. I'd love to ride this event again, but I can't commit to raising such amounts again this year.

Anonymous

drlodge wrote:

There's no single segment covering the full 100 miles AFAIK, there are 4 or so segments each covering about a quarter of the route. I rode it non-stop so no "stopping time" to take into account.

Well done on the time

How much drink did you take?

I ended up stopping (somewhere after Box Hill) and it cost me a sub 5 hour time
Thats if I could have lasted the whole 100 without any more fluid of course.
I don't think you can 'take stopping time into account' though and am happy to accept I did not do it in under 5 hours.
Its what it says on the certificate that counts
If I can get the average of both years below 5 hours I will be happy.

I was a little surprised how close I came to 5 hours TBH.
Had I realised I would have probably stopped for 53 seconds and then made it up.
I think I felt I was doing better than expected so could afford a stop to be on the safe side and I ended up dawdling.
Slight mechanical worry and just being plain old knackered after Kingston played more of a part than a 1 minute pit stop would have though.

could-a, should-a, would-a.............

Hope to join the 'Sub5' (or even better Sub 4.45) club this year though

Want to plan it a bit better this year.
It seemed about perfect weather to not stop last year, but if its hotter I need to factor in one or two 'pit stops'.
Should be able to do two quick ones without affecting time.
They were meant to have pit stop style ones last year, but I did not notice them.

Have SPD SL's not MTB pedals/shoes this year, so that should do it anyway

drlodge

Hi Carbonator

For drink I had 2x 1 litre bottles of High5 Isotonic, drank regularly and made sure I took the right measure so it would last the distance. No problem taking a little more than 1 litre by the half way point. Halfords do some bottles that are damn near 1 litre, or there are the slightly larger diameter SIS bottles - a very snug fit in the holder.

Food wise I had (IIRC) cubes of homemade flapjack and some gels. I ate regularly during the ride but after about 60-70 miles my stomach was telling me it couldn't take much more food. I then resorted to gels (less quantity). May be I had some jelly babies, these would be excellent to supplement the more sugary food, as they go down easily. I also took some gels being held out towards the end, but I just couldn't get much more down my throat for it to stay down.

I didn't get a place this year, but if I had, I'd be targetting the 4:45 time. It would be difficult as I gave it everything last year (almost couldn't get off the bike at the end). The way to get a better time is to make full use of the chain gangs that go past, try and stick to the back of them for longer, or find some people at about your pace that you can chaingang with.

Good luck!

mrfpb

The route is slightly different this year, and they haven't put up a profile on the website yet. Did they release a GPS file in advance last year?

marcusjb

mrfpb wrote:

The route is slightly different this year, and they haven't put up a profile on the website yet. Did they release a GPS file in advance last year?

I wasn't expecting to need a GPS track to follow. I was just planning on following the X000 people in front of me?

charlie_potatoes

marcusjb wrote:

mrfpb wrote:

The route is slightly different this year, and they haven't put up a profile on the website yet. Did they release a GPS file in advance last year?

I wasn't expecting to need a GPS track to follow. I was just planning on following the X000 people in front of me?

Definitely will not need GPS

sherer

you don't need GPS but for those who want to ride part of the course in the weeks before it is very usefull

Omar Little

Managed to get in with a club entry wooo hooo!

Regards drink i did it on 2 750mm bottles and i was probably getting a bit dehydrated towards the end however not excessively so - the gain made by sticking with the group i was in would have been bigger than the gain made by stopping and getting a drink.

Makes sense to take a bottle of water with you to have while waiting in the starting pen rather than starting on the bottles you have for the ride.

davep1

Blind Veterans UK still have places too, £500 target sponsorship...

Stedman

Last year I was told on this forum that I was absolutely mad contemplating this ride without stopping and this would severely affect my performance; however that is exactly what I did with 2 x 750 bottles and managed this with a 4.44 time. There is conflicting research regarding sports hydration with the sport nutrition industry supporting research that promotes hydration, however as I understand it, under hydration can affect your performance and over hydration can kill you!

This year if I do need extra fluids, I shall avoid feed stations and use one of the watering points which seem better managed, better still if your charity has special feed stations, use these.

Changes this year will include experimenting with homemade gels in gel bottles (no sticky wrappers to undo or try and get back into my back pocket. I now have lighter carbon bike for the first time and last year my weight was 10st 10lbs and currently it is now 10st 3lb which hopefully will see me with a quicker time over the Surrey Hills.