Ride London 100

You must have been in your element today. :)

Hydrogen or Oxygen?

Hah!

Very pleased to have my track skills ie look THEN move as it saved me from many situations.

Isn't that just general not-being-a-nob skills? I had to lean heavily on someone who tried to move in front of me by just steering through me, after we had been riding parallel in a bunch for ages!

And people say joining clubs to gain bunch riding experience is outdated..

They do?

I was, of course, talking about ancient Greek elements as any sensible person should. :)

Oof sitting in a bath now to relieve some rather delicate sores, seems my bib shorts are not good in the wet!

Did you use chamois cream? Chamois cream is very useful when you expect to be riding in the rain for a while.

Sudocrem even less water soluble

No I didn't lesson learned for next time! Oh what to do now, the agony!

Nappyrash cream

ouch on that Trek.

I was in RP with a later-starting group so not speed merchants and the only slow/down stop we had was where there had been an accident where they'd brought an ambulance alongside so there was a tailback to get past it on a relatively narrow road. People were slowing on the hills but only saw people walking at Newlands and one at Wimbledon.

Surely they shouldn't just be track skills... I've always used look, signal, manoeuvre when commuting too - but yes, came in handy today.

Overall it was a good day though. The rain was so bad that it was funny so long as you didn't puncture - cycling through that tunnel in Kingston with water at about a foot deep was an experience. The people who came out to support did a brilliant job considering the weather.

My only down-side was the signposting to the start. I was in a big group coming out of the Blackwall tunnel (which was kinda fun in itself) but we were sent the wrong way by a marshall and ended up getting to a dead end which was a little stressful after it took us 20 minutes to get back on track with wave close-times approaching. Then, the colours did seem to be a little haphazard at points with quite a few people looking lost trying to find their start.

Coming up the Mall was fun though... with people banging the hoardings and felt quite special. The kit transfer did work well.... and I do like my medal.

Nappy rash ointment seconded on the tender spots, jazzythumper. I treated myself to the assos chamois cream when I registered and have to say that it's brilliant. I have no sore spots... at least at the moment.

The guy who I presume owns that trek was lying on the grass in richmond park being looked after by paramedics - he was bleeding quite heavily from the face :( That was the reason for the queue.

I managed it in 4:54, with a couple of stops for crashes / extensive flooding. Quite pleased with that on my rather porky steel and mudguard sled. Anyone ride with Martin Johnson? Bet no gobby drivers would fuck with him...

So people. Many crash. Such bloody facial injury.

Wat.

Quite a lot of twatty slow club groups too. Insisting on moving up, only to drop back down again, which was very annoying. Would like to have been in an earlier wave.

I got caught in that Richmond Park tailback too, had to walk for a while and stop to let an ambulance past, which I'm using to explain my rather pathetic 5:44 time.

At least the poor bloke was being well looked after by the time we passed the scene.

He looked in an awful way when I went past. Heal up rider.

That was immense.
Did it in 4hrs 20mins. Grinned all the way round.

Spent the first 50 in various packs. Pretty much solo'd the home 46.
Didn't see any of the crashes and nonsense everyone reports. Most carnage I saw was in the 1st mile and a half of the depart.
I was so glad the wet didn't come until after we started. It would've been shitty to stand in Stratford in the wet for 90 mins.

Highlights

• Riding through a closed Blackwall tunnel to the start.
  
• Stratford to Hammersmith in 25mins.
  
• Rain. Ridiculous rain. Rain so hard it was painful to keep your eyes open.
  
• Perfectly timing going full gas at 6 miles to go. If I had gone a 1/2 mile earlier I would've run out of juice.
  
• Being drafted by some flash git for the last 5 miles then beating him in the sprint down the mall when he tried to Renshaw/Cav my ass.
  
  

In all.
I fucking loved every moment.

Back in one piece, 6 hours, got stuck in the mandatory walk up Sawyer's Hill in Richmond park as they had stopped people cycling the descent. Many many accidents some look really bad, most seemed to be caused by people not checking before moving out. Surely basic cycling. Bertha did not disappoint. Egg sarnie and a G&T

No I didn't lesson learned for next time! Oh what to do now, the agony!

Coconut oil is very good

I'm beginning to feel quite glad I'm put a VERY optimistic time on the application.
Meant we left early, cycled at pace and 80% of people knew how to ride in a group.

I got out of bed at half three, had porridge (yuck) whilst I looked out of the window at the dry night sky.

I was tempted, briefly, to swap the deep crabon back on, but sense prevailed and I stuck with the alloy clinchers.

On the way through South London at just past four in the morning it was fun to keep encountering groups of cyclists.

I shared the Blackwall tunnel with one other chap, which was a bit intimidating - after last year I kept expecting a car to come howling round the corner leading to much crash, so dead etc. But if was fine.

Came out the other end to find that the signs directed us onto the A12, so cycled along with one other chap as car after car passed us at 50mph+ with the horn blaring.

Welcome to Stratford!

Followed the signs to my wave load area, double checked it was correct with the marshal (who swore blind it was), and then tried to keep warm in the rain whilst eating Torq bars (see last year).

Eventually it became apparent that the marshal has been lying through his teeth, and myself and the group of others who had been taken in by his assured manner had to pelt down the outside of the start pens to get to our correct load area in time, which we thankfully did.

We left at 6.02, as the rain intensified, thankfully no Blackwall tunnel redux.

Initially I spent some time in pace-lines, joining one that I spotted Jammy in - however, the rain was getting stronger now and the riding was getting sketchier.

We were averaging 27mph with people moving left and right without looking, others trying to follow a friends wheel and diving through gaps that made other riders have to take evasive action - this with street furniture, corners, more rain and ped-islands in the mix.

I dropped out of the group, and immediately felt a lot safer - I met Jammy after we'd finished to learn that he'd come to the same conclusion and dropped out of the group shortly after I did.

I settled down to a fast cruise, tip-toeing down the descents as other riders took them at speed and (relatively frequently) hit the deck.

Coming round a bend shortly after Kingston there was a chap in the road waving a wheel, asking for an inner tube - I stopped and gave him mine (I had patches) and hoped that this would break the curse of the P_nctr God that I had been suffering from in recent weeks.

I pressed on, sometimes meeting someone else travelling at roughly the same pace and taking turns on the front with them until we came to a rise or sequence of corners that split us up.

I was averaging slightly over 20mph now, making sure to shove food in my mouth every 20-30 minutes. I ended up with a huge lump of wrappers shoved up the right hand leg of my shorts, which I quite enjoyed emptying into a bin at the finish.

The rain was playing with us by now- it'd tail off almost to nothing, then redouble it's attempt to wash us off the road. I wore my sunglasses for the whole ride - why I really don't know.

Toward the end now and I'd been on my own in the wind for some time, letting the faster packs stream past- I decided that I'd get into the next one, did so and we worked together until Kingston.

At this point the rain increased in intensity until it became laughable - the road flooded, any thought of spotting manhole covers went out the window and I started using the Force in earnest. The downpour continued in earnest as I shot through Putney, to hear a friendly shout as BDW spotted me.

At this point I was fairly tired, but worlds away from the broken man of 2013 where I'd bonked hard at the halfway point and never really recovered.

Pushing on I finally came too the Mall, crossed the line, got my medal and then tried in vain to get my touch-screen phone to work in rain that was at this point solid water with slots of air in.

This didn't really work, so I briefly sheltered in the Cross-Rail gazebo, called the Mrs, and then went to the Raphe as they had a roof AND coffee.

TL:DR, it was tough, it was in some ways better than last year, I'm slower than I was last year, it rained lots.

So much rain.. Even got caught in another downpour on the way home.. Was it hailing at one point?
Saw two accidents that looked pretty nasty, including the poor guy in Richmond park..
Found most riders were pretty good at looking before moving.. Just one absolute maniac cutting people up at the start
Also hated seeing gel wrappers all over the road.. Especially on the uphill towards Wimbledon on the way back.. Did everyone just decide to empty their pockets? Or was that the optimal point to eat a final gel to sprint for the finish??
It was fun.. Or at least a been there done that. Best part was waving back at some of the spectators that had come out even in the storm

The tiredness has hit me hard. I'm really glad that my ride was free of p***t*rs and crashes.
I started at 5:30, had porridge, then had another bowl, because I love porridge and my gf had made it for me so would have been upset if I didn't. Then rolled out of Clapton, to the Olympic park a little later than planned, but in time for my wave. Which slowly rollled to the start. There was good feelings abound, and it was lovely and warm and I was truly upset that they'd chopped the hills out.

Started at the front of the wave and naturally went off way too fast. A rider who worked for Virgin Active quickly joined me and he was crazy fast to begin with. RP came around pretty fast as we tried to catch a rider who was unbelievably quick, pelting along at 27+ on his own, caught him and rode as a trio for a very long time. After the Surrey Resevoir stretch I don't really remember what happened but we lost him about 1/2 way round, he was just too fast.

And then the rain. Stinging, pelting, warm and kinda lovely for a time it didn't bother me, but I was continually impressed that I could keep getting wetter, despite seemingly so wet that it was absurd.
Suddenly we were through Dorking, still the two of us essentially two up time-trialling, and getting faster after the traffic of the Surrey proper stretch. The A24 was uneventful, and Leatherhead gave me hope that we were close.

And then more rain, and sewage pouring out of the drains, and my glasses were inundated and so they were dispatched to the back pocket.
Brigthon Mitre were trying to chaingang from about Kingston, and they were very untidy, so let them past only to watch them destroy one of their riders against a bollard in Wimbledon, looked alright though.
Then it was the home straight and we picked up quite a following, hammering it as much as I could. And that was that.

Adam Blythe, amazing sprint.

Good to see Matt O'Nowhere at the finish. Not sure why the police turned the water cannon on us to disperse us but it worked. Or maybe it was more rain.