Ride London 100

@blowfish Hi5 people were handing out free gels at side of road there when I went through.

Agree with amount of gel wrappers all over the course, not that hard to stick in your pocket surely? Solihull Cycle club shouting at people going up the hill before Newlands to move or sneaking down the inside with no warning. did see this mob cause some confusion cause two people to crash into each other.

I'd forgotten about this - chap with a huge Iron Man Triathlete logo tattoo'd onto his left calf, stopped by the side of the road, rolling up the left leg of his skin-suit in order to take a leak.

Possibly the least dignified thing I saw all day.

A rider who worked for Virgin Active quickly joined me and he was crazy fast to begin with.

Was he in sigma sport kit?

Those queues in Richmond Park weren't caused by weak riders but a crash and ambulance that no one was allowed past for a long time. I walked fully half the distance through the park. Coincided with the worst rain unfortunately!

Double post

I got caught in the Richmond park queue for about 30 minutes, and almost drowned in the rain once I got past as it was lashing down.

Rain was so heavy it was dislodging my contact lenses, and when I had my visors, I could see hardly anything as water was streaming down the inside and outside.

Forgot to turn my Garmin back on after I paused it for about 30 minutes, only remembered when I got to Hampton Court.

Then my garmin mount decided to spit out the hex bolt, so I spent 20 miles making sure my garmin was still on my handlebars.

5h 11, 4:42 ride time, average 18mph which I'm pretty happy with, considering my limited training, the apocalyptic rain and my dodgy knee.

I went on the prudential ride 100 website earlier today and found today's results, but for some reason can no longer find it, does anyone have a link?

Also I may have got trench foot, I had bought Castelli toe thingies, not realising that the blocked the drainage holes in my shoes.

And my Garmin thinks that near the end I was 70 metres below sea level, which may have been caused because it was flapping up and down on my broken mount.

No, full Virgin kit, rides for a club in Henley.

And my Garmin thinks that near the end I was 70 metres below sea level

Mine too. Either some crazy air pressure shenanigans or the sheer amount of water about made that a plausible conclusion.

Never seen so many stretcher cases at a sportive, saw four or five. Two on the Embankment within the last ten kms.

Blockquote

Sudocrem IS chamois cream :)

3:34, job done.

Like most here....wet, wet, wet...at least it was warm enough that it didn't matter too much so long as your lenses stayed in any you (and everyone round you) rode sensibly.
Sorry to see the ambulances out so much - hope all concerned are ok.

Oh, an +1 on the gel wrappers - you brought them with you, how difficult is it to take the bloody wrappers home.

Anyway, our first decent ride on the new tandem was great fun...slow (6:11 total), but given a total lack of training and dodgy knees (both of us!) - we're happy!

(oh, and telling tandem riders "oi mate, she's not pedalling" really isn't original - 15 times today....BUT "bloody hell, you must have a good relationship" did make us laugh!)

Was lucky enough to start in wave A, was in the group following the lead motorbike most of the way. When you are ensconced in the peloton it's not too challenging, but had to work incredibly hard at various points to stay in contact after splits happened, on the climbs, or after corners. At one point I was in a 10-man break off the front, we got a gap of around 15 seconds, that was the easily the highlight. I finally got caught behind a split near the end and finished a minute or two down on the leaders.
3:26, 40.3km/h average speed, no stops.

List of crashes:

• Heard a massive tire blowout around 5km into the ride, with the rider crashing hard. Was just behind, lucky to avoid.
  
• Several riders coming to grief as the road narrowed near a bridge. As I passed I saw someone had gone into the stream / ditch.
  
• Pile up of around 5 riders involving traffic cones, was just able to slow down in time and go round it
  
• One or two riders overcooking it in corners and crashing. I skidded my rear wheel in one of the corners but saved it. Good old Conti 4 Season.
  

Woke at 4.20am as opposed to the alarm of 3.30 in Shepherds Bush, Wave opened at 5 and closed at 6, start time was 6,30am. A wake-up shower was out of the question, inhaled a quick bowl of porridge, strong coffee and double checked bike and pockets.

Set off around 5.10 to cycle 13 Miles to Stratford, arrived at 5.58, a lovely cycle across London which turned very stressful in the multi coloured panic of the olympic park one-way wave system. Managed to sneak into my wave; Yellow B just in time, then a quick half hour wait before i set off, only to stop after 200yds and wait for some pals. Whilst waiting i caught a glimpse of Trott, Vos, Stoney and Martin Johnson leading off their wave.

Waited a good 25mins for my pals before finally setting off down the 3 lane highway (not good with road names) Started eating up the tarmac until Blackfriars when we caught up with Trott et al. A quick #selfie with Ms Trott (see below) and then we picked up the pace all the way to RP. Smashed it up sawyers, luckily missing the aforementioned bloodshed. We kept the pace high as a 4-man train into Kingston and then i pushed on solo from Sunbury area, feeling strong and confident.

Then managed to catch a few trains for a bit before going solo up to Newlands and restocking food & drink. Newlands descent was pretty lively!

From then on - i knew the route well and so knew what was coming, a great shame about missing Box and Leith but understandable considering the circumstances.

I then kept powering on before encountering heavy cramp in left hamstring before wimbledon, pushed on and managed to get rid of it.

A quick water stop somewhere after wimbledon and then I TT'd at high pace all the way down the embankment, even managed to hang onto the Vos, Trott train before i attacked and left them for dead at Imperial Wharf area. I was hammering it but they must've been holding something back as i put several minutes between me and them in the last 10km.

Thoroughly enjoyed the last few Miles past westminster (felt like the opposite to Critical Mass) Although the stewards were a little dodgy letting people cross the road as riders were hammering it at 30+.

The sprint up the mall was epic and i can't wait to do it all again next year

I really relished the challenge of the weather and the differing type of british rain! along with the battle against club riders!

Completed in 4hrs moving time, 4.30 after waiting 25mins for pals and a 5min pit stop

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Nice work riders. Biggest satisfaction must have been solo.
Completed. Good show all.

Great reading about your rides, I had to drive to Coventry for job and that was sketchy enough in the rain!

Swim 100.

Normally I used to really enjoy throwing my flapjack wrappers into the countryside.
But ive been trialing (successfully?) a low carbs fueling technique, did the full ride on just 100g of shredded coconut.

At first it seems like suicide to attempt to ride without eating, but seems my body responds well to not having to digest random crap while I cycle along.

That's still 670 calories. Not too shabby if youve been eating sensibly previously.

I really want to figure out a way to be able to eat trail mix without stopping or having a belt contraption. I'm guessing one of those tri pack things that sit on the top tube, but I don't really know how they'll hold up in rain.

(I am kind of loving the reports from the likes of @exedanni - unrecognisable!)
faffed around at home for ages, late to the start, jumped on a DLR at greenwich, found out about the lack of hills, felt much better about bike choice! joined a later group, slow setting off around 7.55 I think. lightly rainy. great to see the massive queue of riders waiting to start snaking off into the distance at the park.
generally a little slow all through town - cautious riders - still somewhere west central the guy two in front flipped over (think the guy in front of me clipped his back wheel) luckily everyone else stayed upright we were going pretty slow. amazing to see people standing in bleak bits of london in the pouring rain shouting encouragement!

I can't really remember any details, to be frank. Sawyers Hill no walking even from us slowies - but then did stand around in that queue while it was chucking it down for ages. least it was clean. hope the rider was ok - saw 3 other ambulance attending incidents later on too.
actually generally there was much less walking than last year (loads of walking in Richmond Park last year), fewer riders seemingly out of their depth, also sadly much less bike diversity with nearly everyone on modern roadbikes, a few suspension-y MTBs and a few tandems. only saw one other FGSS and very little nice steel. no proper fancy dress, but don't blame them! would not fancy cycling in a sodden animal suit...

lots of people riding in twos and threes abreast with lots of space between making it generally quite difficult to pass politely, also bloody hell people - look around/behind you and perhaps call out if you're going to edge past on the left! but mostly as safe riding as can be expected, minimal communication but generally slowish and patient. took much longer than last year for the 'field' to open out a bit and then it never really seemed to do so properly. saw a few people repeatedly, a couple of guys in olive green slevless jerseys over other jerseys pumping out tunes who I rode with for a bit, a couple of women with matching purple deeleyboppers. oh! who saw the purple glitter cheerleaders in Kingston?! awesome, I want them on every ride :)

So. Much. Rain. So. Many. Punctures.
pedalling through manky water over your feet? ugh.
stopped at the drinks stop with cake sale in the cricket club, very nice. stopped raining momentarily too.
hoped for a tailwind once the wind picked up in earnest in the afternoon, but it didn't seem to be consistently helpful. some pretty sketchy sidewinds at points. Wimbledon - someone order a hill and a headwind?! dry and sunny coming back into London and as people seemed to scent the finish I was spinning out on the embankment (ok, I'm crap at spinning). I found it amusing how in the last ten miles or so there seemed to be a sudden rush of Srsz Riders coming through fast on carbon - had they been in the pub for the last 4 hours?!
got an official photo in front of the palace.
turned onto the path to get our bags, and could see an epic rain bundle approaching from Hyde Park Corner - completely greying out Wellington Arch. incredible! everyone dived for cover before realising the trees were useless and just getting on with it. half hour later eating burgers in Green Park in the blazing sunshine.
I had a fun time. didn't see any other forumers although I must've been fairly close to some (OLC passing me at some point unnoticed).
6.20 forum DFL?

I'm guessing one of those tri pack things that sit on the top tube, but I don't really know how they'll hold up in rain.

They usually come with a cover, no reason why they shouldn't hold up in the rain.

A day of firsts (although I’ve been a club cyclist for 35years +)….

• Entering a Sportive
• Eating porridge at 0400hrs (I can get up OK at this time but wouldn’t contemplate eating)
• Driving into Leytonstone from home near Cambridge and easily finding an unrestricted parking spot
• Riding down Grove Green Road (well the first time in 30-odd years)
• Seeing a woman riding towards me in a World Champs jersey, thinking Oh dear there’s gonna be a lot of wannabes out riding today - and then realizing it was Marriane Vos
• Lining up for our start (0640) and then having Laura Trott, Vos, Sarah Storey etc get in ahead of our group – gave some of the faster riders in our group something to chase down
• Riding the wrong way down carriageways, through red lights (I’ve had a very sheltered life)
• Riding on Sarah Storey’s wheel from the start until Hammersmith where she stopped for some reason. I had to suck my tummy in when she was being interviewed on TV while riding along.

I rode the rest of the route on and off (they left me on some of the climbs, I caught them on the descents because I’m fat) with two other Pearl Izumi lady riders. We rode tempo c20mph (well it wasn’t a race was it?)

A great day – truly excellent organisation, all marshalls etc were happy and I couldn’t believe how many people were standing in the p*ssing rain on the side of the road cheering us all on. The rain was OK although I’m glad it wasn’t cold as well.

Only negatives were the racing wannabes on full race set ups (but alas not the riding skills to match) and the amount of gel wrappers on the road.

I chanced the ride on my Campag Eurus wheels with Schwalbe Ultremo ZX clinchers – I was the only one of my group not to puncture, although it was a little slippy on some of the descents. Rode round in 4.30ish with no stops, 750ml Torq energy, a Torq energy bar, gel & plenty of rainwater.

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

This is more of a life skill really than any specific discipline.