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@hoefla
(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?