Ride London 100

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

Ha, awesome :-)

This, always check behind before changing vector, if necessary signal your intention and then check again. Not a track skill, just good practice for most cycling, driving etc.

Yup.
London commuter bike smarts came in handy yesterday in responding to some pretty unpredictable riding.

Just a wet day on the spice route really.

Only negatives were the racing wannabes on full race set ups<

Not sure if this term has made it here, but on a football forum we call any noob who turns up to matches in full kit an FKW or full kit w@nker.

I know it's not just a track skill. I've ridden plenty on the road in some tight-ish groups on the road before I got on the velodrome. I just phrased it that way because riding on the track or chaingaining on a club ride makes 'look, then move' - or call it 'spacial awareness at high speed' - absolutely non-negotiable unless you want an earful of abuse or to cause a wreck with one of your friends in the pile. It's the level of skill - I'm thankful via my experience on the track, although of course yours could be through a number of other wonderful disciplines, that when I'm going 23mph with a group of other riders I'm a much more confident, safe, and faster rider.

full kit w@nker.

I think this is a commonly used term on here too.

Or all the gear no idea

In case you've not already read enough reports of the ride, here's mine.

The steed, to which I added an ass saver and saddle bag (NORMALLY a solid combo for keeping your inner thighs/arse crack dry, btw.).

Woke up (luckily) at 5:50 after falling asleep before actually setting my intended one for 5:30 and hustled over to the start by about 6:30 for my 7:15 start time. I had been rather optimistic with my estimated completion team, which worked in my favour as I was at the start with some ridiculous crabon steedz and club jerseys. At this point, whilst damp, there was no real sign of rain, just some clouds, so I half wondered whether we might get away with it. In fact, a small part of me thought that if I got there early enough and the weather had held, they might let us up the hills. But, as you know, the weather did not hold...

I mostly saw decent riding, with the worst being people pulling out on me only when they'd glanced back and thought I'd been too far back to be of concern but not realised I was coming up on them fast. Anyhow, stayed out of trouble and stopped once at a hub around 50 miles before thinking better of it when I saw the queue and once around 70 miles for a bottle (which I was glad I'd done around 5 miles from the end as I picked up the pace. I did see a fair few people on the ground, but only one actual 'crash', which was just a guy hitting a cat's eye on the crest of a hill while crossing the central line. Other than that, pretty much went without incident - a little bunching on some hills, but there was usually space on the right and I didn't have to put a foot down at any point, so was pleased with that. I also managed to get a cheer on the way into Richmond Park by yelling 'Fenton' a couple of times, with an obliging chap nearby following up with a 'Jesus Christ!' OH HOW WE LAUGHED.

The weather made for a challenge of it's own in place of the bigger hills with some places requiring slowing right down to roll through a foot of water under bridges etc. and I found a nice balance with sunnies/cap where I could use the glasses on my nose to stop water coming in from below and the peak to stop it from above. Only about an inch of clear visibility, mind, but it helped. On top of that went with my newly acquired Macmillan jersey, Torm arm warmers and a rain jacket which I kept undone but kept my arms and shoulders dry for a while. The ass-saver/saddlebag combo kept the tush nice and dry as well, until the major downpours, at which point there was no getting away from the squelch.

Got round in 4:24, averaging 19.7mph, which I was pleased with given I tend to rock a solid 17-18 on normal solo rides so got myself a Big Mac and side cheeseburger at Liverpool Street and had a rack of ribs for dinner (recovery protein, innit) back home. I also consumed so much energy fluid I'm expecting my guts/arse to punish me at some point today.

Overall thought it was a great event and loved riding the closed roads. And the cheering - riding in a recognisable charity (Macmillan) jersey meant I got more than my fair share.

TBF RideLondon did have a podium for the first three finishers so 'racing' was hardly being discouraged.

Gran Fondos in EU and US even have prize money.

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.

Good to see you to dude. Shame I didn't catch any other forumengers.

I am a bit jealous for you all but, having turned up at the start and the finish, and got caught by that sudden cloud-burst, I feel I pretty much did it, other than all that unnecessary peddling shit, that bit sounds ghastly.

@dubtap exactly - it's just a legal distinction in the UK that they aren't allowed to be called races. The fact that you don't need a race licence or don't get points is irrelevant. There is something much more important at stake, which is the bragging rights to your friends about your finish time.

When you get such a wide range of abilities it sort of boils down to 3 categories - riders who are happy just to be able to complete the distance, riders who want to ride a nice course but not too bothered about the time, and serious riders who want to set a fast time (the race part). The beauty of a sportive is it accommodates all three.

The shouts of 'slow down, slow down!' At various points were unhelpful without more info and I suspect were ignored by the majority after the first few where it seemed you were slowing for nothing. Much better to shout 'hard left', 'massive puddle', etc as well (as some people did).
Found it frustrating slowing for corners that didn't really need to be taken gently, even in the wet.

Oh and I didn't see any major crashes (apart from the aftermath), just two guys topple over at low speed - one whose derailleur seemed to jam on a hill and one who tried to hop up a curb at a narrow angle.

Has anyone found a ranking yet? Interested to see where I came out of the 24000 plucky entrants.

Was amazed that most people kept to the left hand side of the roads, the right side was mostly empty, took max advantage of this.

Force of habit, even when the road is definitely free of motorised traffic, people still stick to the notion that cyclist = secondary.

More shelter in the left lane.

Calling Bris - http://www.lfgss.com/comments/9632965/

5001?

Holy shit - just read on BBC news ticker that someone died of heart failure on this!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28742179

That is really, really sad.

Results - can only get them in alphabetical order

http://results.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/2014/?pid=list

Think he means the left carriageway, as opposed to the 'wrong' side of the road.

still can't delete stuff.. i see.

It was great to see quite a few women participating. Looking at the individual stats 16,175 men 4,063 women.

still can't delete stuff.. i see.

Can we infer from that that the 3hrs 50 was an optimistic estimate...?
;-)

London Marathon usually has one or two peeps keel over. To be expected with the large numbers and physical exertion.